03-22-2019
Our cruise ship docked for two days at a sea port near 天津. The purpose of the stop was to give passengers an opportunity to visit nearby inland cities. Many people spent all two days touring attractions such as the Great Wall of China in the 北京 area. We took a tour on the first day visiting 北京 hutongs and the Summer Palace. Somewhat disappointed because the hutong visit was overly commercialized and the family we visited was less than unique. And the huge palace was unimpressive and too big to explore in the limited time we were given. What in particular makes things worse was our incompetent tour guide. His English is bad, which is understandable and his pronunciation is horrible, which is hardly understandable (literarily). His aimless monologues, with untimely jokes that only he himself could understand, booming mercilessly nonstop over the loudspeaker haunted me to no end.
I was prepared for the worse the next day on our tour to 天津. My heart sunk when told that our first visit was, God forbid, another local family in town. I didn’t expect much even the new guide showed up appearing to be quite good. Anyone would be an improvement after the loser we had yesterday. However, the guy was different. He was in control the moment he introduced himself. He spoke perfect English, been in tourist business for 14 yrs, and it shows. His name? Terry Shih. Not the shihs of the common variety but the rare rocky Shih (石） same as mine. Huge odds against this to happen. More to come as another Shih was about to join force with Shih the tour guide and Shih the tourist (me). The high light of our visit is the prominent Shih family residence in town (天津石家大院). Near the entrance, there is a giant jade cabbage, which must cost at least its own weight in gold (in tons?). According to Terry, the cabbage is positioned strickly based on ying and yang theories to ensure that money would be flowing into the house. It must have worked as evidenced by the riches the Shih family had accumulated. As we walked through the family compound, marveling at the magnificent design of the old living quarters, we were all awed by the extravagance and grandiosity of the Shih family. Terry insisted he was not related to the owner and had nothing to do with picking the Shih house for the tour. Nevertheless, he and I agreed that all of us Shihs most likely came from the same clan way back in time. And very much intrigued by this happening of the unusual 3-Shih encounter.
