Free Time & Shopping

We made it to Guangzhou and got to re-live our adoption 7 1/4 years ago. The White Swan hotel was the lap of luxury for us after 8 days in Nanning and Guiping back in 2001. It was still wonderful luxury coming out of Guiping, but we have done so much else this trip it was less needed. But - it was wonderful showing Ling where she was 1st smiled.

Guangzhou is a shopping heaven and Ling had a great time. She bought 3 pairs of Chinese shoes along with lots of other stuff.

From here we headed off to Shanghai and then home.

PS - strange foods of the trip this time: Frog with the little hands sticking up out of the stew. Very green. And the most icky: jellyfish.

PPS - strange things of the trip: Hard as rock pillows from the olden times. Only matched by hard as rock beds. Squatty potties. (Hole in ground) Crazy drivers! Cardboard doormats. Toilet paper for sale only. Why do the Chinese never say yes or no, but always some kind of maybe you must interpret correctly? Plates, spoons, chopsticks hermetically sealed for individaul use and given to you to open before you eat. (Is it that dirty in some places? Yes.)

10 Hours in a Bus to Guangzhou

China countryside and more and more for 10 hours from Guiping to Guangzhou. There is no easy way in or out of Guiping, which is one of the things holding it back from huge change. The countryside and villages are fascinating - but only for about 7 hours or so.

Ling to MPA: what percentage of Chinese live in the countryside farming?

Answer: when I return.

Most Chinese are farming the same way they did 100s of years ago, with an ox and a plow and sweat. The fields are very tidy, but the villages are full of mud, chickens, stray dogs. Its pretty poor, but all the kids go to school now. 10 years ago a law was made that made school mandatory for all kids under 9th grade. After 9th grade it costs about 1000 yuan ($150.) for 1/2 a year.

More pictures of kids that are waiting for their families... I will try to identify when I get home, but I know some folks are there are dying to see their children, so I wanted to get these up.

The other photo is of the doctor showing the small blankets coordinated by one of the board members of Red Thread - Jane Steinmetz from some wonderful women in WI. These blankets will be used well as a conduit from Guiping to home.

Guiping - Ling's 1st Orphanage

We made it to Guiping on Wednesday. The town has been swept up in the change of China, but not as much as the large cities. Ling was fascinated by everything - and there is SO much to see and smell and hear in China. The first night we were joined by several of the folks from Red Thread for dinner. We met the special education teacher Ou Yong - a delightful woman who obviously loves children and Ping who is more of a supervisor and administrator. The next day we spent our time doing official business in the morning for Red Thread. The closing ceremony was a success and evidently the Gov't has even approved a rehab center being opened attached to the orhanage for the community. Ling was quite bored but hung in there. She got to present the swing set gift from the 2nd graders at MPA, and 40 sippy cups/thermos's and 40 socks from Ling and the Cudak kids personal money. It is amazing how far 750 Yuan can go. She also got to walk everyone through her life via her photo-album.

So - 2nd graders and Cudak kids - check out the pictures. Note the swing set will really be much bigger when it arrives. Everything takes a long time in China and Ping is working on getting as much as we can for your money. Thank you!!!!

The work of Red Thread has changed the orphanage 150%. What we FELT more than saw was happiness. We saw it too, but the feeling of the place has changed. 3 1/2 years ago it was quiet as a mouse in there, doors were kept locked and the children couldn't respond to a simple hug. Today, doors are left open, we were given more access (not total) and the kids are all not just responsive but happy and some are even demanding attention. One little boy waiting for his family to come and get him soon was just a pistol! One of these pictures is of a little boy also waiting for his family. Note they put make-up on the kids to make them look pretty. The staff was fantastic. Red Thread's training program is an amazing success. We are grateful for all the work that has been done and for the opportunity to share it with our daughter. She had a great 2 days in Guiping!

Today we are in Guangzhou and tomorrow we head up to Shangahi. Home Tuesday!

Nanning and the Foster Family

We made it to Nanning yesterday. We visited Ling's 2nd orphanage Mother's Love, but the building we knew to be her orphanage here is abandoned and they have moved up the way a bit. They do not do adoptions anymore but just take care of about 25 very special needs kids. One little girl spends her days in a plastic pool to keep her safe. She is 18 years old and about the size of Ling. She has severe CP and can't move her arms, legs or body or eat well. There were many children there that just broke your heart.

Ling's heart seemed to break a bit first when she saw the abandoned orphanage - which doesn't look like the happy sunny place it was. It is desolate and messy and dirty. Then we went to the foster family's apartment. By Nanning standards they are a little poor, but not bad. BUT that means they live in 2 rooms that total mabye 300 square feet, a TV a computer, a bench and 2 chairs. They kitchen and bath are communal. The foster family was so excited to see Ling. She is their 1st foster child to return. Ling on the other hand was having a very hard time reconciling this place with her life. We all went out to dinner and the more tired she got the more her behavior got worse and worse - our well-behaved child! Nothing major, but basically she was completely turned around in her chair and refused to talk.

Off to Guiping today. We hope this is better. Either way this will help fill in the blanks.

Montezuma's Revenge! & The Big Buddha

Something killed Fay's stomach Sunday night and I was pretty ill for 1 1/2 days. We stayed an extra night in Chengdu - which is the Silicon Valley of China and we were in an actual 5 star, so it seemed the best place to be sick. I saw the Chinese Dr. twice - not sure if that helped or hurt. I am recovering and we have moved on. Thank GOD it was me and not Ling. About 30% of the group got sick that night which was very tough since they all had to move on to their orhanges. We had a bit of extra time and could re-arrange to make it work for me to stay. I couldn't have gone anywhere anyway. Sadly I missed the Leshan Buddha - a 10 story high buddha about 2 hours north of Chengdu. Bob & Ling went but the camera thing was full! They said it was totally cool and I am glad they got to see it and also weren't around me to possibly infect Ling.

Pizza Hut

The other kids haven't eaten well the whole trip (Ling - the skinny one is eating up a storm - she loves Chinese food in CHina!), so on our last night in Chengdu everyone decided to go to Pizza Hut. We finally found a restaurant in China with only CHinese people! This Pizza Hut is pretty fancy - they have a reservation list, table service and foo-foo cocktails. We followed this up with Hagen Das - which was $35 (YES US$) for 2 little things of ice cream and a banana split. WOW. You could feed about 15 poeple for 3 days in Guiping for that.

Panda's!

Ling to MPA: Where did the word Pandamonium come from?

We set off for the Panda breeding center this morning. It was amazing. You literally get off your golf cart in the middle of this beautiful park to see at least 15 toddler panda's outside all playing together. They are cuter in person and just mezmorizing.

ChengDu

We arrived in ChengDu yesterday afternoon. The kids all went swimming and the mom's went shopping. China is just people - wall to wall. There is NO space. It is a cacophony of people, noise, and smells. ChengDu seems to be a pretty wealthy town. It is the silicon valley of China with about 13 million people. We saw a Shechuan Opera last night. It was really just little skits to show different Classically Chinese theater, like Shadow puppets, opera, acrobats etc. The kids loved it!

The Warriors

We headed off to the warriors today.  So much has changed in 10 years!  The warrior pits are the same, but the whole parking lot that used to be huge and just dirt is a beautiful park.  You must exit a different way than the entrance and it is a huge vendor mall - larger than the Mall of America!  There were funny furs for sale everywhere.  They almost looked like wolf skins, but I think they were some weird compilation of stuff.  Whatever it was I hope we weren't eating it later.

Ling to MPA:   The warriors are over 1800 years old from the Qin dynasty.  The emperor wanted to live forever and be guarded by his army so they built an entire replica of each and every warrior and buried them.  The put lots of booby traps in to protect them and the tomb of the emperor isn't open yet.  There are rivers of Mercury still according to some sensors in the tomb.  They don't know how to open it yet without destroying what is in it.  

Question:  How many warriors are there?

We are enjoying our trip so much and Ling is loving getting to know the other girls.  2 more days of comaraderie and we are off on our own doing Red Thread activities and showing Ling her 2 orphanage towns.  

Xian City Wall

Yesterday we biked, rickshaw-ed, or walked the city wall of Xian. Xian is much more peaceful than Beijing, although it too has grown so fast! Last we were here was 10 years ago and so much has changed, but the feeling of quiet is still here - and so is the pollution! The Wall is fabulous and the ability to walk around and experience so many views of the city is wonderful.

Ling to MPA: Did you know that Xian used to be the capital of China, but then the emporer came and decided to move the capital to Beijing. Now, Xian is the heart of China. Today we'll see the Warriors from the Qing Dynasty.

A big adventure on a train to Xian

From Ling: We took a sleeper train from Beijing to Xian (she - ahn). I thought it was very cool because I had never slept on a train before. It was small but I liked the ride.

Mom- Good GOD! I am glad Ling had a great adventure, because we'll never be train-ing again in China. After 2 hot showers and an actual scotch I think I have recovered. I will say that the ability to see the country side once the sun came up was really cool though. I loved seeing the real China - the China where our daughter was born. What you see past the coasts and past the big cities is still, despite all the growth here, extremely poor rural farming.

Old China

We spent most of the day on a rickshaw going through one of the last hutongs. It appears a cottage industry has opened up and folks in the Hutongs can welcome in foreigners and cook and show us the old Chinese style of living. This was one of the most amazing things I have ever done in China. There used to be 170,000 Hutongs in Beijing. Today there are only 5000 left and now the Gov't is trying to preserve them. No soft coal is burnt anymore and everyone has been wired in prep for the Olympics. The living space is of course very small, but the courtyards are great and the neighbors all seem to band together. We have heard many stories of the cultural revolution, but that is for another time when we return.

We also spent time in a local elementary school and saw how kids in China learn and saw a bit about what they do.