~Lydia
Today we traveled from Chongqing to Guangzhou. It was about a 1 1/2 hour flight. During our adoption trip, Guangzhou was the last place we visited. When a US family adopts a Chinese child, all of them must go through Guangzhou where the American Consulate is. The child must undergo a medical exam and then apply for their visa to enter the US. Once that is done, they are free to travel home to the US and as soon as the plane lands, they are an American citizen. Today in Guangzhou we walked all around Shamian Island. We did a little shopping and Lydia got a Chinese dress that is very pretty. It needs a little bit of alterations but it fits pretty well. We ran into a few adoptive families walking around there. These days, almost all adoptions from China are for waiting children who are classified as such for a variety of reasons...older age, infectious disease status such as Hep B, minor birth defects or more major ones such as heart conditions that have been partially or fully repaired. The wait for a "healthy" child is very very long now. Like 8 years or so. When we were waiting for Lydia we began our paperwork on January 1, 2005 had it into the China Center for Adoption Affairs in early April 2005, received our referral for her on December 8, 2005 and traveled in late January 2006. So, lightning fast compared to now.
When we finally got to Guangzhou we stayed at the famous White Swan Hotel....well, famous in the Chinese adoption community. Almost all adoptive families stayed there and breakfast was a sea of American families who had just adopted babies. White Swan what known for their red couches and most adoption groups got photos of their babies on the red couches...known as the "red couch photo." The White Swan also contracted with Mattel and provided adoptive families a special Barbie doll of a caucasian mommy and a Chinese baby. Lydia's is on her dresser still in the box. It was such a cool little gift! Several years ago (about 7) the White Swan closed and the Chinese adoption community was sad about that. We expected it would still be closed but it has undergone remodeling and reopened less than a year ago. It looks very much the same except no red couches. Instead Jake and Lydia got the "taupe couch photo." LOL! The waterfall is still there.
As we walked around the island there were people playing Mao Jung (not sure if I spelled that right), playing hacky sack, and dancing to music they were blasting in the park. We then walked to the famous Qing Ping medicinal market. Wow. You could smell that place as you approached for all the Chinese herbs and medicinal items. Some of the most noteworthy were dried starfish, dried seahorses, dried bee hives, live scorpions, legs from various animals...such as a deer leg bone with the hoof and little fur attached. Blech. Blech. Blech. Apparently they make soup with the starfish, seahorses, and bee hives. They fry up the scorpions. And just knaw on the raw deer leg bone. No. Just no. Even our guide who was born and raised in Guangzhou and is a strong believer in Chinese medicine thinks some of this stuff is crazy. Hope I'm not offending any of my deer leg bone knawing friends. If so, I apologize.
In Guangzhou, they speak Cantonese while in Chongqing and Beijing they speak Mandarin. Our guide says that everyone in Guangzhou speaks Mandarin also but they use Cantonese primarily. For lunch, we had some classic Cantonese dishes. Our guide was very vigilant about keeping Lydia safe at lunch and so Lydia got to try Cantonese food and loved it. I think that girl had 4 servings of noodles! It was very good but I still prefer the spice of the Sichuan area.
Tomorrow we have a free day in Guangzhou without a guide or a driver. We are planning to get ourselves back over to Shamian Island from our Mariott hotel by taxi. Shouldn't be too hard with the fact that many people here speak at least a little English because so many foreginers come here and we have the Google translate app on our phone. We are actually happy to have a relaxing day to do our own thing.
Wednesday we head home. It will be a long day plus some. We start out leaving Guangzhou at 10am and head to Beijing. We will then change carriers and fly Air Canada to Vancouver. Then Vancouver to Denver. Then Denver to KC. All in all about 28 hours. But, I'm telling you, I don't dread those 28 hours one bit as long as NONE of it is on that smoky, nasty, stinky, uncomfortable train! Give me 28 hours of posh airplane anytime compared to that. That train was hands down one of the most humbling, take-me-way-out-of-my-comfort-zone expereinces of my entire life. It will stick with me for a long time.
Tonight we are eating room service American food. Guangzhou is much more Americanized than the other places. American music playing at the pool. MUCH more American food options. And, thank goodness for HBO! We are watching Ratatouille right now and last night we got to see Minions. We are homesick and so getting to watch a little TV in English (with Chinese subtitles) and eat some American food and hear some American music is wonderful. We also got to access Google and Facebook today. The Chinese government blocks them in most of China, but apparently not in Guangzhou.
I think all 4 of us appreciate all of the blessings in our lives a little more after this trip. It is a humbling experience in so many ways. Much different than last time when all the same stuff was around us but we were so gaga baby brained that we didn't get the opportunity to really think about what we are seeing and how it compares to our lives. I'm so happy that our children have had this opportunity. It is important to see and experience a completely different culture and think about how very fortunate they are.
~Carla
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