FAMILY OF 4EVER: Guangzhou

Before leaving Wuchang yesterday, Jen took an opportunity while Hope was napping to visit a 700 year old Buddhist Temple in the area. She took some great pictures. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to see it in person.

Anyway, we stopped at the Civil Affairs office one last time to pick up Hope's passport, before departing for the airport. I had pretty much had it with Wuhan - the heat, the stares, the crazy driving, the "Pizza Hut incident" as it will henceforth be known, and I was dreading the long drive back to the airport, and sitting in the cell block like terminal for a couple of hours, then a 1 1/2 hour flight with a baby whose tempermant on an airplane was unknown.

The drive was very uncomfortable. I had Hope for most of the time, it rained for a good part of the way, and the driving was even crazier. In China, the lines that divide the lanes are just suggestions. No one sticks to one lane for very long, cars come very close to side-swiping one another, pedestrians come within inches of being run over. If this was the U.S., middle fingers would be flying everywhere. Here, no one really even glances when you honk at them. At one point, our driver passed an ambulance which had it's lights on, and honked at and passed a police car.

But we made it safely to the airport terminal, which fortunately was the brand new terminal, not the old one that we arrived at. So the wait wasn't as bad as it could have been. Hope did pretty well on the flight, I must say, but it was stressful finding ways to keep her entertained, plus were were in coach, with a guy sitting next
to us, and I was crammed in the middle seat. We made it to Gunagzhou, though, our very nice guide Becky greeted us, and we headed off to the hotel, the Shifu Holiday Inn. I had read nice things about the hotel on line, and was not disappointed. Beautiful lobby (with a/c!), and big beautiful room.

In the morning, after a pretty good night's sleep, we toured the hotel with cleared heads. I told Jen that I felt like I had been released from prison. Such a nice hotel, nice staff, incredible views from the roof where the outdoor pool is located. Plus, the hotel is located in the shopping district. There is a long corridor of modern shops, crisscrossed with alley ways that lead into older parts of the city, and more traditional shops. It's completely fascinating. They try to hide the old buildings behind false fascades, and I know a lot of the old parts of the city are being torn down, but it's ashame. It's like stepping back in time when you step down one of the old alley ways.

After exploring for a bit, we had to head back to the hotel to meet our guide, who escorted us to the medical exam. We got to the clinic early, and beat the crowd that arrived shortly after we did. You go to several different rooms, see several different doctors and nurses, who weigh her, look in her ears, her mouth, etc. All a little strange - I half expected them to see some bizarre, antique medical equipment - but fortunately, we were in and out pretty quickly, and there were no shots, so that was good.

After a lunch of KFC (yep, that's here, too), we headed back to the same area where the clinic was, this time on foot, for some sight seeing. The area where the clinic is located is called Shaiman Island. There's a lot of British Colonial influence there, so the architecture is different, and there are a bunch of gift shops catering to tourists, and adopting families. To get there, we had to walk several blocks through an area that sold pets, and pet supplies, and what I guess you would call herbal shops. There were dried assortments of plants, and other things that I didn't recognize, lizards on sticks, dried snake skins, sea horses, etc. Really fascinating. I'd love to know what some of the things are used for. What do you do with a bag of dried sea horses?

Once we reached Shaiman Island, we just did some exploring, checked out several gift shops, took some pictures, let Hope walk around a bit. Just a really nice area, really relaxing. We ate dinner at a Thai restaurant, talked with a few other adopting families from the States, and headed back. I can't say enough good things about Guangzhou, and the area that we are staying in. I will post pictures tomorrow. It's getting late here.