Chongqing, Talia's Provincial Capital

First morning in Chongqing, though it's only a bit after 6 am. We were so tired getting in last night, but Art and I are up early this morning, Lydia is still asleep. We're on the 30th floor, with a gorgeous view of the city skyline below us, which Lydia just loves--such a city girl at heart. The glass tube elevator on the outer face of the hotel took us up 30 floors in a breath-taking sort of way, enabling us to see just how high we were from the street below. Our guide, Anita, promised a walking tour later this morning, which includes Starbucks--there is a God :)

Just a bit more about our last morning in Changning City. We've not had any "western" food, though the Chinese breakfasts usually include their version of a western breakfast, as well as asian fare. Except yesterday in Changning City! We really felt that they had pulled out all the stops for us there, but breakfast was an amusing challenge. Our beginning Chinese and the wait staff's non-existent English was quite funny. We had an asian breakfast of: watermelon juice, green tea, a family-sized bowl of noodle soup, steamed bread and a couple of "pastries"--steamed buns with lotus bean paste filling, mildly sweet and very delicious. Oh, and a couple of hard-boiled eggs, served hot. Tasty and different, but we're here to experience the culture! The fresh watermelon juice is very good, and we had cantaloupe juice at the airport waiting for our flight.

This Empark Grand Hotel is quite amazing. Chinese beds tend to be a little smaller than a full-size, but here they are slightly bigger and they pushed two together, with a separate little bed for Lydia. One wall is floor to ceiling windows overlooking the beautiful city and city square. We have a glass desk equipped with a fax and computer connection, a mini bar, and a marble bathroom with separate glass enclosed shower. The sink is a large white porcelain bowl sitting on a glass and marble counter. We're told that this hotel has an Olympic sized pool, and and underground area of shopping and restaurants. We ate at a buffet (The Cafeteria) in the hotel last night. It was wonderful - the nicest buffet we have ever been to.

The hotel is decadently spectacular, and an amazing contrast to our hotel in Changning City yesterday. Although today is our "rest" day, we'll have a walking tour in the morning, yes and a mocha latte!, drop off a week's worth of laundry, and stock up on some grocery items. It's hard to believe a week ago at this very minute we were on our way to RDU to begin our adventure. This afternoon is time for adoption paperwork--unbelievable that there is still more to do. Tomorrow is the big day, "gotcha day" in adoption lingo. We're supposed to get Talia in the afternoon, the poor baby will be traveling about 6 hours to arrive in the city, so will likely be very tired and out of sorts. Last night was the first time we unpacked suitcases, as we'd only stayed one or two nights in each of the previous 3 hotels. I unpacked such little clothes for the baby! A couple of sweaters, as the Chinese expect babies to be bundled up, even when the temps are around 80. We see babies in two layers of thick clothing everywhere we go. They look comfortable, we're sweating in much less. We hope to post pictures of Talia in the evening (morning in U.S. time). We'll be able to post again later today with pictures of the city. We're still tired, but getting more and more excited as we get closer to getting our mei mei.

Changning City, Lydia's Hometown

We said goodbye to Changsha Friday morning and had a long drive of almost 3 hours to Lydia's hometown of Changning City. We passed incredibly beautiful countryside with rice paddies and fields of yellow flowers, the plants are used to make tea tree oil. We had a brief stop for the rest room along the way, but Lydia wanted nothing to do with the "squatty potty." Lydia's orphanage director, Mr. Wang met us along the road just outside of town to direct us to our hotel. As soon as the door to the van opened he said, "Pei Pei!" Lydia's nickname from the orphanage. He was amazingly hospitable, inviting us to lunch at our hotel. At lunch were the Director, his assistant and three aiyi's (nannies), who took care of Lydia at the orphanage. We're still a little uncertain about time in the orphanage v. time with a foster mom, and translation was slow going. We had many unfamiliar dishes, like crispy eel, and more familiar ones like kung pao chicken, all of them delicious. Also--lots of local beer, like 5 or 6 almost quart size bottles. We then drove more than an hour to the even more rural market of Lydia's "finding place." We were a huge attraction to the locals, who followed us around like papparazzi. The camera was a good ice breaker, as many people wanted to photograph us and have pictures taken with us. Lydia even allowed Director Wang to carry her a bit, as there was a good bit of walking involved in the market, which seemed several blocks long and wide. We then went to Lydia's orphanage, where we presented them with clothes we had purchased in a local department store. We learned that they needed clothes, all size 2. We met a dozen or more children, from age one to four, with most around age two. There was one very sweet girl just a few months younger than Lydia named Wen Li. We took many pictures and were so pleased to see how clean and orderly everything was. The children were initially shy, but some allowed us to pick them up and some held up their arms to be picked up. It was heartbreaking not to bring every one home with us. At one point we lost track of Lydia, who went along with the children downstairs for their early dinner. She was having a ball, and was very solicitous of the younger children. When we returned to the hotel, Director Wang invited us to have dinner with him, again at the hotel, with more local dishes--Chairman Mao's favorite pumpkin congee (like soupy rice mixed with pumpkin) and a rice powder porridge with snail meat--yummy! Our hotel was the best the small town had to offer, and very old and rustic. Actually, as we were leaving, the power went out, as it is known to do, and also out in the streets, shutting off power to all the traffic lights. It's hard to explain the commotion on the streets, with cars, motor scooters, and pedestrians all in the street together, with horns used instead of turn signals. We left early this morning for the long ride to the Changsha airport, about 4.5 hours in the car, with another couple hours waiting in the airport for our flight. We got into our Chongqing hotel around 7pm, not having had more than snacks for lunch, and no dinner yet. We've since had dinner and tucked Lydia into her "princess bed" (the small roll out bed). This hotel is the polar opposite of last night. A five star hotel with every known amenity, including a portable air conditioner brought to our room for better cooling. It was 77 degrees when we landed here, and very humid. Wish we had brought lighter weight clothes, and really glad we didn't pack the snow suits after all! (But thank you, Collette). After having been in China almost a week now, and touring Beijing, Changsha, and Changning City, we were somewhat taken aback to arrive to our Chongqing hotel room and find--a crib and a baby bath tub. Two days and counting until we get our mei mei, on Monday afternoon.

More of Changsha

After visiting the local kindergarten, we had more exciting sights to see. We visited Tian Xing Park, famous for its ancient wall and pavilion that is more than 500 years old. It was reminiscent of Sarah Duke Gardens with the beautiful plantings and architechture. We saw retirees playing Mah Jong and people relaxing at Tea Houses. We then went to Kai Fu Temple, a Buddhist temple in Changsha. We made a wish and threw incense into a large outdoor furnace. Lydia enjoyed posing for many pictures. We also have to post a picture of the hotel we are staying at in Changsha, The Gold Source Hotel. The second largest ferris wheel in Asia, according to our guide, is right outside. We are on the 27th floor of the 29 story hotel, and the ferris wheel looks almost as tall, and is brightly lit up at night. Lydia has been mesmerized by the lights. We leave very early tomorrow for Changning City, where Lydia's orphanage is located. We'll have lunch with the orphanage director and Lydia's former nanny and foster mother. It'll be a big day, with an almost 3-hour car ride to get there. We were told not to expect much from the hotel in the small town, so we may not be able to post until the next day.

Changsha, in the Hunan Province

It's a good thing we didn't begin our day at 7:30 am, as we didn't wake up until 7:00 am. We still haven't quite gotten on China time, but get closer every day. The hotel is lovely, a 4 star hotel that has a lot of marble and three or more restaurants. The fresh fruit is so nice at meals--huge bowls of fresh watermelon, pineapple, a chinese melon much like honeydew, fresh oranges. The buffet has both western and Chinese breakfast items; we have been sampling from both. Our day started at a large Chinese grocery store so we could buy big bags of individual Dove chocolates for our first stop. Who knew a couple pounds of chocolate would cost 30 USD? That was a surprise. We bought chocolates to share with the children at a local elementary school. Our guide had arranged for us to tour a local school, three floors of classes from preschool to age 5-6 first graders. Lydia was initially shy, but then joined in with children in a class of her own age and sat down and completed an art project and then played a jumping game that is like musical chairs. The children were so friendly and practiced their "hello" and "thank you" many times. The principal and teacher were so friendly and welcoming. At the end, mama and baba were talking to the adults when the children lined up and left the room--and Lydia with them! We had to go and find her, out on the play ground with her new friends. We were delighted to meet the principal's daughter, whose name was JiaJia! Just like Charlotte at home. We took many pictures and the children hammed it up for the camera. They presented us with a Mickey Mouse photo album that all the children had written their Chinese names in, so that we could put our photos from the visit in the album. The children stood perfectly still in a long line (about 40 children in the kindergarten class) while Lydia gave the children chocolates--lots of smiling faces.

Last Day in Beijing

What a whirlwind tour of Beijing we had! Yesterday (Wednesday), we visited Tian An Men Square, The Forbidden City and had a rickshaw ride around a Hutong village. It's hard to understand the scope of the sights just from pictures. The Forbidden City was many rings of buildings and lots and lots of walking until you get to the very center. It was not Lydia's favorite part of the trip. Tian An Men Square is enormous, it can hold one million people in a gathering. Lydia wanted to have her picture taken under the giant picture of Chairman Mao, just like her friend JiaJia (Charlotte) did. Lydia loved the bicycle rickshaw Hutong Tour. She and our guide Angela rode in one rickshaw, mama and baba in the other. We are obviously as much a tourist attraction as the attractions we went to see. Many people touch Lydia, ask us if she is from China, and practice their English, "Hello, how are you? It is nice to meet you." We were then treated to another wonderful lunch feast including Beijing Duck, sliced and wrapped in rice pancakes with special Beijing sauce, slivered scallion and cucumber. It was hao chi (delicious food). Then--off to the airport to catch our 5 pm flight to Changsha. We were sad to leave Angela, who was a wonderful guide and all around warm and wonderful person. Alas, it was not to be . . . many hours of sitting in the Beijing Airport. We had arrived around 2:30 for the 5:00 pm flight, which was late, and we boarded around 6:45. We ended up not arriving at our Changsha hotel until after 10 pm and we were all exhausted--except Lydia, of course. She fell asleep before the flight took off and we had to wake her when we landed. Mama and Baba were trying to sleep in the hotel, and Lydia was wide awake--until almost midnight! The new guide, Christopher, wanted to leave at 7:30 am the next day; we begged off and asked for a 9:00 am start instead.

We're Here in Beijing!!

What a journey it has been. If you looked at our itinerary below, we left early from RDU to fly to Newark on Sunday March 15, 2009. We arrived in Beijing on Monday at 2 pm, having flown from Newark on a 14 hour flight--and Lydia Grace only slept one hour. Need I say more? She has been a fabulous traveler, though a little tired. She was given special children's meals and seemed overall happy with the trip. We all went to bed around 5:30 pm on Monday (that's why there was not a post) and have been on the go all day today, for 10 hours, packing a lot into our Beijing tour. Lydia woke up Monday at 11:30 pm, and never went back to sleep. Art and I separately got a little more sleep, but not much. None the less, we had great energy for Beijing and Lydia got in a little nap in the car on the way to The Great Wall. Our guide Angela and driver have been wonderful.

We went to a part of The Great Wall that most tourists do not see--Mutianyu. We took an exciting cable car ride to the top and had amazing views of one of the 7 Wonders of the World. It's hard to explain what it's like to be there, so different in scope than just looking at pictures. The views are breathtaking, and we were able to get some good photos, even with the infamous Chinese smog. A most pleasant surprise was the weather, 74 degrees, a real treat in March, with a similar forecast for tomorrow. I think Lydia's favorite part was the tobaggan ride down the mountain. We rode on small sleds down a metal shoot, with a brake control. Mama was initially a little "hai pa" (afraid), but not Lydia! She rode in front of Art and was "the brake girl" and did a marvelous job. She announced that this was the best thing we did today. Happily we only saw the remnants of a recent snow, and didn't experience this first hand.

Angela and our driver then took us to a lunch feast--so many good things. Sweet and sour pork, boiled dumplings, a bok choy platter, kung pao chicken, rice, noodles, a "haystack" of thread thin potatoes deep fried and stacked to look like a haystack (Angela called them Chinese french fries), a bean sprout dish and pumpkin cakes for dessert. We were stuffed and there was enough food leftover for another whole feast. We then spent much of the afternoon at the Summer Palace, touring and taking pictures. Lydia had a tao bing bang (peach popsicle) to refresh and recharge her batteries. Off in the car again to The Silk Factory. We saw how silk is made from the moths to the eggs, pupae, larvae, and finally into the caterpillars in their silk cocoons. We saw how silk was spun and we made many silk purchases. An interesting data bit--100% silk items are washed in shampoo, not laundry detergent. As silk is protein, you would wash and care for it the same way you would your hair--who knew? Not Art.

After a quick Pizza Hut pizza in our room, not bad by the way, we tried to make a blog post. Several helpers later, we had to switch rooms as we had power issues. Voila--we can now post. Lydia is in bed reading her newest Magic Treehouse Book--Day of The Dragon King, about a magical trip to China, that she is experiencing first hand. Tomorrow we see Tian An Men Square, Forbidden City and Hutong Tour before our flight to Changsha. We'll post photos as we can.

We're so excited - We leave tomorrow!

It's hard to believe that we're about to go on a journey that will change our family forever.

Dear Fu Tao (Talia An),
We are coming to get you, Fu Tao. Your mama, jiejie, and baba are coming to take you home...just a few more days (March 23, 2009) til we see you and you see us in person...when you'll feel the warmth and love of your family.

Mama has been working so hard to get us prepared and organized. Your mama is one incredible and amazing woman. You will feel very lucky to have her for your mother.

We are mostly packed, but still seem to have a million things to do before we leave.

We'll see you soon in Chongqing.
Love, Baba