There are a lot of foreigners in China. There are also a whole lot of Chinese people. If you think about the ratio of Chinese nationals to foreigners, it's probable that a huge chunk of the people here have never seen a foreigner. There is another chunk that have seen a few in passing but never talked to one. It is the minority, I would presume, who interact often with foreigners.

Because of this, many people are very often excited to see foreigners. So what do they do when they see us? They shout "HELLO!!" and chuckle..  they stop us and ask to get a picture with us... or they try to give us their phone numbers and say they'd love to practice their English or teach us Chinese. Many more just watch us and stare.

You might not realize that this is my reality here. It would be easier if I blended in better.. but I have several things working against me in this area: my light-colored hair, my "big" eyes, my "big" nose. Those are the things people always comment on. I wish I would've kept track from the beginning how many people I've taken pictures with over the years. It would be a scary amount. I have no idea how many photo albums I'm in all over China as the token foreigner that somebody met.

I have some proof...

On my recent trip to Taiyuan, we went to a local park that had some random rides. We gathered quite the crowd around the one place... they just wanted to watch the foreigners do crazy stuff.

Last time I went and got my hair washed, the girls at the place got really giddy and wanted tons of pictures. While my girl was drying my hair, she had her friend grab her cell phone and take a picture of her doing the foreigners hair. We also got a huge group shot afterwards because they were all just so excited they had spent an hour with a bunch of foreign girls.

It's hard to understand this sometimes because I grew up in a diverse place.

I'm starting to understand it though because I stare at people here too. Especially foreigners-- seriously, every time we're out and we see one we whisper to each other "oh my goodness.. there's a foreigner!!"

There isn't a lot of anonymity here. Makes you realize how important it is to be a Light.