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.
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.
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.
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. 
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