Almost a year before the Olympics in Beijing, I found myself on a tour bus in Beijing, China. There were 10 of us on our way to see the Great Wall as well as a visit to doctors of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). Our tour guide asked us all our lunar signs - I’m an ox, by the way. She also explained to us why the Olympics was scheduled to open on August 8^th (Oooooh we all said - see reason below*). She then told us why the bok choy (known as pak choi in Cantonese) is so popular. Pak means a hundred and choi means wealth. The pak choi is then meant to represent 100 kinds of wealth luck and prosperity.

Well, I enjoy learning about all aspects of feng shui and months earlier a friend, Christine (a boar), and I were in Seoul, S. Korea, hunting for a good model of a bok choy - to make us incredibly prosperous - but we had no luck.

Meanwhile, our tour guide in Beijing asked if we would like to go to a jade factory to see the jade carved bok choys. Sold! Yes, I was immediately sold. To be in the land of feng shui and to then purchase a real jade bok choy from such land - well, yes I was immediately sold.

We made a stop at the jade factory where there was everything carved in jade including 100’s of bok choy, much jewelry, and massive statutes etc. (see photo of the red jade carving, below). Which one to choose? Well, the giant ones were out, and those running over a $1,000 were out. Prices ranged from about $50 to thousands of dollars. All beautiful - mine ran a bit over $200 - (see photo) and I bought some necklaces with lunar signs.

Back home in the USA I kept it packed for months deciding where to put it. I am still not sure where. Depending on which feng shui article you read a bok choy should be placed:

In the window with the narrow end facing out to draw in the wealth with the broader end facing in and being wider so it can spread the wealth, or

At the main entrance of the front door to attract different kinds of wealth to your home, or

In the southeast of your home, or

In the center of your home

Right now, my bok choy is in the center of my home because it was just the easiest place to put it. Now as we enter the year of the ox, which I am - my lunar horoscope has been the most upbeat ever. It goes so far as to say I can now sit back and reap the rewards of my past labors. It will just come. Sounds good and I will return with updates!

* According to feng shui we are in the 20 year cycle of the auspicious number 8 which began on 2004 and runs through 2024. So our tour guide in Beijing told us this is why the 2008 Olympics in Beijing opened on August 8^th or in other words - 8/8/8!