Farewell Nanjing, hello Guangzhou!

Before leaving Nanjing, we visited the Confucius Temple on the banks of the Qinhuai River. The temple consists mainly of an archway and building--nothing in the building, we were told; However, I later learned there were things of interest.

Four gates lead up to the temple from various directions.











The area now sports blocks of tiny shops in all directions. Some people have felt that the offerings here were not the best. I found they were much better than what I saw in Guangzhou.  I wish we could have spent more time shopping in this area and exploring more.

The area in front of the temple draws people to enjoy the river and to cruise in small yellow-topped boats. I would like to have taken a river cruise in one of these.

Guangzhou

Guangzhou has a very different feel about it than Nanjing. While it is still pretty polluted here and forests of buildings stretch for as far as the eye can see, traffic doesn't seem so hurried and so bad. The streets appear to be set up differently and everything is green. Not only that, but there appear to be more park spaces and more trees. That may be an illusion, given the winter conditions further north. Many of the buildings have decorative lights on them and several have full-length television signs advertising this and that.

Our apartment here is in a luxury hotel--marble everywhere except in the brocade display running floor to ceiling in our two-floor unit. Satin-draped full-length windows over-look a bustling shopping area. Even at midnight it is busy! 

Today it was very crowded--Saturday plus lots of sales. I was able to purchase a couple short-sleeved shirts to wear. It was in the 70s so I really needed something lighter. Of course, the folks living here are all bundled up in winter jackets because they're cold. They have no idea :)

Tomorrow, we're being taken to the Chen Family Museum and I think Shamian Island which is supposed to be just lovely.

Chen Family Ancestral Hall

We did indeed go to the Chen Family Ancestral Hall/Museum. Such detailed carvings! You could spend days there and still not see every carving.

Beautiful grounds with bonsai trees and sculptures. The family rooms have been turned into exhibition halls. One featured silk weavings so intricate they looked like photos. Another had vases. Yet another had paintings.

Some had artists with their works for sale. One very intriguing artist painted with his hands. This would be finger-painting taken to its highest level. You'd never guess they were painted with anything other than a brush. Another artist exhibited a wind instrument made from a gourd. It made the most beautiful sounds. I was very tempted to buy one but felt that Y380 ($65) was a bit steep for something that might not get a lot of use.

Another art form I really appreciated was olive carving. What they call an olive is a very hard nut about 2-2 1/2" long. Such intricate and beautiful carving! I wish I could show you! We weren't allowed to take photos in that area but I do have photos of some on exhibit that to show you. The ones above and at right were for sale.

Citizenship!

Tuesday we go to the US Consulate where Mr. Sweetness and Light will become a US citizen--although he will still be traveling under his Chinese passport and have to get a visa to come home with us!






Vending machine downstairs from the doctor's office. All grown up and serving liquor to area business people who might need to give a last minute gift, get a pick-me-up, or have something for a late-breaking appointment!

















Here we are at the US Consulate. Mr. Sweetness and Light has just gotten his US citizenship!
Following the consular appointment, we traveled to Shamian Island for a break.

Shamian Island

A lot of people will refer to Shamian Island simply as "The Island." It once housed the US Consulate and adoptive families have been staying there for years. It is a peaceful oasis and a great place to bond with young children in safety. Car traffic is limited and the island is mostly park. Older children craving more activity and their parents might want a small dose of time there just to unwind. The firecracker hanging hung outside the restaurant where we ate lunch.

I absolutely adore dim sum. The little tomatoes on the outside plates had delicate little flowers tucked inside. The middle dish sports one of my favorites--I don't know the name but they are rice noodles stuffed with shrimp in a soy sauce base. They test your skill at using chopsticks because the noodles will break or just slip out from your grasp and you have to start all over again!

Locals engage in many activities. Some play a game with what looks like a shuttle cock for badmitton with a flat piece on the end. Play would remind folks in the US of hackey sack. The boys played with this for months after homecoming--until they left it on the ground and our dog chewed it up. It's going to be an expensive trip to get another one :)












Others practiced music and dance. Young couples have their wedding photos taken there--in fact, there was a couple having their pictures done during our visit. 

Shamian boasts many beautiful and whimsical bronze sculptures relating to the island's history.

Shopping and Street Scenes

Our hotel is 35 stories tall, seven of which belong to a mall.One floor had all restaurants. Another floor had banquet facilities.






There's also a shopping district that starts at the mall entrance. On Saturday and Sunday the streets are packed with people a la black Friday on steroids. Shop after shop sells clothing, purses, or jewelry. I took this photo about 11 p.m. The van parked below is a police vehicle...there wasn't any trouble, it is just stationed there.









I'm trying to remember the name of this restaurant. I think it was Uncle something or other. We really liked it and I remember that it was featured in one of the travel books I read prior to leaving.

This dish was so beautiful! And delicious! I have no idea what it was. Mr. Sweetness and Light ordered for me.















Some of the signs in China really amused me. The juxtaposition of the Pizza Hut logo with that of the Playboy store outside in the mall struck me as particularly odd.

Especially when one turned to look at the interior of the restaurant and saw this sign.

Beijing Road--Historical Road

The road also has historical significance as it has been part of a shopping district for thousands of years. Sorry the entire plaque isn't in the photo.






Parts of the old road have been excavated and encased in glass for preservation as well as viewing by the throngs of people. At left is one of the cases with the original road inside.










This is part of a miniature of what historians believe the area looked like. The little buildings have incredible details. Almost missed seeing this as I thought it was another piece of the roadway. Glad I looked inside!

There's another mall which we can see from our window: the Metro Mall. I went in there to explore the offerings for sale. I didn't find anything I wanted to buy.














What I did find was a very pleasant surprise! In the basement: the excavation of the old city Watergate and an exhibit about it. Free! It was so cool! My apologies to the powers that be--
you are not supposed to take pictures down there which I didn't see until after I had snapped about four frames and I did stop after reading the sign.

Some scenes from around Guangzhou

Tupperware store on 2nd floor of Louidon

After shopping, on the way back up to the room, what do you think I found? A Tupperware store! I exchanged business cards with the consultant on duty. They have a lot of products we've never had in the States and others in colors far different from those we carry. I picked up a brochure and took pictures too. I may buy some items before returning home. They had chopsticks, a meat cleaver, metal thermoses, small polycarbonate bowls in a rainbow of colors, large storage containers with attached handles, among others. Their midgets sell in a set of four for $2.00.

This Fererro and Almond Roca chocolate display in the grocery store downstairs from our apartment stretched floor to ceiling. I really had to manoeuver to get most of the tower in the frame. The chocolates will be Chinese New Year gifts. I am amazed at the size of it. Must have taken days to build.

Oh, another find: Amway is very very big here. Signs all over the airport!

Guangzhou Zoo 

The zoo has a lot of what would be 1950s or 1960s style exhibits if one were in the US. A few of the exhibits have undergone or were undergoing renovation. The animals generally appeared to be well-cared for and everything was neat and clean.





The panda you see here apparently was pregnant at the time we visited and had babies several months later. The kids were thrilled to see live pandas in China. This was one of the newer exhibits but the glass enclosing the living space made it hard to see the pandas while inside due to glare.

In the middle of the zoo was a really nice, large pond with lots of birds enjoying themselves. Black swans, ducks of different sorts...and pigeons.











The herd of red-flanked dikurs were so cute! This guy is full grown at maybe two feet tall. The really unique thing about these little guys is that they are the only carnivorous antelope species in the world.

This guy may have appeared a bit lonely but often bull elephants can be found solo in the wild. 

People were allowed to feed the giraffes--very popular!
















 Thursday, we travel to Hong Kong by train.

On to Shuyang!

The trip to Shuyang (not Suzhou) proved an awesome experience. We traveled from Nanjing to Mr. Sweetness and Light's home town in a van on the freeway.

. 

The freeway system has toll booths on each end. You get a ticket when you enter and pay when you get off.












We traversed both branches of the Yangtze River and another river whose name I don't recall. I have pictures of the Yangtze but you'd be hard put to pick out the river. Air quality had been pretty bad all week but took a nose-dive. Winter landscape plus polluted skies turned almost everything gray. I'm not sure whether all of the landscape would have been gray without the pollution or not, or whether it was the time of year.

Trees lined the freeway on both sides, with occasional clear areas. Past the trees,  fields and rice paddies (?) covered the landscape and connected with each other via narrow bike routes. 

Groups of houses clustered close by. Most of the houses were identical save for a different decoration on the roof top here and there--for three and a half hours worth of driving. Most rooftops had a double dragon design on the roof line--the variant being a pointy maybe lotus design. These houses were only two stories--in contrast to the forests of high rise buildings everywhere in the cities. There were a few sheep in one field. Other than that, there were no animals of any kind. Off ramps were only occasional and only two rest stops exist between the two cities.

Shuyang had been described as a small, country town. By Chinese standards, that is probably a good description. For an American city, it would be fairly large, I think. There were high rise buildings springing up all over. Some areas were new and affluent while others were clearly older. Dust from construction coated everything.







Our trip had to be carefully coordinated because of the stir it could cause and because inter-country adoption is something people there are unfamiliar with and wouldn't understand. We visited the small, cheery and brightly-colored orphanage first. We met the ladies who had cared for Mr. Sweetness and Light all his life and the driver who took him to school. They obviously all care for him very much!


We then were to go to lunch with the orphanage director and Mr. Sweetness and Light's teacher and principle--only it turned out that the officials from the local Civil Affairs Office also had been invited. Lunch was more than lunch--it was a very big affair with countless dishes ordered, toasts to and from all concerned. A special room had been reserved at an upscale restaurant perhaps as much for privacy as for the number of people invited. As we waited for the room to be ready, a crowd began to gather to check us out. They reconvened after we finished lunch and were waiting for the van to pick us up. We went briefly to Mr. Sweetness and Light's school so he could have a picture of it and then went to his finding place for pictures there. 

Not soon enough

My heart breaks tonight. Even in the best of circumstances, adoption doesn't always happen soon enough. I read somewhere several months ago only 20 percent of the children who need families actually make it into a family. Terrible odds. With all that we have in this world, it is tempting to think thing surely must be better now. And for many of the world's children, perhaps conditions in orphanages and foster care is better than it used to be. Even that isn't enough. Why do American parents adopt internationally when children need homes here?

You may find the answer here:

http://crazylifeofthewilksfamily.blogspot.com/2014/02/today-orphan-died-in-china.html?spref=fb

Sleepless Mama calls out to the universe

Recently, I have dwelled on the children I was not able to bring home. Over this past weekend, I checked on the other young men I had been considering when I started the process to adopt my son over a year and a half ago; Four boys still wait. One ages out next month. I don't want that young man's future to be one of marginalization and that feeling will not let me sleep. I cannot believe no one will scoop him up and give him all that he needs in life! Can you make room for one more child in your life? He's healthy, does all right in school, is an athlete, plays well with the other children and has a big heart. Act now. Contact me for more details and contact an adoption agency. He doesn't have time to wait.

This article appeared on one of the boards I subscribe to. It was the first thing I read this morning. Do you think it was chance that it fell into my hands to read on a night when my heart burns so much to find a young man a family that I cannot sleep? It is a long article. My heart broke all over again.

http://aeon.co/magazine/world-views/whats-it-like-to-be-disabled-in-china/

Greetings from Nanjing!

Getting to China turned out to be quite the adventure! But, what trip with me isn't? :) I spent the evening before travel taking the dog to the babysitter, changing money, and getting final accommodations set up. I had had apartments booked for Nanjing and Guangzhou, but still needed to get Hong Kong taken care of prior to departure. Once I'd finished with that, I arranged for my ride to the airport. Did you know the 24-hour shuttle services don't have anyone to pick up the phone at 2:30 in the morning? I didn't. After several calls to these shuttle services, I called a cab.  The cab to the airport came early--while I was still packing. I tossed as much as I could into the suitcase I was taking. Good so far! Sped to PDX and arrived with plenty of time for check-in, breakfast, and everything.

The  flight from Vancouver, BC to Hong Kong arrived an hour late--considering all of the weather delays across the US that was probably very good; However, it also meant less time between transfers in Hong Kong. Not good. The  arrival gate was in the old part of the airport, an area I wasn't familiar with. After waiting for some 20 minutes for the only passenger ahead of me to get help at the ticket counter I'd been told to go to, I was  sent to another counter. Here, I learned I  needed to go to a different part of the airport for onward tickets after picking up luggage and going through customs with a pretty vague description of where I needed to go for this: 'outside' (the building?!) and to area 'K.' AND I'd better hurry because the ticket counter would close at 8 p.m. No maps anywhere.  I raced in the direction I'd been pointed--through hallways, down escalators, and finally to the baggage claim hall. Cavern.  No reader boards to tell travelers which carousel to go to--you must go up to each carousel for that information. Many, many carousels. I finally located the right one. And waited. And waited. No luggage. Well, at least, not my luggage. I  ran through the  hall to baggage claims. Slow doesn't even begin to describe the pace of the folks behind the counter. I finally got to the right person who told me my baggage had been taken off the carousel and placed alongside it on the ground--opposite from where I'd been looking for it to shoot out from the bowels of the airport!  Back I slogged, located the  luggage, sped through customs, screeching through immigration. And, down more escalators, through another hall, up an escalator to area 'K' just in the nick of time for my baggage to get on the plane  (they had me sign a waiver that it was all right if the luggage came on the next flight). Hong Kong Air rocks. They personally took me through expedited searching in the employee area, and guided me to the gate! The plane was spacious and comfortable and the food was great too.

My guide met me at the airport and saw me to my accommodations. Great, warm, wonderful man who went above and beyond. His work is his passion, no question. Will always think of him fondly.

I rented an apartment at  No. 9 Changjiang Place,  in the heart of downtown--a really good location: walking distance to the upscale BHG shopping mall (pretty much like malls in America), across the street from local shopping and dinning areas, down the street from the Civil Affairs Office where I  met Mr. Sweetness and Light, the Presidential Palace, the Brocade Museum, the Art Museum, a huge library (which I thought was maybe an auditorium), and probably a number of other things that I'm either forgetting or haven't seen yet. The ground floor of the building has a bank facing the main street. The entry for the apartments at the back of the building opens on a little avenue on the edge of  some neighborhoods. Two keys: one for the elevator and one for the unit. Only my key doesn't work in the middle elevator. No one knows why, it just doesn't.

The night I  arrived, there was only one unit left and the clerk felt I should have a choice. He was supposed to come up in the morning with an elevator key and show me some other units. When he didn't arrive and didn't arrive, I started downstairs--fifteen flights of them--to the lobby only to learn I needed to go back up to the sixth floor office. Fortunately, I didn't have to walk back up all those flights. Turns out they just gave me  another room. I was perfectly happy with the one I  had but they insisted. And they don't speak English so I can't argue too much. The old unit had a shower and a walk-in closet. The view from the window through the buildings sported a towering pagoda or temple in the distance.

The new unit is light, ultra modernish, has carpeting upstairs, a soak tub but no shower. No light in the downstairs bathroom but there's a window in the door so it really doesn't need it. No view of the pagoda/temple building. I had a time getting heat in the second unit the first night but got that quickly straightened out. Heat in the apartments is activated by remote control. Nice. But you have to know where to point the controller. Some minor problems with the toilet upstairs but got it taken care of right away. We never got the hang of extracting hot water out of the tub and believe me, we tried. It's not obvious and it's tricky.   I had a rather cool shower. Not sure how Mr. Sweetness and Light's was since he worked things himself.

The building directly behind ours has a coffee shop, Costa Coffee.  Nice little bistro with cute holiday decorations and  sporting huge photos of different iconic world sites. Down the lane, is what I assume to be either a preschool or a daycare.

Traffic

Chaotic by our standards. Sidewalks are wider than ours would ever think of being. There's a reason for this: foot traffic,  as well as bike/cart/pedicab/scooter traffic take up the sidewalk at times and even parking for said vehicles. No honking signs dot each intersection, ignored.

The street is set up for cars in the middle with separated side lanes for other vehicles. You have to watch all directions because traffic will come at you from everywhere even when it's not supposed to. Pedestrians are at the bottom of the food chain and crossing is very much like playing Frogger.

Air Quality

Just as you've heard, horrible compared to home. Clear skies the entire time but with a heavy haze. You'll notice it even in the close up pictures. Grime on everything from the air. People wearing masks everywhere. Reminds me of the photos taken of people during the SARS epidemic. My masks didn't make it into my baggage. I wish for one but neglect to ask about them. By the end of the week, air quality became oppressive. Despite this, people went on about their lives, walking their dogs (lots and lots of dogs), exercising, setting sausage out to dry, hanging laundry out, selling oranges, nuts, slippers.

Food 

How I love Chinese food!  What I found wasn't all that different from the dishes I'm accustomed to--lots of items we don't have as well. I watched a young lady making these guys in one of the grocery stores. Really admire her talent!









Down the street is a two-story fast food Chinese restaurant with a cafeteria style buffet. You point to the items and get charged by the dish, kind of like dim sum. Really good and super cheap. We ate several meals there. While we were eating, a young man approached us and spoke with Mr. Sweetness and Light.  He explained that he had recognized us from our visit to Sun Yatsen's mausoleum. He asked Mr. Sweetness and Light who I was and my son replied, "She's my Hero." Wow! My heart swells so full thinking of that!

The 85 Coffee Shop was really nice too. Pastries, some familiar, others not. One of the ones I liked best had shredded dried pork on top and was kind of sweet and salty at the same time. The photo at left is from the Gansu Bakery near 85 Coffee Shop. I bought my young man's birthday cake here--a work of art! A really cool drink Mr.Sweetness and Light ordered for me had what seemed like marshmallows in it but were some kind of chocolate, yummy!

At the end of our time in Nanjing, we ate at a little place not far from the Confucius Temple. They had frogs and fish in tanks for the patrons to choose from. Mr. Sweetness and Light was transfixed!

Tours!!

We toured  the Ming Tomb, Sun Yatsen's mausoleum, the Nanjing city wall, the President's Palace and the Confucius Temple.





The Ming Tomb is a gorgeous park where people stroll up the stone-paved and tree-lined avenue to enjoy the quiet and the beautiful carved elephants, camels, and other animals in the middle. There are vast grassy areas where people practice tai chi and picnic next to ponds and streams.









Sun Yatsen's Mausoleum: stairs and stairs, more stairs. Mr.Sweetness and Light initially was the only one who wanted to climb to the top. I assured him, if he went, I would go. Up we went. Huffing and puffing.

The view on a clear day must be amazing because it was great on a smoggy day! Mr.Sweetness and Light scared our guide and me a little after we got down from the monument: he propelled himself head long down the walkway with his crutch--so fast we feared he would stumble or not be able to stop on the uneven stones. He even scared himself a bit with that! He is amazing!






The city wall here is better preserved than the Great Wall and miraculously survived the turbulence of the past century pretty much intact. Other city walls faced destruction because they were viewed as relics of imperialism.

The Nanjing city wall  snakes around hills and along the river. The bricks fit together smoothly and precisely. Each brick has an inscription of where it was made and who made it. Quality control in ancient times!

The part we viewed has several arches strung together with parts where soldiers could billet and others where gates could drop down to trap the enemy. For a couple yaun, visitors had the chance to test their skill with bow and arrows. Fun!















The Presidential Palace has a tremendous history. It has served as offices for Sun Yatsen, a meeting place, a temple, a garden. Very important to the history of modern China.

I found myself comparing the garden to the one we have locally at home. Because of the tours taken of our garden, I was able to recognize design elements and know their meaning. I also found some new ones to ponder. Mr. Sweetness and Light had me take his picture in several historical places. Good memories for him.

One area we didn't visit was the Memorial of the Nanjing Massacre. It is a very important part of local history; However, it pulls no punches, meaning it is fairly graphic. It is also called the Rape of Nanjing. The horrors committed against the Chinese by the Japanese in  1937 remains fresh in the minds of the province's people. I won't go into it more. I'll let you do a search on it, if you wish. Mr.  Sweetness and Light needed reassurance no one would hurt him when we had a layover in Japan on the way home. It was the only way we could get home without going through Canada (he would have needed a visa from that government even to transit between planes) or a six-hour layover in Qatar (Single American woman in the Mideast? Probably not a good idea.).

On a Lighter Note

We also got to see some glitzy areas with upscale shopping malls and buildings sporting giant television screens several stories tall.




















We've seen some of the more real urban Nanjing where people hang their laundry outside their windows to dry, merchants sell nuts, slippers, oranges and just about everything else on the street, and sausages and ducks swing freely in the air waiting for someone to purchase them.

 While China may not celebrate Christmas, people sure decorate for it! Santas, Christmas trees, ballerinas and garlands adorned buildings, walkways, and arches.  We shopped to Christmas carols amid holiday decorations in an upscale shopping center. The grocery store there had a huge display of  Fererro chocolate balls shaped                                              like a Christmas tree and adorned with lights.

We celebrated Mr. Sweetness and Light's birthday with a lovely cake ordered from a bakery down the street. The cakes, candy, and pastries there and in the mall grocery store all come highly decorated. What artwork! The bakery only had birthday hats in purple and lavender--not to our young man's liking. I had our guide explain to him that he did not have to wear the hat if he didn't want to (he didn't). We also had lunch at a nice restaurant in the neighborhood here. There were some familiar and favorite dishes as well as some new ones to try. Mr. Sweetness and Light really liked the kung pao chicken. Our guide explained to us that kung pao chicken is often called kung pao peanuts because they are cheaper here than the chicken so the dish is mostly nuts!