Filipino family welcomes 2025 with mango float, leche flan in chilly China

BEIJING, China — When Melbe Miao Manipes saw the first snowfall in Daqing City in December 2019, her mind wandered off to the dining table in the Philippines where pancit, fruit salad, and humba are often served to welcome the new year.

Manipes, a native of Leyte province in the Philippines' Eastern Visayas region, resigned from her job as a public school teacher in Ormoc City to work in Daqing, an industrial city located in Heilongjiang province, northeastern China.

Manipes was 28 years old when she left her husband, Emelito, and their two sons, Lucas Raffy and Sandro Renjie, to accept the job offer as a Kindergarten teacher in a Chinese city that she has not heard of prior to her move.

"I arrived in China in October 2019. Padung gyud to Pasko. Grabe ako'ng hilak uy. Di ko ka-imagine gi-unsa toh nako pag-survive (It was nearing Christmas. I cried and cried. I cannot imagine how I survived that phase of my life)," said Manipes, now 33 years old.

Daqing can be reached from Beijing via a two-hour flight. High-speed trains also travel the Beijing to Daqing route with the fastest travel time of five hours.

Although Daqing pales in popularity to Harbin that is known for its annual Ice and Snow Festival, it is considered as a crucial element in China's progress and development as it is known as the country's petroleum and petrochemical city.

It is in Daqing that Manipes found a second home and a work environment that helped her family pay off their debts and improve the quality of life for her and her loved ones.

Away from home

But the journey to her fifth year as a Filipino teacher in China was not without sleepless nights and feelings of despair.

Lucas was two years old while Sandro was only a year old when Manipes left for China.

Because Daqing is located in the northern part of China, the weather goes down to sub-zero temperatures during the winter season which Manipes have never experienced before her work abroad.

"The trees are covered in snow. Everything is white. It was terribly cold. It was sad during the holiday season, Christmas, New Year because I missed singing with the neighbors, making noise to welcome the year, and eating with the family," she shared.

But it was a sacrifice that she needed to face.

In Ormoc, it became impossible for her to pay the amount of debts that have accumulated over the years.

Her salary as a public school teacher was barely enough to raise their two children even with a two-income household.

When she learned from a colleague that a school in China was looking for Kindergarten teachers, Manipes said she was determined to be employed in the same job but with higher pay and better working conditions.

Living and working in Daqing, which is a small city in China, means lower cost of living so she is able to save more money.

Her employment contract also includes free accommodation, free internet access, and even free meals.

But with these perks also facing the reality that her family is moving forward with their collective life without her to physically witness milestones such as her son's losing a tooth or hearing them say "Mama" in person.

Her homesickness worsened when the COVID-19 pandemic happened just a few months after her arrival in Daqing.

"That was the saddest Christmas and New Year of my life. There was no work. Everything was in lock down. There was no person to talk to face to face," she recalled.

For a teacher who was used to interacting with her students and colleagues, the lock down made Manipes feel isolated and depressed.

In the next three years — 2019 to 2022 — she spent special occasions alone in Daqing.

If not for social media platforms and internet access which made it possible for her to connect to her family through messaging and video calls, Manipes said life would have taken a dark and negative turn for a Filipino woman working and living alone in a foreign country.

"Working abroad has never been easy, not only as an individual but also as a family," said Manipes adding that she could not see a future of being away from her family.

"Naluoy ko sa ako'ng mga anak nga pila ka tuig mi wala nag uban. Wala sila'y Mama atong panahona labi na ato'ng pandemic," she said.

(I pity my children. We were not together for a long time. They did not have a mother during those times especially when the pandemic happened.)

Together again

In December 2022, she was able to take some time off from work.

She was able to fly home to the Philippines and spent Christmas and New Year in Ormoc.

It was during that visit that she and her husband decided to reunite the family by moving to China.

After returning to China from celebrating Christmas and New Year in the Philippines, Manipes focused on completing her family's paperworks so they can live in China with her.

By December 18, 2023 she flew to the Philippines to personally escort her husband and their sons for their major move to China.

It was in the white world of Daqing, surrounded by snow-covered trees and bone-chilling air, that the Manipes family celebrated Christmas and New Year 2024 together.

"Our family is finally in one country," said Manipes, her voice shaking with overwhelming emotion of gratitude as she remembered the years she had to wait to finally wake up knowing that her husband and her sons live under the same roof.

Her husband now works from home as a graphic artist while the two boys follow a homeschool curriculum.

For New Year 2025, the family prepared a feast of crispy pata, garlic-butter shrimps, pancit, and steak.

They also prepared round fruits and bought sweet treats such as leche flan and mango float from fellow Filipinos.

Manipes said they follow both Filipino and Chinese tradition in welcoming a new year.

Filipino desserts are staples on their table because they represent a prosperous year ahead.

She said the family will be able to face any challenges head on because they are together.

"We celebrate like we are in the Philippines. It is not as festive as the Philippines because China has its own new year celebration, the Spring Festival. But we are together as a family here in China for one year now so that is worth celebrating," she said. — BAP, GMA Integrated News