I’ve never been to Shanghai,
I’d like to go before I die.
Nor in a Ye clan home in Nanping,
So many places I’ve never been.
There’s a 233 foot Buddha in Lisbon,
I wish to see before I;m gone.
Carved into a cliff above the river,
The sight makes professional photographers quiver.
The Yilin School of Acrobatic Arts,
Is a place I’d like to start.
Students spin tables with their toes,
Into mid air the table goes.
I’ve never had a Ferrari ride,
Or sat with a Mosuo Daba by my side.
The Tibetan skyline beckons me,.
With its white rock ridge rising above the river Yangtze.
I’ve yet to see Uyghurs weaving silk or carpets fine,
Nor heard the Xiaohuang Dong thousand kid chorus sing a cappella Dage rhyme.
I wish to ride a Mongolian camel across the Badain Jaran desert, sounds simple.
And witness martial arts performed by monks at the Shaulin Temple.
And meet the relatives of Genghis Khan in Uh Zhu Mu Qin Square,
And see a Zhuang hillside terraced rice field from the air.
Float through the Xitang village on a Yangtze river paddle boat.
During the lunar new year Chinese children in costume float
In the air for parades, suspended and supported by men.
I’d like to see that, if not now when?
This is just China and its not complete.
There’s a whole world of treasure laid out at my feet.
Lord your creation is wonderful beyond belief.
How much can I capture? My journey here’s brief.
Magazine pictures may be all I see,
Yet I’m sure you created the whole thing for me.