My many Chinese friends prove to be my family

We had the time of our lives. We watched hungry wild elephants trash a restaurant in the rainforest of Yunnan province's Xishuangbanna in search of the fruit stored inside.

We were pickpocketed by even more ravenous wild Tibetan macaques in Sichuan province's Mount Emei. One of the mischievous monkeys even leapt into my mother's arms to snatch the bag of peanuts she was clutching.

We saw the world's largest stone-carved Buddha in Sichuan's Leshan, stood above the clouds and beneath the shadow of a 48-m-tall bronze Buddha statue at Emei Shan's Golden Summit and watched the dazzling face-changing performances of the country's top Sichuan Opera troupe.