Warm hospitality and a friendly return visit Chronicle of the Chinese Senior Citizens Association's visit to Washington

Warm hospitality and a friendly return visit Chronicle of the Chinese Senior Citizens Association's visit to Washington (Contributed by the Senior Citizens Association) On the evening of September 27th, the Phoenix Chinese Senior Citizens Association and the Greater Washington Area Chinese...

(Contributed by the Senior Citizens Association)

On the evening of September 27th, the Phoenix Chinese Senior Citizens Association and the Greater Washington Area China-American Senior Citizens Association ended their trip to Canada and the Eastern United States and were about to return to the capital, Washington. The warm autumn wind blew against our faces, and friends from the China-American Senior Citizens Association expressed their gratitude. In order to welcome our return visit, it was like preparing for a family returning from a trip. We ordered a lunch box dinner and delivered it to the Holliday Inn hotel where we stayed. Everyone praised the lunch box. The 5 yuan box lunch included meat, eggs and vegetables. The taste was very authentic and the portion was generous. After asking, I found out that this was provided by the hotel according to their members' daily lunch standards.

On the 28th, the autumn air was crisp and the weather was pleasant, but there were brief thunderstorms from time to time. At 7 o'clock in the morning, Zhang Ling, the vice president of the Chinese American Association, and Feng Qin, another volunteer member, brought us a big bus to pick us up. The first stop of the tour was originally scheduled to be Arlington National Cemetery. Unexpectedly, it suddenly started to rain heavily, so we drove directly to the White House instead. In the past, you only had to queue up to visit the White House. Since the September 11th incident, everyone who visits the White House must be introduced by the local senators and congressmen and approved by the White House before entering. We, a group of 40 people from the Senior Citizens Association, asked Mr. Deng Chaoju to help us arrange the trip three months ago. Two members of the group who later participated in the trip had not received approval from the White House until the afternoon of the 27th and could not visit the White House together. Vice President Zhang specially accompanied them to visit the White House Exhibition Hall. In fact, the introduction there is richer than visiting the White House, but it lacks the immersive experience. Then, we visited the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials, the Aerospace Museum, the Art Museum, the Natural History Museum, and took a group photo in front of the Capitol. At five o'clock in the afternoon, we arrived at the activity center called Wanfulai. This is an apartment for the elderly that can accommodate more than 150 people, two-thirds of whom are Chinese. It is a bit like our memorial building. This is also one of the activity centers of their senior citizen association. They have a total of twenty-three such activity points. In the morning, the elderly have activities here, and at noon, the nutritious lunch ordered by the restaurant is delivered to them. This is an application made by the association to the government in accordance with the Elderly Law promulgated by the government. When we entered the building, a group of Chinese friends warmly received us, including President Zhang Huihui, Vice President Charlie and some friends who had visited Phoenix. They came here early in the morning to prepare for us, and prepared a sumptuous dinner for us. Washington is rich in green crabs, so the host arranged a crab feast for us. Usually we eat only "one" crab, but this time it was indeed a basket. Four baskets of crabs were served at once, about 300 crabs. We also made cold noodles, roasted chicken, cold cucumber and gourd carrots, etc. In the end, we couldn't eat any more desserts and fruits, so we had to take them back to the hotel to enjoy. Because eating crabs took too much time, the scheduled karaoke singing and dancing had to be temporarily canceled, and our Senior Citizens Association song was played for everyone to enjoy. Their president admired the song very much. She asked us to tell the songwriter that she was a fan of his and hoped to have the opportunity to invite him to sing in Washington and write a song for their senior citizen association.

The next day, their two presidents Zhang came to visit with us. We first visited the Jefferson Memorial Hall and then the Smissson Art Museum, which collects artworks from all over the world. Here, President Zhang, through the museum leaders, specially invited two commentators who can speak Mandarin and Cantonese to explain to us Chinese ancient utensils and famous paintings. We benefited a lot, especially the several life photos and palace paintings of Empress Dowager Cixi collected in the museum, which aroused our great interest. Later, we visited the Museum of American History, the Pentagon, and Arlington Cemetery. At five o'clock in the afternoon, they took us to Zhuyuan Restaurant to eat buffet. This is where they hold monthly birthday parties. Several staff members came to their meeting, some who spoke Mandarin and some who spoke Cantonese. Everyone talked and interacted with each other while eating, and they didn't say goodbye until seven o'clock. It should also be mentioned that they hired Mr. Huang to be our tour guide for these two days. He is an old man who is very familiar with American history. He made a special trip to explain a lot of knowledge to us for free. We took photos with him as a souvenir before leaving.

The two-day trip to Washington opened our horizons and gave us a better understanding of the history of the United States. After contacting the Washington Senior Citizens Association, we learned more about their spirit and practice of helping the elderly Chinese wholeheartedly. There are many things we can learn from. It is precisely because they always put the needs of members as the center of their work that they have won the trust of society. Their membership has increased from 35 when it was founded six years ago to more than 1,800 by the end of last year, and now has more than 2,110 members. They rely on the selfless dedication of more than 200 volunteers in 23 activity centers.

Let us sincerely thank the Chinese and American Senior Citizens Association for their careful arrangements and hospitality, and wish their association better and better.