Almost ready

We leave Columbus on Friday, March 2. We arrive in Cambodia on Sunday, March 4. Okay, so we're going with the rotation of earth, but it's still a long trip...

Wrapping it up

Well, our last day in China has been relaxing so far. It's a beautiful day on Shamian Island, sunny and about 80 degrees. After breakfast, Xiu Dan took a brief nap, and then we hit the pool. The water was a bit cold for Kori, Xiu Dan and I, but Chien and Pak jumped right in. We dipped our toes at the kiddie pool, and spent about two hours chatting with other families who are also in China to adopt kids.

We had a nice lunch at a restaurant we'd visited earlier in the week. We worked a little bit with Xiu Dan on the hand sign for "more." Her usual manner of banging her hands and shrieking when we're not feeding her fast enough wasn't working out so well for us. The girl loves to eat, and has found very few things she won't happily gobble. After lunch, we hit a coffee shop for cappucinos and mango shakes.

After picking up a few more souvenirs, we returned to the hotel, exhausted from all of our hard work. Xiu Dan crashed pretty quickly, the boys watched some X-Games skateboarding competition on the tube, and Kori and I dozed briefly. It's 4:35 p.m., which means that we'll be getting up in 12 hours: very, very morning for the McCollum clan.

The end of our trip has left me with mixed emotions. I'm thrilled to be returning to friends and family; it's time for us to start our lives together in Columbus. But I feel a twinge of regret. We're taking Xiu Dan away from China. She's losing something of her identity, and no matter how hard we try, she'll never really have a good chance to learn Mandarin or feel completely 'Chinese.' I remember being misty-eyed when as our plane took off with Chien from Vietnam.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and eating at my own table after a month on the run. Living out of suitcases can be fun, but only for a while. Unfortunately, I'm going to be massively jet-lagged and absolutely beat for my monday morning presentation. Yeah, that's right. I have a major presentation on monday at 10am. I usually love presenting, and I genuinely like the client, but I'm afraid I might not be at the top of my game. Oh, well. We'll see.

Kori and I put together a list of China-related topics I should address. I don't know if I'll have time, but I promise I'll try to post my thoughts on everything from traffic to manners to urban planning shortly after I return. In short, I've loved this trip, and I love China. I love the way my boys -- and girls -- have travelled. Very few breakdowns and many, many wonderful moments. Thanks for all of your prayers. We'll see you all soon.

Speaking of seeing you soon, our plane arrives on NW 1691 from Detroit at 4:22pm Saturday. You're welcome to meet us there if you wish, and/or show up at our house for a few minutes afterward. I promise we'll be happy to see you, but I can't promise we'll be very engaging hosts; I doubt I'll feel like cooking, and I may fall asleep immediately upon arrival. You can open up a bottle and toast us if you can hear over the snoring. Otherwise, you can all see Xiu Dan at Central Vineyard (meeting at Calumet Christian School) on Sunday morning at 10am. We may sleep through the entire service, but we wouldn't miss it for the world!

Starfish

Starfish
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Seahorses and scorpions

Seahorses and scorpions
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Croaked

Croaked
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Shopping arcade

Shopping arcade
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

We need more of these. Pedestrian streets, not McDonalds...

Deer hooves

Deer hoofs
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Market

Market
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Door

Door
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Doors

Doors
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

You've got mail

You've got mail
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Market street

Market street
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Soon this scened will be dominated by a huge skyscraper.

Market street

Market street
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

People really couldn't seem to understand why I wanted to take pictures of their neighborhood.

Man with trumpet. In chicken suit.

Man with trumpet. In chicken suit.
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

It makes perfect sense. To someone.

Illegal tiger paw sales

Illegal tiger paw sales
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Apparently it enhances male 'vigor.' Doesn't do much for the tiger, though.

Coffee and tiramisu on Shamian Island

Coffee and tiramisu on Shamian Island
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Lost in Canton

Until about noon, my prospects for an interesting walk in the city looked dim; an ill wind -- the fringe of distant typhoon Chanchu -- was blowing through Guangzhou. Umbrella-inverting gusts and stinging rain had already nixed my plans for a half-day photo safari, so I left all of my camera equipment at the hotel when we went to lunch. As we ate, the winds died down, and the rain subsided. We enjoyed yet another fantastic meal, I paid the bill and parted ways with Kori, Xiu Dan and the boys. They headed back to the White Swan, I set out across the bridge, off Shamian Island and into the weird and wild world of Guangzhou.

Guangzhou -- formerly Canton -- was the first port in China to trade with the West, and it is still the heart of the Chinese economy. Today, Guangdong Province generates nearly 30% of China's annual gross domestic product. I'd suspect that most of my clothes, electronics and household accessories were made not far from here. Modern capitalism is alive and well on a massive scale in 'red' China.

The first part of this afternoon's adventure, however, took place on streets that look pretty much like I imagine they'd have appeared a century and a half ago. Exiting the island via a pedestrian bridge that crosses a thin strip of water and a wide city street, I found myself a few steps from a gigantic, 3-story herbal medicine market encompassing an entire city block. I spent a half hour or so wandering around, admiring the astonishing array of dried fruits, roots, animals, leaves and odd items whose origin and use I could only imagine.

There were literally thousands of products I'd never seen before; long stringy things, broad and flat scratchy things, things that looked chewy, things that looked scaly. I couldn't tell whether some of these substances were animal, vegetable or mineral, and wouldn't know whether to eat them, smoke them, rub them on my skin in a poultice or drink them as a tea.

The smells were equally unfamiliar ranging from mouthwatering to miasmic: meaty aromas from giant mobiles of long, oily jerkies, fresh herbal fragrances from huge sacks of dried chamomile and rose buds, heady musks from endless piles of star anise and ginseng mingled with the fetor of funky, freaky foodstuffs from worlds I've never imagined.

From there, I wandered into an old, old neighborhood -- the winding streets with ancient shops reminded me of some old version of China I've only seen in movies. The fortune tellers and curio shops of my imagined Canton have been replaced by little stores selling nuts and bolts and hinges and spools of wire; so many shops selling such odd assortments of products. One appeared to sell nothing but used faucets, another only stocked doorknobs.

Pressing further into the city, I stumbled upon a street selling all kinds of aquatic critters -- water snakes, turtles, crabs, spotted lobsters the size of my cat, frogs, water beetles -- and buckets upon buckets of live scorpions. There must be a huge market in China for live scorpions. Scorpions and padded bras -- they're on sale everywhere.

After a mile or so, I spotted a familiar but unwelcome sight: an immense McDonald's 'restaurant.' The McD's marked the entrance to a large pedestrian street lined with stores selling all sorts of clothes, none of which appealed to me. I have enough dress shirts, and I don't like the styles favored by Chinese youth. When one is my age, one doesn't look good in pastel t-shirts covered in English slogans like "Style. Fashion. Free. Fun." Nor am I in the market for another padded bra. I finally spotted a tea shop. I bought a couple of small teapots to prove that I had actually been shopping for three hours.

I walked for about 15 minutes looking for some familiar landmark that would lead me back to Shamian Island. I finally decided that I was completely lost and that Kori was probably wondering if I'd been Shanghaied. I flagged a taxi which drove for about 20 minutes before reaching Shamian Island and my hotel.

Returning to Shamian Island from the city is sort of like stepping off some turbo-charged escalator -- it takes a few moments to get one's bearings. Shamian really is beautiful, even if it doesn't seem very Chinese. We had a fantastic Thai dinner at a riverside restaurant tonight. We watched the sun set over the Pearl River, and enjoyed some great family time.

Tomorrow is our consulate appointment. Very serious stuff -- no cameras, no backpacks, no smiling -- but it's all just formalities. She's ours, and we're coming home on Saturday. 'Nuff said. If I have time and the weather permits, I'll try to retrace some of today's steps with a camera and a couple of lenses. The markets were cool, and the old streets are just dying to be photographed.

I'll get caught up, um, later?

I'm going to try a more detailed post sometime between now and tomorrow. It's been difficult finding time; we're trying to experience everything at once -- Guangzhou, Shamian Island, the baby -- it's difficult to make time, it's also difficult to get all of my thoughts together.

I also hope to take a photo safari some time today or tomorrow -- a couple of hours without the kids; just me and the camera. I'd like to remember this place, but it feels like we're speeding through at a bullet's pace. A couple of quick thoughts.

Guangzhou city: It's huge. Given our time, we won't get much of a chance to see Guangzhou; we'll probably visit a few markets.

Shamian Island: Calm, peaceful, a little fake-feeling. Infested with ladybugs (adoption-related inside joke).

White Swan Hotel: Big, fancy, filled with too many people adopting kids to make us feel like anything more than consumers at this point. The 12 clubs and restaurants are all too expensive to enjoy; one of the bars has a $10 cover charge. The gym costs $10 each time you use it, and the in-house laundry is criminal -- $2 for a kid's t-shirt, $12 for a skirt -- only the very rich and the very dumb use the service here.

I'd love to get to know the city, its people and restaurants a lot better, but it's just not going to happen on this trip. And we're ready to get home to see all of you. Just a couple more days and one very, very long plane ride with a squirmy, assertive child in our lap.

At the park on Shamian Island

At the park on Shamian Island
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Both the U.S. consulate and our hotel are on Shamian Island, a former British concession back when Guangzhou was known as Canton. The island is now home to a bunch of consulates and offices of foreign governments. It's peaceful and very European-feeling.

Xiu Dan's medical exam

Xiu Dan's medical exam
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

The exam is required by the U.S. consulate.

Yeah, Xiu Dan hated the exam

Yeah, Xiu Dan hated the exam
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Roots and such

Roots and such
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Chinese pharmacy

Chinese pharmacy
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

In China, there's a blurry line between food and medicine. All of these items are used to make soups and tonics that cure various ills.

Box O' Turtles

Box O' Turtles
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

This was one of about 20 varieties of turtles for sale at the market. They're usually eaten in soup.

At the market

At the market
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Examining the various wares

Teapots

Teapots
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

I bought one of these. They're very cute.

The market

The market
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Just over the bridge from Shamian Island

No comment

No comment
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

When I get home, I'm going to raise a toast to all of you, my faithful blog readers!

Pak loves his sister

Pak loves his sister
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Update from Guangzhou

Hi.

We're in Guangzhou. Everything is fine, but I don't have time to post. That will come soon...

The apex

The apex
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Well, it's mother's day, our last day in Nanchang. All along, we've wanted to ride Jiangxi Province's newest attraction -- the world's largest ferris wheel. At more than 50 stories, this sucker is huge. Driving to the "Star of Nanchang," it doesn't look so big until you realize you've been driving towards it for 5 minutes, and you still haven't gotten that much closer.

Up close, it's pretty impressive. Apparently three other cities in China are in the process of building even bigger ones. I can hardly imagine that.

It took about 30 minutes to make one full revolution. Chien was a bit nervous, but we all got through it well. 50 stories. That's one big ferris wheel.

Yes, it's very, very tall

Yes, it's very, very tall
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

That's one big ferris wheel

That's one big ferris wheel
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Inside the gondola

Inside the gondola
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

World's tallest

World's tallest
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Happy mother's day

Happy mother's day
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Another delicious meal in Nanchang

Another delicious meal in Nanchang
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Jiangxi cuisine is yummy

Jiangxi cuisine is yummy
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

I wish I had these recipes; I'll try my best when I get home.

Some quality time at the hotel

Some quality time at the hotel
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Seriously, this girl makes me laugh.

Seriously, this girl makes me laugh.
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Thoughts from Nanchang. From Kori.

The boys just left to have some big boy fun. They have been cooped up in the hotel room doing baby things for several days now, so I took them to the play room at the hotel so they could wrestle and throw balls and run around and now John is taking them out to see the city lights on the 20th floor and to a nearby coffee shop for a drink and card game. Xiu Dan is asleep. She ran around with us today and didn't get all of her afternoon nap so she was tired. I thought I would write some of my thoughts from Nanchang.

When I think of Nanchang I think of the worst sore throat I have ever had and of my daughter. Both very memorable. The sore throat felt like knives stabbing my throat repeatedly every time I swallowed or even breathed. I could not eat much and drinking even water hurt. I was taking an antibiotic in case it was strep and all the Motrin I was allowed. But after 5 days it has finally subsided. It is just a little sore now and I have a runny nose but I am feeling much better. 

All that clouded the first few days with Xiu Dan. She was definitely very bonded to her foster mother for the first 6 months of her life and then her nanny and the orphanage director for the last 5 months. She grieved and grieved. It was terrible. She would push me away and cry whenever I got near. I had visions of her never letting me close, now being sick did not help the emotions either. But after 3 days she finally began to bond to me too. Now she wants both me and John the same. She is so much happier now too. 

It is really neat to see her personality begin to come out. She is silly. She likes to make faces, stick her tongue out, and make noises like vibrating her lips or clucking her tongue. She loves to play. We brought these stacking cups and she loves them. She bangs them, puts them inside each other, and stacks them up. She sits in one place to play. My boys were always on the move. They never sat still for more than 2 minutes at a time and always needed a new activity. She is quite content to sit and play with the same toy for 30 minutes or so with very little interaction from anyone. She loves her brothers. She just sits and watches them. She waves her arms at them and kisses them. They have been so sweet with her too. They play with her and get her to laugh. She loves to cuddle. She always wants to be close to us. She loves to have us hold her and she hugs and kisses so much. She really seems to enjoy the hip carrier we have too. She likes how close it holds her to us. She loves her blanket. She is a girl after my own heart. She likes to rub her blanket up to her lips and mouth. Some times she sucks on it and other times she just rubs it on her mouth. I used to do this when I was little. She is happy. She always has a smile. She is stubborn. She wants what she wants and she wants it NOW! But that is being a baby. She is verbal. She loves to make sounds. She says ma ma and da da and ba and ak and nnn and aaaaaaa. Not really to or about anyone but it is a start. She loves the water. Baths are so much fun for her. We haven't done the pool yet (the one here is not heated and even Chien says it is cold) but I am sure she will love it. She loves to look at her self in the mirror (she makes faces). She loves looking at the computer. She is a very deep sleeper. Once she is asleep she can sleep through anything. I am in love with her.

My boys are wonderful. They have worked so hard on school work lately. They are more helpful with Xiu Dan than I thought they would be. They love to hold her and get things for her. They truly love her and feel that she is an important part of our family. They could do without all the crying, though. So many people have commented at how great the boys are and how well behaved they are. They have been very flexible and willing to go everywhere we have had to go and do all the boring things.They are enjoying seeing all the new things and experiencing China. They haven't complained once. They are so fun to be around. I love them so very much. They are the best boys in the world.

My husband is wonderful. He is the best dad ever. He loves to play with the boys and with Xiu Dan. He loves to experience new things with them. He loves to talk with them. He loves to dream with them. He changes diapers (more than I have). He will bathe the kids. He will hold them and ease their fears. He will wrestle with them. He will read to them and put them to bed. He is silly with them. He loves them so much.

Tomorrow is mother's day. My first with 3 kids. the best 3 kids in the world. I am getting tea in bed and a mango drink at a cafe later in the day. Who could ask for anything more?

Answers for Mrs. Hall's class

Pak,

We can't wait to meet her! She is the cutest peanut we ever saw!!!

Thanks so much for sharing these with everyone. The class all said "AHHHHHH" when I showed them this.

We saw your giraffe and Chien's Peek-A-Chue in the bed with Xiu Dan. That was so nice of you all to share with her. She has the best big brothers any girl could ask for. I bet you spoil her just a little bit.

Madison: "When is the baby's birthday?"

June 7

Ben: Does she cry a lot or is she happy more?"

She's happy more.

Since we are into measurements these days, the class wants to know how tall she is and how much she weighs.

9.5 kilograms and 70 centimeters.

Bridgette: Does she talk?

A little. She says, "Buh" and "Duh" and "Mmmuh."

What does she call you?

I think I heard her say, "Ak."

Can she tell you and Chien apart?

Um, not yet.

Well, we have got to go! Talk more later. We have to get our pledges started and then we will be reading a new book Hannah placed in the library for her birthday book. You will have to read it later. 

We miss you bunches!

I miss you too, very much.

Love and Prayers are with you all today!

Mrs. Hall and class 

--

Posted by Anonymous to Beautiful Red at 5/12/2006 06:13:26 AM

A rainy day in Nanchang

It's been a chilly, rainy day in Nanchang. This morning, we headed out with the Roths and with our guide to the Public Security Bureau to get the girls' Chinese passports. The procedure took about ten minutes; the documents had been prepared prior to our arrival. All we had to do was verify our identity and sign some papers.

After that, we visited a shop nearby to buy some of the porcelain for which Jiangxi province is famed. We bought two full tea sets, one of which we will save to give Xiu Dan when she is older. We learned a little about the invention of porcelain and its importance in Chinese culture, history and economy. Apparently, it was first fired in Jiangxi about 10,000 years ago and was refined over a few hundred years. Porcelain, gunpowder, paper, printing, the compass and noodles -- all are Chinese inventions.

We returned to the hotel, gave Xiu Dan an bottle and put her down for a nap (she slept way too long, and we're paying for it now. It's after 9pm, and we still can't get her to sleep). The boys did homework while Kori and I watched Sumo and drank tea. We kind of skipped lunch, so we ate some dried fruit and crackers we bought earlier in the week.

At about 3ish, Xiu Dan woke up, and we decided to go shopping. The weather had cleared up a bit, and we hadn't had a chance to fully explore the 'walking street' filled with shops about a mile away from the hotel. We made dinner plans with the Roths and hit the road. Unfortunately, the rain decided to give an encore, and we got soaked. After a good dinner with the Roths, we came home, exhausted. Xiu Dan got a bath, and we put her down to bed. Repeatedly. After a few moments of peaceful repose, the kid would start shrieking. We've decided not to play hardball on bedtimes so early in our relationship, so we've been getting her up to comfort her when she screams.

I brought her over to the computer -- which she loves -- to do a video chat with Patti Simmons. About 30 seconds into it, Xiu Dan reached down and grabbed the left option and command keys. She ripped them both clean off. I got them back on, but the option key is jacked up. The shift key seems funky now too. Grr.

It's 9:25, and Xiu Dan just fell asleep. Finally. I'm praying it lasts, 'cause I'm exhausted.

G'night.

I think I can, I think I can...

I think I can, I think I can...
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Woman, thou art loosed!

Woman, thou art loosed!
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Mary at the passport office

Mary at the passport office
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Laura Roth, Sofia, and Grandma Nancy

Laura Roth, Sofia, and Grandma Nancy
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Afternoon nap

Afternoon nap
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Response to Miss Burby's class

Chien,

We hope you are having an amazing time.

I am. I'm having fun buying souvenirs. I visited Xiu Dan's orphanage yesterday.

How's your sister?

She's good.

Do you think she's cute?

Yes. She has a very round head.

Have you gotten her to laugh at you yet?

Yes. She has a teeny, little giggle.

How's your mom feeling?

Better.

We miss you and can't wait for you to get back.

I miss you too.

We worked on our name poems and thought of you. Here's a poem for you. We hope you like it.

Cool Kid

Huggable and helpful

Invincible at races

Excellent at math and handwriting

Nice

Thanks. I didn't think I was very good at handwriting.

Emotional day

This morning, we joined the Roth family and Mary, our guide, on a van trip to Zhangshu, the town where Xiu Dan lived until Monday morning. After about an hour and a half of expressway, we turned off onto the paved, but very bumpy road that took us to Zhangshu. To be honest, I was surprised; the city is much bigger than I expected. Drab, but bustling, Zhangshu is home to about 800,000 people; hardly the tiny burg I had pictured.

When we reached the city limits, our van pulled off the side of the road to meet the orphanage director, who would drive ahead of us to lead us to the facility. Again, I was surprised -- the orphanage was a rather large, 5-story complex right in the middle of town. It could have just as easily been a small office park. We passed through a small gate, and parked the van. There were actually two sets of buildings that belonged to the facility, and they were separated by a small, park-like garden. There were old men and women lounging around in front of the buildings, and I asked if they were caretakers. Our guide told us that the orphanage shares the site with a convalescent home, and also with a residential facility for mentally handicapped adults.

With Kori toting Xiu Dan and running the video camera, and me snapping photos, we followed the director up a set of stairs in the building on our left, and found ourselves in a large play room. Inside there were about a dozen babies and about 7 or 8 women, nannies. When the ladies saw us, their faces lit up. "Dan Dan!" they exclaimed, and they rushed forward to pinch Xiu Dan's cheeks, to tickle her belly and to tug on her feet. Xiu Dan grinned broadly, but didn't reach out to any of them.

After a few moments, the director shooed us along and led us to a reception room, where we exchanged pleasantries and asked questions about Xiu Dan's history, likes and dislikes. The orphanage staff was pretty evasive, and didn't tell us anything more than we had already learned. We asked if we could see where the kids slept, and the director nodded. He led us across the courtyard to the other building, and up a flight of steps. Along the front of the building was a balcony hallway that led to a series of little studio apartments. Our guide pointed to one and said, this is Xiu Dan's room. The main room was small but tidy, and had a handful of toys, four green walkers, and some baby clothes hanging to dry on a line.

Off the main room was a small kitchen, a tiny store-room and a bedroom with one adult-sized bed and three shiny metal cribs. The director pointed, and our guide said, "That one is Xiu Dan's." We walked over, took some pictures and touched the crib. Chien picked up the little pillow and hugged it. A middle-aged woman dressed in a red and white striped shirt -- our daughter's nanny-- came in the room, and came to Xiu Dan, arms extended. Kori flashed a glance over to me, and we both nodded. Xiu Dan was reaching out to the woman, and we decided to give them both one last hug. Xiu Dan giggled and hugged the woman. After a few seconds, Kori took our daughter back. Xiu Dan cried briefly and then settled back into her mom's arms.

After a brief visit to the Roth's daughter's room, Mary told us it was time to leave. We all got back into the van and left, possibly forever. About a block from the orphanage, the van stopped, and Mary pointed to a small alcove in front of a building, and said, "That is where they found Xiu Dan." We took pictures and video, and moved on. A few moments later, we paused at another building where the Roth's baby had been found.

Sobering, this adoption thing. What a mix of sadness and joy. Both Chien and Pak were affected. I think that this trip is helping Chien add details to his own story. He's picturing his own orphanage (which we were never allowed to visit), his own nanny, his foster family and his birth mother. The only pictures he'll ever have will be in his imagination, and will probably always be colored by this trip to Zhangshu.

Xiu Dan seems no worse for the wear. I'm sure the visit was confusing for her, but she's continuing to bond to all of us, and has given Kori a lot of loving today. I'm still the one she turns to when she's really sad or tired, but she's coming around. 

We took a few pictures and some video, but I think we're going to keep those private for Xiu Dan, her family and close friends. Right now, all of the kids are sleeping peacefully. I pray that God is speaking words of truth, comfort and security to them in their dreams, and I'm glad we'll all be together as a family in our little hotel room when they awake.

Xiu Dan's nickname of the day...

... pork chop.

The orphanage

Tomorrow we're taking a two-hour trip to Xiu Dan's orphanage in Zhangshu, a town so small, I can't find it on my map of China. It should be an interesting trip for all of us. Hopefully it won't be too traumatic for Xiu Dan. I'm praying it won't set us back on our bonding. We'll see.

We think it's important for us to take pictures of the orphanage for her so she can have that part of her life story when she gets older. We may or may not be able to go inside. Chinese officials are very guarded about their institutions, and the Chinese media never talks about orphans or adoption. Maybe that's why we get so many strange looks wherever we go in China...

We have pooped!

For a while there, we thought that Xiu Dan would never poop. Three days in, and she was still feces-free. We surmised that all of the solid food we had given her was going directly into thigh production, but apparently she does have a fully functional colon.

We did a little research about Chinese potty training, and we discovered that we can 'facilitate elimination' by setting her on the potty, lifting her knees and making "ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca" noises. Amazing, these Chinese babies. No wonder she was grumpy all day. We didn't know how to poop her. After about 10 seconds of "ca-ca-ca," she started to grunt, screw up her face, and well, you get the rest. Woohoo. We don't have to go the suppository route. Ew.

Anyway, Xiu Dan is now asleep, and the boys are getting ready for bed. We had a pretty good dinner tonight. Eating out in Nanchang has been more challenging than anywhere else we've been in China. Neither the menus nor the waiters speak English. Some have pictures, but at one restaurant, we actually had to do animal sounds to indicate what kind of meat we wanted. We now bring along a handy Chinese phrase book, which actually works better than just looking at the menu pictures. Tonight, for instance, we just looked and pointed, and were a little surprised to find that what looked like sliced beef, was actually sliced intestines of some sort. Tasty, but kind of gross. Also, the little pictures didn't show the chopped up frogs ended up in our fried noodles. No problem. We're all exceeding our recommended caloric intake anyway.

Pray that Xiu Dan attaches fully to Kori; it's flattering for me, but a bit of a drag. I'm tired of holding her all of the time, and Kori isn't getting all of the love she'd like to receive from the girl. Oh, well. We have lots of time to work on that.

At some point, I'll try to write down some of my thoughts about China as a nation/society. A lot of great things, a lot of not-so-great. That having been said, we're in love with the country and its people despite its shortcomings. To slightly modify the old saying about churches, "If you find a perfect country, don't go there -- you'll screw it all up."

Xiu Dan and some Norwegians in the playroom

Xiu Dan and some Norwegians in the playroom
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Pak and Xiu Dan in the playroom

Pak and Xiu Dan in the playroom
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Brass lions at Tengweng Pavilion

Brass lions at Tengweng Pavilion
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Tengweng Pavilion

Tengweng Pavilion
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Various Nanchang literati from the past

Various Nanchang literati from the past
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Nanchang's Gan River

Nanchang's Gan River
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Not quite bonded

Well, Xiu Dan is doing pretty well. We've spent all day around the hotel, just hanging out together. We've found that Xiu Dan is definitely a daddy's girl -- to a slightly frustrating extent. She shrieks every time I leave the room, or pass her to Kori, and she clings to me with the same vise-like grip she used to stay attached to the orphanage director yesterday morning. 

We've also discovered that Xiu Dan has a temper. She's quite assertive, and gets frustrated when we can't figure out exactly what it is that she wants. Boy can she scream. In the words of Strongbad, she's like a Japanese cartoon: her "mouth is extremely small when it's closed, and ridiculously huge when it's open." The only thing she's missing is bright blue hair and really cool robot boots.

Kori's feeling some better, but her throat still hurts a lot. No one else has gotten it -- so far, so good. We're going to go out to eat in a while and then give Xiu Dan her first bath with us. We're trying to get as much skin contact with her to encourage the bonding process, especially between her and her mom.

Just chillin' today

Thank you all for your comments and warm wishes. We're so blessed to have so many friends who care about us and about our adoption adventure. Andy, I would pay cash money to see you do those cartwheels.

And since you all seem to care I'll continue on with all of the details.

 Xiu Dan slept through the night, and woke up happy and ready to eat at 5:30. She's only cried a little occasionally, when one of her family members leaves the room. She's definitely bonding well. Kori says she's a daddy's girl. We're going to just chill around the hotel today to give Kori a chance to recuperate and Xiu Dan a chance to get to know us all in the safety of a non-familiar place.

A few cool things we're learning:

•  Believe it or not, she appears to be about 95% potty trained. Take of her clothes, hold her over the toilet and make a ssssssssssssssssssss sound, and she tinkles. Sweet!

•  I think she knows us by name. We say, "Where's Mom?" and she looks at Kori. "Where's Dad?" and she looks at me. I'm not sure she can tell Chien and Pak apart, but that's okay. Neither can 85% of the white people we meet in America (not to mention, inexplicably, a few of the Chinese we meet here).

•  Per the orphanage director's suggestion, patting her on the back helps her to calm down. That's good to know.

•  Video conferencing via iChat is the bomb. Skype is great, too.

•  We've discovered that she hates transitions. If one person puts her down, she cries for a while. Gives her back, she cries for for a while. The only thing she likes consistently is for daddy to hold her. :)

And a clarification:

• We didn't exactly pick the pink outfit for her first pictures. It was one of the only outfits that fit her. She's chubby!

In mama's arms

In mama's arms
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Happy now

Happy now
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Not happy now

Not happy now
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Cuddling

Cuddling
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Deciding to not cry

Deciding to not cry
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Sleeping soundly

Wow. What a day. Neither Kori nor I slept well, and by the time we got up, it was clear that Kori was feeling really awful. She started taking Cipro, and I stuffed my system full of Immodium. After breakfast, we met up with the Roths and our guide, Mary, in the lobby. We rode in the hotel's van to the Jiangxi Provincial Adoption Office, and walked up a flight of stairs. Mary led us down the hall to a room with two babies and about 5 Chinese adults.

I saw the Roth's baby and thought at first that it was Xiu Dan. The other baby was too chubby to be our little peanut. Nope. The chubby one, dressed in a lavender jumpsuit-type thing, was ours. She was holding on tightly to a man who turned out to be the orphanage director. The other ladies referred to him as Ba-ba, or Daddy. The officials asked to see our passports, and only after they had carefully cross-referenced them with our paperwork did they let us hold the babies. 

Xiu Dan held on to the director with an iron grip, and started wailing uncontrollably when I took her in my arms. Inconsolable for hours, Xiu Dan spent most of her first few hours sobbing. At about 1:30, we took a late lunch, and Xiu Dan was doing better. We fed her little pinches of bread and a few small pieces of fruit. She didn't take a bottle, and wanted nothing to do with rice cereal.

After lunch, Xiu Dan started to perk up. The boys actually got her to smile a couple of times. Speaking of the boys, they've been wonderful. They're absolutely, totally, head over heels in love. Chien said it's the best day of his life. They can't stop kissing her; they absolutely adore her. She wasn't too sure about them at first, but it's clear that she really digs having two silly brothers.

We had to go out again at about 3pm for a few more official meetings; notaries and administrators and such. We went to a supermarket and got a few more supplies, and had a great dinner of steamed dumplings. Xiu Dan loved the dumplings. Kori and I are pretty exhausted. Kori feels a little better, but she's still nowhere near 100%. Xiu Dan is now sleeping quite soundly on the bed, flanked by her big brothers, who are listening to their bedtime stories.

Here's what we know about Xiu Dan so far:

•  She doesn't like drinking from bottles. We had to cut the nipples (on the bottles, or course) pretty radically to get her interested at all. She much prefers cups.

•  Xiu Dan received great care. She's healthy, she's certainly not underfed, and she seems to be used to being fed by hand. 

•  She's a bit clingy. She likes to be held very closely, and she doesn't like to be put down. She may be a bit high maintenance in this regard, at least at first. Probably won't be ready for the church nursery for a few months.

•  She likes to grab things. Noses, glasses, mouths, eyes -- whatever she can reach, she'll grab.

•  She has teeth. Four that are completely in, two that are most of the way in, and a mouthful of little nubs that could break through at any time.

•  She can't walk. Her legs are strong, and she can stand with assistance, but she definitely can't walk. That's good: Kori really wanted to see her first steps. We don't even know if she can crawl; she won't let us put her down long enough to find out.

• She's perfect. Plus, she has the most adorable smile, and a sideways smirk that always makes me laugh. 

Thanks to everyone for all of your prayers. I can't wait to bring her home.

She's ours!

She's ours, she's chubby, she's beautiful, and she's seriously ticked off. Crying a lot, but is coming around.

More later...

At the adoption affairs office

CRW_9670
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

On the bus back to the hotel

CRW_9682
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Today's the day

Well, it's a rainy day in Nanchang; noisy, too. From our 11th floor room, we can hear the traffic honking and revving and sometimes yelling, even with our windows closed. There's plenty of construction going on in the neighborhood, and the boats on the nearby Gan River lend an occasional toot to the cacophany. Kori's trying to get some sleep, she's started a course of antibiotics, and is supplementing it with Ibuprofen and Immodium. I'm just taking Immodium.

In some ways, it seems an inauspicious day to bring a new child into the family, but "This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it." It's just the kind of day, the kind of city, the kind of weather Jesus would show up in. In that spirit, and despite our flagging health, we've put a brave face on it all, and dressed ourselves in matching red shirts to celebrate our Chinese daughter's heritage and, of course, her name -- Xiu Dan, or Beautiful Red.

In less than an hour and a half, we'll be heading out to get Xiu Dan. Last night we met another family, the Roths, who will be going with us to get their daughter today. They're young and smart, and very nice, and they brought a grandma with them to help. This is Laura and Todd's first child, Nancy's first grandchild. We'll be sharing the rest of our trip with the Roths, all the way through to Guangzhou.

I don't know exactly where the "Adoption Affairs Office" is, what it will look like, how long it will take -- this is all quite different from our other adoptions. All I know is that by this afternoon, our family will be complete again, and that the most beautiful little girl in China will also be one of the most photographed.

Some of the recently-adopted babies in the hotel seem happy, others cry all of the time; some seem vigorous and healthy, some are a little flimsy. Some are basically bald, others have alarmingly robust shocks of hair protruding from their tiny scalps. Some have very light skin, others dark. I can't wait to see Xiu Dan. I wonder what she looks like now? 

I can't wait to touch her, smell her, hold her, comfort her, change her, bathe her, feed her. I can't wait to introduce her to her big brothers, to see their joy and to hear them come up with new, silly games to keep her entertained. Thank God, I won't have to. The time is almost here...

Update from Baby Central

The Gloria Hotel in Nanchang, China is Baby Central. Every room on the eleventh floor is occupied by new parents (or, as in our case, soon-to-be new parents) of little Chinese babies. You can't swing a wok without hitting an adoptive family. It's kind of weird, we've gotten used to being the only family around with Caucasian parents and Asian kids. Here, we're a dime a dozen.

Things in Nanchang have been relatively uneventful. The city itself seems nice enough; about 4 million people, decent public transportation and good restaurants. We've had two excellent and very economical meals in the city so far -- Nanchang's food is generally quite spicy, which is great for us. The transformer the hotel gave us for our electronics is no good, and we may have burned out Kori's iPod speakers, but other than that, we're having a pretty good time.

The biggest problem we're facing is that Kori's feeling awful. Achey, breaky, nauseated; she's just feeling pretty lousy all around. We're praying that she comes around by tomorrow morning when we go to the Adoption Affairs Office to get Xiu Dan. This should be one of the best days of our lives. It would stink if she feels too sick to really enjoy it. So, pray.

It's only 9pm, but I'm going to try to get to bed. I could use a good night's sleep. When we get Xiu Dan, I'll post new pictures as soon as possible.

Much love.

Tomorrow!

We just received word that we'll be receiving Xiu Dan A DAY EARLY!

She's OURS tomorrow!

Praise God. Now it's starting to sink in...

Yangshuo to Guilin to Yangshuo

I love so many things about China, and I’ll probably get back to one or more of them after a short rant about one of the things I detest – government interference with access to the web. China has something like 30,000 full-time information inhibitors, internet cops whose only job is to keep people from getting full, reliable internet service. I won’t pretend to understand the technology, and I’m not really interested in discussing the politics. I just want to get my email. Some of my friends in the States have been marvelously helpful, recommending software workarounds, but I’d suspect that many a man has gone broke underestimating the cleverness of a determined and well funded bureaucracy. Just when I get one thing to work, it stops working. At least it’s the weekend now, and I don’t have to spend any more time stressing out about not being able to communicate with the office, but if I don’t have decent web access in Nanchang, where we’ll be getting our daughter, I’ll be livid. I’ve been looking forward to posting dozens of pictures of Xiu Dan each day, and clogging my blog with minutely detailed descriptions of her every move. Presumably, the hotel with have an IT guy or girl who can help, but I’m not terribly optimistic. I may have the only Macintosh laptop in China. Chinese people stare at it like it’s some sort of navigation device rescued from a downed alien spacecraft. Last night, as I was sitting at a bar furiously trying to reconfigure my proxies and ports and other things I don’t remotely understand, a british chap came up to me and said, “Nice piece of kit. I miss my ol’ Mac; I had to leave it back in Shanghai.” I asked hopefully, “Oh, a Mac guy. Perhaps you can help me connect to the internet?” “Nah,” he laughed, “Yer on your own. These blokes have it all so buggered up, I can’t make hide nor hair of it. G’luck, mate.” Sigh. At any rate, by the time you get this message, we’ll be in Nanchang, and only a couple of days away from getting Xiu Dan. Tonight, we’re in Guilin, a beautiful little city about 5 hours upriver from Yangshuo. Yangshuo was great, but if I had to choose to live in one of the two cities, Guilin would win, hands down. Guilin is big enough to feel like a real town. Yangshuo at its best feels like a wonderful resort, and at its worst like High Street after a big football game. Guilin is as beautiful as Yangshuo, but in a different way. In Yangshuo, the mountains were literally within reach. In Guilin, the same jade mountains are on the outskirts of town, just on this side of the horizon. Here, there actually seem to be businesses and stores that cater to real people, not just tourists. One could settle down here. We left Yangshuo this morning and rode for an hour and a half through driving rain that at times almost obscured the scenery, breathtaking mountains and bucolic scenes of farmers working by hand in rice paddies, vineyards and orchards. Upon arrival, Kori and the boys checked into the hotel, and I left with our guide to visit a local hospital. I have for some time been interested in Chinese medicine, but I’m not really into ingesting weird herbs – I saw that episode of the Simpsons where Homer ate the psychodelic chili, and I wasn’t in the mood for hallucinations or unpredictable intestinal activity. Nor was I up for trying acupuncture. After 16 hours of being tattooed, I think I’ve had enough elective needling for year or so. I wanted moxibustion (I’m sure you could look it up on Wikipedia and find great articles and groovy pictures. Of course, Wiki’s blocked in China, so I couldn’t help you even if I could get online…). Moxibustion, or ‘cupping’ is much scarier to look at than it is to experience. A doctor lies you down on a table, lights a small torch, heats the air within a series of small, glass cups and places the cups on your bare back. After about 15 mintues, the resulting suction inside the cups creates silver dollar-sized, purple hickies on your back. It feels weird, but doesn’t hurt. Supposedly, it readjusts your chi. I don’t know anything about that, but it did make my back feel better. The therapeutic effects diminish before the hickies, which will fade away in about five days. Pak, who is very empathetic, almost cried when he saw my back. He insisted upon putting lotion on the circles, despite my assurances that they don’t hurt a bit. He also didn’t want me to take my shirt off at the pool; he was afraid I’d scare the other people. Oh, wow. It’s 11pm, and I need to get up at 5am to make my plane to Nanchang. I should be off. I’ll continue the update later. Bye. Okay, it’s 7am, and we’re sitting in the departure lounge at the Guilin Airport. Getting up at 5:30am was challenging, but we’re all here, and poised to make our 7:30 boarding call. I’m not sure what to expect of Nanchang. It’s certainly not a tourist destination. A city of nearly 5 million, Nanchang is famous for well, um, I’m not quite sure. I’m hoping it’s famous for reliable internet access. That and a decent hotel pool will be just fine with me. The most important thing in Nanchang is our daughter. She’s probably not in Nanchang right now; her orphanage is in Zhangshu, a small town an hour or so outside of the city. But in two days, she’ll be in Nanchang, and our family will be complete again. So, I guess our trip is turning the corner. To this point, it’s been a family vacation. Starting Tuesday, it will be about something much more important. In one sense, I’ve been dreaming about this for months, and so I’m more than ready to be a family of five. In another sense, I think I’ve been in some sort of denial. The adoption process is so frustratingly long and unpredictable, it’s usually a good idea to steel oneself, to think of the ‘gotcha’ day as something in the distant future that will happen eventually, in its own good time. Now that the day is upon us, it seems a little unreal, a little numb, a little nauseating. I think that our emotions are saving themselves for Tuesday, at which point they’ll break free in a torrent of tears, laughter and ‘happy dances.’ Today, however, feels something like the night before one’s wedding – a diffuse, but heavy pressure dammed up safely behind a membrane that will stretch and grow increasingly thin over the next few hours. I think the kids feel it too; the threat of an emotional breakthrough – or maybe breakdown – hangs over them like heavy clouds undecided: do we rain, or do we disperse? Well, the terminal’s getting full, and I think we’ll be boarding soon. More later.

Nightlife in Yangshuo

I have it on good authority that Yangshuo isn’t always like this. The national holiday has brought about 3 times the normal number of Chinese tourists, so place is a bit zooey. Everyone, it seems, want to be in Yangshuo this week. During the day, it’s not so bad. West Street, the main pedestrian thoroughfare, is kind of crowded, but many of the tourists head out of town to enjoy hiking, climbing and the other outdoor pursuits for which Yangshuo is famous. The town is still pleasant and relatively tranquil, perfect for strolling about, lounging under umbrellas at cafes and haggling with trinket vendors. At night, the place goes nuts, absolutely bat-guano loony. West Street after dark is 50% Bourbon Street, 50% Kings Island Midway and about 73% intoxicated. At about 9pm, the discos engage in what seems to be some ill-advised experiment to determine which is more likely to induce seizures in sane people: blaring great music over lousy speakers or blaring lousy music over great speakers. Invariably, the bars playing Dylan and old R.E.M. sound as if they’ve bought their speakers from Toccoa, Georgia’s stock-car racetrack, and the bars playing Brit’nay, InSync or their Chinese counterpart (truly scary) are equipped with state-of-the art, concert-quality (and volume) systems. If you don’t mind getting jostled and having to keep your hand on your money to thwart pickpockets, and if you’ve already lost your hearing, and are immune to the detrimental effects of hours upon hours of flashing lights, you might actually enjoy a Yangshuo nightclub. I only went because I had to. The Global Café is a decent little spot with passable margaritas and reliable internet connection. I still have to do a little business correspondence, so I sat down, ordered a drink and started chatting via instant messenger with the various people who were hanging about my office in Columbus. Unfortunately, I have video conferencing capabilities at my office and on my laptop, and I got to see my pastor, Jeff, lifting his t-shirt and flashing his hairy, Greek (as in ethnicity, not as in statuesque physique) chest and stomach at the camera while I was trying to talk with Jeremy. I could have gone a couple more weeks without seeing that. Oh, well. At any rate, I took care of all my emails, talked Megan and Kara out of jumping off the building, and gave everyone at the office the opportunity to hear the band and watch the light show. The band was loud, and not that great. Did I mention that the band was loud? After about 45 minutes, the show finally did the trick (I’m assuming the musicians are paid to drive away loiterers, non-intoxicated internet users and small waterfowl), and I headed down the street to MC Blues, another joint in town with wireless internet connection. I didn’t really want anything to eat or drink, so I sat down on the curb outside the restaurant. I opened up my computer, resumed my chat with Brian Estabrook and CRASH! a plate from the restaurant exploded on the pavement just inches from my feet. I assumed the dish had come from the balcony, accidentally knocked off the table by some careless and/or inebriated patron. As I was looking up to confirm the source of the flying saucer, CRASH! another plate hit the street. I shot a glance over at one of the nearby tables just in time to see a rather surly looking Chinese man pick up a bowl from the table and chuck it my direction. I closed my laptop, put it in my bag and jumped to my feet. I grabbed my flashlight (also useful as a bludgeon in times of distress) and stared, agape at the unhappy diner. A woman at the table was also very agitated. I thought she was probably ticked at the man for making such a scene, until she took an ice cream bowl and shattered it on the ground. “What on earth is your problem?” I exclaimed! The woman muttered something that sounded like “Slow service,” and the man put his hands on the table and acted like he was going to jump up and attack me. I took a step back, clenched the flashlight in my fist, and thought to myself, “If a fight breaks out, I think I can take him, but I’m not sure how many of these people are his friends.” Thankfully, a crowd had gathered, and the proprietor had emerged from the store. Other people in the street took up my task of berating the gentleman, and when I felt it was safe to turn my back, I walked into the bar, set up my laptop and finished my correspondences. I need to go out again tonight; with any luck I won’t have to hit anyone. Today’s our last full day in Yangshuo, and I don’t need a souvenir assault indictment to remember my stay. Peace.

Email problems...

For some reason, my email is now being blocked. Please pray that I get this resolved soon; I can't do any correspondence for work, and that is very bad.

On the river

On the river
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Wet, but fun.

Melody and husband

Melody and husband
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Our hosts.

Lunch at Melody's

Lunch at Melody's
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Honestly, the simplest meals are the best. The touristy places stink. The farmers' houses? Delicious.

By Melody's house

By Melody's house
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Much cooler looking than Indianola Avenue.

Cavern

Cavern
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

The lighting was a bit 'over the top,' but it was cool anyway.

Our hotel

Our hotel
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Trust me, it's prettier in person.

Following a Melody.

It's actually been such an astonishing day, I'm not even sure where to start. We met Melody yesterday. Melody is a 40-something Chinese woman who works as some sort of a freelance travel facilitator. She approached me as I was leaving my hotel: "I can do laundry for you. Much cheaper than your hotel. And if you want to go on tour or rent a bike, I can help you." As it so happened, we were in need of both laundry and tour services, so I negotiated a price for both. I gathered up our dirty clothes and delivered them to her; she promised 27 hour turnaround. Not bad, when you consider that her price is a quarter of that at my hotel. After a decent breakfast at MC Blues, the place I've been hitting in the morning and evening to get connected to the internet, Kori and the boys returned to the hotel to prepare the backpacks for a day on the road, and I hit the local branch of the Bank of China to exchange dollars for yuan. After a long and frustrating wait, I was able to make the transaction. I returned to our room to fetch Kori and the boys, and we headed out to meet Melody. Melody had promised us a tour of the countryside. I didn't know that we would be following Melody on bicycles. Tandem bicycles. I also didn't know that the tour would take us nearly two bone-rattling, bun-busting hours away from the city to Melody's small farming village. If I had known in advance, I probably would have declined. I'm so glad I didn't; today was one of our best days yet in China. Just a couple of miles outside of town, the scenery is breathtaking. All of those mountains that looked so fantastic on the boat? They're even fantasticker up close. On the boat, you can't see the rice paddies and villages and dirt roads. You can't see the ducks and chickens and dogs and water buffalo. On a bike, you can see, smell and touch it all.  After an hour or so of cycling (well, Kori and I cycled, the boys sat behind us and rode), the terrain got pretty rough, enough so that we had to walk beside the bikes about a quarter of the time. But the scenery just got better and better. Unfortunately, I didn't take as many pictures as i would have liked -- the cycling was exhausting, and dismounting and stopping our caravan was inconvenient. We stopped along the way and took an hour long tour of a stalactite filled cavern. It was similar to Ohio Caverns, but less-well maintained (people were allowed to touch the stalactites and stalagmites; this ruins them) and more garishly lit. But it was great fun. We grabbed a bit of a snack and hit the road again. After what seemed like a very long time, we reached a tiny village nestled in a plain between a couple of mountains. The road to Melody's simple, hand-made, brick and stucco house was so steep and so muddy, we had to park the bikes and walk the last few hundred yards. When we arrived at the house, Melody apologized, "It's a very simple, poor house. We do not have a nice or new house." We assured her it was lovely, and it honestly was. Spartan, but beautiful. Melody's husband, who stays at home and tends the pomelo, peanut and rice crops while Melody serves tourists, had cooked a wonderful meal. I'm serious -- the farmers in China know how to cook. Some of our best meals in this country have been prefaced with "I'm sorry, this is just simple, farmer food. I hope it is okay for you." We had a stir-fry of beef, onions, eggplant and water chestnuts, another beef dish with garlic and vegetables, a pork and tofu platter and little egg dumplings stuffed with pork. It was all quite nice. After lunch, we rode our bikes another half hour or so to a tributary of the Li River. We rented two small bamboo rafts, donned life vests, loaded our bikes and took our seats. We spent the next hour and a half enjoying a leisurely cruise down the river. We disembarked about a half hour from town, and rode our bikes the rest of the way back. Needless to say, we're tired. We're also sunburned -- Yangshuo has gotten quite hot over the last couple of days. Over-exertion and overheating aside, we had a thrilling day. Tomorrow, we're just going to chill. We might not even leave the hotel. We'll see...

More thoughts from Kori...

More random observations from Kori

Pak's allergies seem much better over here. His asthma is non existent which makes me think it is all allergy related. Chien had been getting hives every other day when we were home and since we have been here he has had hives once and they went away before we could get the medicine in him. Makes me also wonder if he has allergies.

Yangshuo is incredible. The scenery is like nothing I have seen before. It is so beautiful I can not describe it. There are a lot of people here though. It is a national holiday. We still get lots of strange looks. An older Chinese man even took pictures of our boys on some playground equipment because we were so interesting. I wish the restaurants did not cater so much to westerners. Almost all the restaurants serve pizza and burgers. I just want to eat local chinese food.

China has lots of playgrounds with exercise equipment for adults. It is all free. Columbus needs these. John took a picture of me on the "elliptical" machine.

Our hotel is nice. The boys love the pool and ping pong table. The pool is outdoor and a bit cold but I finally was able to slowly dip myself in so I could swim the boys. We had a great time but I got sunburned.

My toe is doing really well. It did not hurt until Thursday last week. It now only aches a bit if we have walked a lot. Thank you for all who prayed for it. I have been able to do everything we have wanted to do.

I have had a lot of time to relax and contemplate motherhood while in Yangshuo. My boys are so very different from each other. Chien is so competitive and he views the world as something to conquer. Pak is so sensitive and honestly enjoys every aspect of life to the fullest. For example, we found a ping pong table. Chien of course was very good from the very beginning. He understands the strategy and has incredible hand eye coordination. And he wants to win. So all he wants to do is keep score and make it a game. Pak on the other hand struggles with learning just how to hit. But boy is it funny to him as he tries and tries and tries to learn. He doesn't get frustrated. He just has fun. And he learns how to do things along the way. 

Another example, the pool. Chien jumps in first thing and swims all around and wants to race Pak. Pak on the other hand is slowly gets in feeling the water and having fun experiencing it. After he gets in he just wants to swim around and be free. Once Chien has conquered the pool he is done and wants to get out and move on to the next conquest. Pak on the other hand will stay in the pool forever  just having fun until he gets cold or tired. 

Yet another example is homework (and probably school work in general). Chien wants to know how many pages he has to do. He wants to just do them and conquer them. He doesn't care about thinking about them or learning more about the subject, he just wants to complete it as fast as possible. Pak has to experience the subject. I can't make him move any faster on it. He has to move at his own pace. He loves to learn and think but hates to have to write it down or complete a worksheet. But boy does he retain what he has learned and can apply it to different situations. He is very intuitive. I have a lot of respect for all the teachers the boys have had and will have. 

Thanks you for all you have done for them. They are both truly incredible boys. I love them both with all my heart and soul. I don't always know how to best parent them. At times I feel very inadequate. Especially when it comes to trying to teach them both at the same time. And now we are adding yet another person to the mix and she is a girl. What will she be like? How will I be a good parent? How will I learn to teach her? God help me.

Answers for Sarah

Dear John, Was the great wall fun?

It was a lot of fun, but it was very tiring walking up all of those steps.

Kori, did you eat any bugs?

Yes. A cockroach. 

Chien did you eat grasshoppers?

Not yet.

Pak what bugs did you eat?

A scorpion.

Pak and Chien how is your homework doing?

It's hard to do, but okay.

I can't wait to see Xiu Dan's face when she gets home.

Neither can we!

mis you, Sarah your aunt and sister 

We miss you, too.

Another wireless cafe

Wow. Yangshuo really does understand the needs of Western tourists. I've now found two places with wireless internet connection. This one has pretty good food, too. We're sitting on the second floor of MC Blues Cafe looking out over a little side street in the shadow of a beautiful limestone peak. We're finishing up our dinner of hot and sour soup, Sichuan chicken, Thai chicken sate and bacon pizza. Everything but the watery local beer was quite good, and we're hoping to grab something from the dessert menu in just a few minutes.

Tomorrow, we're hoping to head out to the countryside to do some exploring. I'll try to take some pictures of Yangshuo so you can get an idea of our surroundings. We've done a pretty good job of relaxing here. Chien has become quite a good pingpong player, and Pak has been doing a lot of drawing.

More later...

Finally answering Mrs. Hall's class. Sorry...

Have you played any of the Chinese sports? (Morgan) 

We played ping pong and a hackey-sack kind of game.

This badminton looks very fun but where is the net?(Mrs. H)

There isn't any net.

Is the city pretty? (Jordan)

Yes. Very pretty.

Have you seen any parades? (Bridgette)

No.

Have you met any children and made new friends? (Camden)

We talked to a little baby at the Summer Palace.

Have you seen any snakes yet? Are you looking for bugs? (Lynsey)

We caught a dragonfly, and we ate some snakes. We also saw eels, which are kind of like water snakes.

Finally answering Mrs. Hall's class. Sorry...

Have you played any of the Chinese sports? (Morgan) 

We played ping pong and a hackey-sack kind of game.

This badminton looks very fun but where is the net?(Mrs. H)

There isn't any net.

Is the city pretty? (Jordan)

Yes. Very pretty.

Have you seen any parades? (Bridgette)

No.

Have you met any children and made new friends? (Camden)

We talked to a little baby at the Summer Palace.

Have you seen any snakes yet? Are you looking for bugs? (Lynsey)

We caught a dragonfly, and we ate some snakes. We also saw eels, which are kind of like water snakes.

Answering Miss Burby's class

Did you like your unusual snacks? 

Yes. The cockroach was my favorite.

What did the scorpian taste like? 

It tastes good. I can't really describe it. It was crunchy.

How do you eat them? Do you have to cut them to eat them?

Nope. I just stick the whole thing in my mouth.

They looked interesting! 

The class said it's hard to have school without you, but we know you are seeing and doing amazing things!

What was the Great Wall like?

It was big and stoney. It was difficult to walk on. My favorite part was going on top of one of the watchtowers. You could see all of the hills from the top.

Was it as big as you thought it would be?

It was bigger than I expected.

Li River vista

Li River vista
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Li River vista

Li River vista
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Li River vista

Li River vista
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Li River vista

Li River vista
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Li River vista

Li River vista
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Li River vista

Li River vista
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Li River vista

CRW_9313
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Li River vista

CRW_9332
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Hutong

CRW_9224
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

One of Beijing's quickly-disappearing hutongs.

Brooms

CRW_9214
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Handmade brooms in a nook of a hutong.

Crickets

CRW_9194
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

The resident had a large collection of animals. This box housed two of his pet crickets.

Hutong Meal

CRW_9189
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

This is the meal we ate at the home of a resident of one of Beijing's 1000 year old hutong neighborhoods.

Thank God for internet cafes

Wow. Thank God. I found an internet cafe with wireless! Hopefully this will allow me to post more often.

To Pak and Chien's classmates: I'll have the boys answer your questions this afternoon. Does this count as homework?

Travel Weary

Well, it's 3pm, and we're more or less settled in at the Paradise Resort Yangshuo. "Resort" might be an overstatement, but "paradise" pretty well hits the mark. Yangshuo lies beside the slow-moving, murky Li River, and is home to those beautiful, tree-covered limestone peaks that you see in tacky Chinese restaurant paintings. In the paintings, they always look a little cloying -- too good to be true, like they're ripped out of some child's storybook. In person, the effect is quite different.

We left the wharf at Guilin at about 9:30am and boarded one of the dozens of cruise boats lined up along the riverbank. Our boat had two levels for seating, with an observation deck on top. Each level had small tables, around which the guests could sit. Our guide led us to a table-for-four on the upper level. We took our seats, and I poured hot tea into four small cups, and passed them around the table. After quite a bit of bumping and nudging the boats next to us, we made it out onto the open river.

As our boat drifted away from Guilin, we left our seats and headed to the observation deck to enjoy the view. And what a view it was. As the mid-morning sun chased away the mist, the legendary karst peaks arose along the river and to the horizon beyond, verdant and majestic -- great green hands lifted in silent prayer. One bend after another, mile after mile, the river revealed new treasures; cliffs and crags, obelisks and effigies, cloaked in bamboo, cassis and osmanthus. Fanciful names like "Woman with child, waiting for husband," "Elephant hill" and "The seven stars" would have seemed immoderate in any other setting.

I've downloaded a few of my pictures to the laptop, and like my shots of the Great Wall, they're a bit disappointing -- I've once again failed to capture the beauty of the scenery. I guess you'll just have to visit these places yourself to get the real picture.

At any rate, I'm going to spend a little time getting some photos ready to post, and then I'll visit the business center at the hotel and see if they'll let me plug my laptop into their hub. If not, I'll have to wait 'til tomorrow to post this at a local internet cafe. We'll be in beautiful Yangshuo for five days, so I'll have plenty of time to tell you about the town later.

---

It's 6:00 on a foggy Tuesday morning in Yangshuo. I wasn't able to use the internet connection at the hotel's business center, so I'll need to find another place to plug in. It's frustrating, but no real biggie, I guess. When we adopted Chien from Vietnam in 1998, there were no internet cafes, and a phone call to the States was something like 10 bucks a minute.

Anyway, it's morning in Yangshuo, and I have no idea what the day holds. Nestled among the same emerald peaks that left us so speechless on yesterday's boat trip, Yangshuo is a tiny town with a large number of bars, and a higher proportion of white folks than any other place we've seen in China. Swap out the mountains for a beach, and we could be in Sihanoukville on the Gulf of Thailand in Cambodia. This place is backpackers' heaven. Every year, thousands of hardy trekkers hike their way across large portions of China, and most of them stop for rest, provisions and beer in Yangshuo -- I should have done so myself when I was younger, had fewer responsibilities and more connective tissue in my knees.

The town itself is very small, and seems to consist of a tiny wharf (from which we arrived yesterday) a main drag lined with hotels, bars, restaurants, shops and souvenir stands, and a few side streets. The side streets siphon off the overflow from West Street, the higher- rent main thoroughfare. Beyond the town itself lie mountains, terraced rice paddies, caves, dirt roads and, of course, the Li River. We literally have no plans for the next week; we really just want to relax, maybe explore the countryside a bit. Next week, when we get Xiu Dan, things get complicated, and our time here will be much more about her and much less about 'China.'

Our hotel is quite nice, but not particularly fancy. Here, one pays for the location more than the accommodations. That having been said, we're at the only hotel in town with a pool, a climbing wall and a pingpong table, all of which will help us relax by staving off the boys' inevitable boredom after a few days of slumming about in paradise.

Last night, we walked around the town and found a tiny place advertising Thai food about a block from our hotel. We stopped, and the adorable little waitress (okay, I know I'm sounding patronizing here, but she really was adorable. She could have been 11 or 17; I couldn't tell. And she smiled all the time. And I'm a week away from having my first daughter. Sriram, don't you preach at me...) offered us a table on the second floor. We chose a table by an open window, overlooking the street. Okay, so it wasn't really a table. It was an open-sided box, more like a bench, and we sat around it on pillows, Thai style. It was very cool, and I'm thinking of having my dad build something like that for our living room. We may finally be able to get rid of our dining table.

The menu was varied, and we ordered a mishmash of foods -- pizza, fruit salad, spring rolls and a Thai red curry with beef. All of it was good. The curry was really good, and was way spicy, just as we like it. Kori said to the kids, "They're open for breakfast and lunch. Maybe this would be a good place to get some snacks and do some homework tomorrow. Chien reclined, stretched and said, "(Yawn) This place may be too relaxing for homework."

Speaking of homework, the kids have done a really good job keeping up with their assignments. Pak had a bit of a breakdown yesterday, but overall, they've been pretty willing to work on their three Rs. Amazing, actually; I can't imagine having to do worksheets on vacation. Oh, wait. I do have to right those quotes for the Hathaway Brown Annual Fund campaign this week. Dang.

Well, I'm still full from yesterday's dinner, but we should probably get up and get breakfast pretty soon. I'll try to find an internet connection by mid morning. Crossing my fingers...

Finally in Yangshuo

Well, we had a lovely but short time in Guilin; I'll tell you all about it later. We arrived in Yangshuo just a few minutes ago, and were disappointed to find that, despite a promise to the contrary, our hotel does not have high speed internet access in each room. I'm at an internet cafe just steps away, so It's not really that big of a deal. I'm using one of the cafe's terminals, and everything is in Chinese; even the blogger.com menus are in Chinese. Thankfully, I've been to the site often enough, I shouldn't have much trouble. The 5 hour cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo was spectacular. Yangshuo is unbelieveably beautiful -- dramatic karst peaks line the river, which runs through the town next to the main shopping street. I'll post pictures and more detailed descriptions later. I just wanted to check in and let everyone know where we are.

A few words from Kori

My thoughts on Beijing...

My boys

The boys have been incredible travelers. I never imagined how wonderful it was going to be to travel with them. I love to see the amazement in their faces as they experience new things. I love seeing Beijing through their eyes. They have been respectful to each other, our surroundings and the many many people who have tried to talk to them. They just politely wave and say no or I don't know Chinese. We have pushed them every day, up at 5:30, breakfast at 6:30 and out the door by 8. We have traipsed all over the city and they get tired but the just keep going. They even willingly got haircuts by someone who doesn't speak any english.

Our family

We must look very VERY strange to the chinese people. Everywhere we go people stare. When I say stare I don't mean just look I mean stare. Several times people have run into something because they are watching us and not where they are going. I feel like we are on display, like a an exhibit at a zoo. I am tired of not being able to blend in. One lady in the Pearl Market kept saying that Chien looked like a girl because he was shy. Once was funny but 20 times was enough to make me mad. The place was overwhelming and people were grabbing us trying to get us to buy their stuff. Who wouldn't be a little shy. Another lady was asking me about the boys and didn't understand that we were the parents. She kept putting her arms around Chien. John had to pull him away from her. Another question that I thought was really funny was "Are they twins?" I know I tend to buy similar jackets for them but really do my kids look that much alike. I laughed out loud.

Driving and sidewalk etiquette

I am still at a loss here. I have studied it for days and I can not figure it out. You don't stop. Everyone keeps going. The bigger the vehicle the more right they have to go. Vehicles never stop for people walking or for bicycles. So you really have to watch for cars and buses when you cross the street. No one lets another person go in front of them. If you hesitate someone will push their way through. There is no personal space. You fit as many people or vehicles in as possible. You even drive on the sidewalk or berm. all is legal and expected. If the light is red and you want to turn right, you do. You don't stop and wait for no traffic you just keep going and merge. You change lanes often and with as little space between you and the other cars as possible. I am amazed that there are not more accidents. Also traffic is bad at all times of the day and night, bumper to bumper even at 9 pm.

Store/fast food lines

You don't wait in line. You push your way up to the front and hand the clerk your money while shouting what you want. Again if you hesitate you will get pushed out of the way by a little old lady.

People

Chinese people don't show any emotion. Everyone looks determined and overworked. You don't see many people smiling or laughing or even getting mad. They love their country and are very proud of their history. We didn't see many kids out and about because they were in school. But we did see several school groups on field trips. Public schools cost money (our guide said that is why most people can only afford one child) and every school has uniforms. But they are sweat suits. I am thinking WCS should switch to that kind of uniform. I think it would be more affordable and comfortable.

Food

Great food, incredible food. But stay away from the tourist type places (bad bad food). I have really enjoyed the spicy Hunan and  Sichuan food. I also really liked the Beijing food we have had (Peking Duck and dumplings). They don't eat much rice, noodles, or bread. Food is served when they are ready, not all together. They do not drink many juices or lemonade or koolaid type of drinks. They drink lots of tea and really good tea, beer, pop, and water.

Sights

Everything we have seen has been incredible. It is hard to get my mind wrapped around how old some of the things are. The USA is such a young country. I am also amazed at the architecture and engineering that went into building things like the Great Wall and the Forbidden city and the Summer Palace. The old neighborhood (Hutong) we rode through was even older than the Forbidden city. It is crazy to think that all of Beijing used to be like the Hutong, winding streets and little neighborhoods.

Bicycles

Everyone has the same style of bike. Basket in front and extra seat in back for child or for packages. No one locks up their bikes when they are parked on the sidewalk. I am not sure how they know which one is theirs. I am also amazed that there is not much crime.

Leaving Beijing

Well, today was our last full day in Beijing. Tomorrow, we fly to Guilin, and then on to Yangshuo the next day. I don't know if I'll be able to post much over the next few days, but I'll get caught up in Yangshuo.

Peace

Amazing acrobats

Flying dude
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Yeah. This guy really did just jump -- backflip, actually -- unassisted actually through a hoop about 10 feet in the air. Freaky. Or as Chien said, "That just isn't right!"

Watchtower

Watchtower
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Cloisonne urn

Finished cloisonne
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Beautiful, but expensive. And wicked difficult to get home...

The Wall, et al.

It's Saturday, our last full day in Beijing. Kori's in the shower, and we're all hungry for breakfast, so I won't write about all the things thoughts that woke me up and followed me into my bath -- Anne Lamott, the gender of God, and my professional/personal/artistic shortcomings -- all topics that are best left for another time and probably another venue. 

(I'm here to talk about the Great Wall of China, so I should also probably refrain from making snarky and uncomplimentary comparisons between China's wall and the one the U.S. wants to build between itself and Mexico.)

Okay.

The Great Wall is, as they say, great. Great as in huge, great as in important, great as in terrific. Joe, a local guide, picked us up from our hotel yesterday morning at 8:30 and took us about 2 and a half hours outside of the city to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China. Most tourists go to the much closer Badaling section, but that section can be a bit touristy. 

As I've mentioned before, Beijing is enormous. It took about 45 minutes to actually feel like we had left the city, and for the next hour and a half, it still felt like we hadn't really left. I was amazed to find bustling, tree-lined streets, factories, restaurants and shopping centers stretching far, far, into what had once been countryside. Amazing, but not terribly interesting. I took a brief nap, and when I awoke, everything looked exactly the same: people and cars and industry everywhere. I'm starting to get a feel for what a billion and a half people looks like.

Finally, the scenery began to change -- the road, once straight and wide, now snaked through an increasingly hilly country -- and the mountains began to emerge in the distance from the thick, white fog that blanketed the horizon. About 15 minutes from the Wall, the road became noticeably steeper, as we gradually made up the difference between Beijing's 120 feet above sea level to Mutianyu's 3,000-something above. 

We parked our van and hiked a steep, paved incline lined with souvenir vendors hawking various t-shirts and silks, tea sets and statuettes. We reached a small cable-car station and bought a ticket for the ride to the top. It would have been theoretically possible for one to hike up mountainside, but tremendously impractical with small children. We'd soon find out that the wall itself was sufficiently daunting for our little family.

The wall wasn't exactly uninhabited, but it was anything but crowded. As we reached the top of the stairs, we stepped up into the first watchtower, looked out over the hills and realized for the first time exactly where we were. We were standing on the Great Wall of China; one of the greatest feats of engineering and architecture ever attempted. It was spectacular. I'm sure we've all experienced those great vacation letdowns -- we arrive at some over-hyped destination and say, "Meh, it's okay, I guess." The wall was not a letdown.

Stretching out from one edge of the sky to the other, the wall hugs the mountain, bisecting its length like the spine a some great, sleeping dragon. End to end, it's about as long as the continental United States is wide, amazing in theory, mind-numbing in person. It's also surprising steep, which since it's essentially an elevated mountain path, makes sense. An hour or so on the wall is a great workout, especially if you're carrying a heavy backpack. I was a bit sad to leave after such a short time, but neither Kori nor I were willing to make our tired kids go any longer.

We took the cable-car back down the mountain, and headed back toward Beijing. We asked Joe to take us to a restaurant that serves traditional, authentic Chinese food that the area's common people would eat. We stopped at a simple, but clean roadside eatery, and had a wonderful lunch -- spicy bacon and peppers, potatoes with onions, tofu, soybean leaves with garlic, hot and sour soup (Pak's favorite!), scallion pancakes and stewed chicken -- everything was delicious. All six of us stuffed ourselves, and left enough on the table at the end of the meal to feed another six people. The bill was less than $30.

I could spend half a day raving about the food at lunch, and spend the rest complaining about the nauseating slop we were served at the tourist trap Joe subjected us to for dinner. I could then spend at least a couple of hours describing last night's "if-I-hadn't-seen-it-I-wouldn't-have-believed-it" Chinese acrobat show. But alas, I'm out of time. Today we're going to take a rickshaw tour through an old "hutong," and tonight we're going out for Peking Duck. Tomorrow, we leave for Guilin.

More details and more pictures will surely follow.

Great Wall. Terrible dinner.

We're exhausted. Had a mostly great day. Will blog more later, and will post many more pics of the wall, and of the amazing Chinese acrobats. G'night.

Flag guy

Flag
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

I'm not exactly sure why this guy was running with a flag on the Great Wall of China, but I admire him for being so earnest.

Great Wall

Wall
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

The one thought that kept running through my mind all morning: "I can't believe I'm actually on the Great Wall of China!"

Comments

By the way, thanks to those of you who have commented or emailed us. It's nice to know that the 'other' world is still out there. Peace!

And now for some real food.

Okay. I could bore you with details about today's trip to the ancient Summer Palace, the gorgeous gardens and pavilions, the exotic flowers, the boat we rented to motor around Kunming Lake, and the hour long taxi ride that underscored for us the true scale  of this massive city. But I won't.

What I really want to talk about is our dinner. We've had a few disappointing meals so far. The Auntie Yuan restaurant was actually pretty terrible, and the bugs on Wangfujing snack street were fun, but not really that tasty. Tonight's meal, however, was outstanding. Truly a meal to write home about. This was what I was hoping for when I dreamed of dining in China.

Upon the advice of the Lonely Planet guidebook, we headed out to Liujia Guo restaurant, which we were pleased to discover is only a few blocks from our hotel. The restaurant specializes in Hunan cuisine, which in America is one of my favorites. Nothing I've ever had in America comes close. The staff spoke no English, and the menu was difficult to interpret. After staring at the menu for a few minutes, we finally dove in and ordered a beef stirfry-type thing, chinese cabbage with garlic, a beef soup and scallion pancakes. 

The stirfry was spicy and garlicky and perfectly prepared. The chinese cabbage -- little baby bok choi -- was perfectly steamed and also covered in garlic. The scallion pancakes, crispy and soft, and sprinkled with sesame seeds, were perfect for sopping up the sauce from the stirfry. The soup, well, the soup was amazing: beef and carrots and onions and daikon radish in a spicy yellow broth that I couldn't exactly identify. With drinks, the whole thing came to about $20. I would have paid twice that amount, easy. 

It's about 7:30pm, and we're fat and happy. The kids are already asleep, and I'm looking forward to a nice, long conversation with Kori followed by a nice, long snooze. Tomorrow we head about 3 hours out of town to see the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. I can't wait. Every day has been great, but this promises to be a real highlight. I promise to take a bunch of pictures.

Peace!

Mmmm... Beeetles...

Mmmm... Beeetles...
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Pak loves him some scorpions

Pak loves him some scorpions
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Various foodstuffs

Various foodstuffs
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Lots to eat on Wangfujing snack street...

Tile roofs at summer palace

Tile roofs at summer palace
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Under the watchful eye...

Under the watchful eye...
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

I'm going to start uploading more to my Flickr page than to the blog. Click on these to see all of my pics.

Also, don't miss the post about our day at Tiananmen and Pak's answers to Mrs. Hall's class!

NOT amused.

NOT amused.
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Flying a kite

Flying a kite
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Pak, with a kite in Tiananmen Square

Answers for Pak's class

Have you played any of the Chinese sports? (Morgan)

Yes, kind of. We flew kites in Tiananmen Square.

This badminton looks very fun but where is the net?(Mrs. H)

There isn't any net. They just hit the ball to each other. There was a net in another park we saw.

Is the city pretty? (Jordan)

Yes. But it's very dusty.

Have you seen any parades? (Bridgette)

Not exactly, but we did see soldiers marching and children all marching together at Tianamen Square.

Have you met any children and made new friends? (Camden)

We've seen lots of children and babies, but we haven't met any that speak English.

Have you seen any snakes yet? Are you looking for bugs? (Lynsey)

YES! We even ATE snakes and bugs last night for dinner. I had a scorpion! It was yummy.

Still going...

Well, yesterday was another busy day. We've really been packing in the activities over the last few days -- up at 5am, breakfast at 6:30, out the door by 8:00, lunch and a quick nap, homework, back on the streets, dinner and then bed -- and the boys have been surprisingly enthusiastic and well-behaved. They've turned out to be excellent world travelers.

Yesterday, we spent the morning at Tienenmann Square and the adjoining Yongshan Park. What the Forbidden City and Beihei Park was for Imperial China, T-Square and its surrounding neighborhood is to the People's Republic: the functional seat of government and the symbolic heart and soul of the political system. Like the Forbidden City, T-Square quite effectively communicates the supreme, unquestionable power of the state. 

Flanked on its long edges (it's actually a rectangle) by the National Museum -- analogous to our Smithsonian, I guess -- and the National Assembly -- our capitol building -- the Square would seem cold, intimidating, uninviting if it was missing the thousands of people milling about, laughing, taking pictures, flying kites and lining up to visit Mao's eerily preserved corpse. Chien and Pak were bored after about 20 minutes, and wanted to go back to Beihei Park. They perked up quite a bit when they saw the old men flying and selling handmade, wooden and cloth kites. The kites were shaped like falcons, and circling 30 feet above us, they played their role convincingly. We bargained the vendors down from about 300 yuan to 60 -- about $7.50 -- and bought one. The men were considerably better at flying them, but we sure had fun trying.

We carefully dissembled the kite and took the tunnel under the busy 16 lane street that divides the Square from the famous red gate with the huge portrait of Chairman Mao. If we had continued through the center of the gate, we would have entered a long courtyard leading to the Forbidden City. We chose instead an opening on the left, which led us to Yongshan Park. Hoping for an experience like the one we had at Behei the day before, the boys were a bit disappointed. More trees and flowers and buildings, but no paddleboats. We walked around for about an hour and headed out.

By this time, the boys were really getting tired. We trudged past the National Assembly and set our sights on McDonald's. Yep. McDonald's. We figured we had to at least give it a shot so the kids could tell their friends. The boys had McNuggets and a burger. Kori and I shared a packet of cold french fries. The atmosphere was loud, cramped and McDonaldy. The food was as disgusting as it is in the states, and Kori and I were grateful for the delicious egg and scallion crepe we had purchased from a vendor across the street from Mickey Ds. I thank God that my kids are not picky eaters, and that they appreciate real Chinese food. If I had to go to McD's more than once in China, I'd probably have a breakdown of some sort.

After 'lunch,' we took a taxi back to the hotel, worked on homework for an  hour or so and got a decent nap. At about 2pm, we took a  long taxi ride to the much overrated Hongqiao Market. The kids each bought a stuffed panda bear, and Kori got a wallet. The place is famed for its aggressive vendors who actually grab you and try to physically pull you into their stores (I used my Krav Maga wrist releases more than once) and their fantastic prices on pearls. Neither Kori nor I look good in pearls, so it was pretty much a bust. The cab ride, however, was fascinating. Have I mentioned that Beijing is huge? It's huge.

We left the market and hit the streets looking for something more interesting. After about a minute on the sidewalks, it started to rain. We jogged to a corner bakery for shelter. Once inside, we realized that there was a coffee shop on the second floor. We walked upstairs, found a quiet table for four and ordered coffee, cappucinos, tea, tirimisu and a fruit plate. The drinks were good. The food was just okay, but the kids loved it. Pak said, "Dad, I'm in coffee heaven." Chien hugged my arm and said, "Daddy, I'm so glad we found this place." It was very nice.

After about 45 minutes of chatting, sipping, snacking and relaxing, we headed out to hail a taxi. The cabbie dropped us off near our hotel, at the famed Wangfujing snack street, where we had a culinary experience that was as different from McDonald's as night is from day. 

If you're strange foods make you squeamish, you might want to walk away from the computer now.

Wangfujing snack street is heaven for the epicurious, hell for my beloved nephew Ethan, who would starve to death before sampling the wares. One side of the street is lined with state-fair-style food booths for entire city block. The similarity to the state fair, however, ends at the booths and the deep fryers. These establishments specialize in weird eats: scorpions, cockroaches, grasshoppers, snake, goat testes and grasshoppers. If it's strange but technically edible, you can probably find it, have it cooked before your eyes and buy it for less than a buck. 

Pak and Kori were tentative, I was willing, and Chien was eager as we ordered and ate scorpions, cockroaches, frogs, and snake. We also had some less challenging dishes: roast corn, candied fruits, dumplings and lamb skewers, but we were there for the bizarre. A few of the other tourists on the street just shook their heads and laughed. Only one took us up on our offer to share.

Before long, the boys were completely full and utterly exhausted. We walked back to our hotel, gave them a bath and put them to bed. I hit the street again; I can't stand going to bed early when I know there are parts of the city I haven't yet seen. After a couple of hours, returned to our room. I was disappointed -- and remain so -- at the lack of consistent access to the internet. I fiddled with the settings on the computer for about 15 minutes, even though I knew the problem was further down the data pipeline, and hit the sack by 9pm.

It's now about 6:00am. Kori and Chien are awake, Pak's still out. Hopefully I'll be able to get online this morning. If not, I'll visit the hotel's business center this afternoon and plug in down there. Today, we're hoping to take a rickshaw tour and do some more shopping. Details, of course, will follow.

Answers for Mrs. Hall's class

Dear Pak,

How are you doing?

I've been a little sick, but I'm having a good time.

How much fun are you having? (Josh)

Very good time.

Did you write on the sidewalk? (Ben)

No. But some other people did.

What have you done fun? (Kayla) 

The paddleboat!

What is the date you get to meet your baby sister? (Chloe)

May 9.

Do black caimans live in China's rainforests? Have you seen the rainforest yet? (Trevor)

I don't know, but we haven't seen the rainforest. 

What is your favorite food so far? (Mrs.H)

Hot and sour soup.

We think this picture is very curious! Please tell us about the instrument they use to do this type of writing. Is it on the sidewalk? Does it wash off later or is it permanent?

The instrument is like a big paintbrush. It is not permanent -- the man dips his brush into a can of water and paints on the sidewalk. As the water dries, the characters disappear. It's very cool! Please send more questions!

Mrs. Hall's Class 

to Miss Burby's Class

Chien,

Great to see you! Looks like you're having a blast! The pictures are awesome!!

We really loved hearing from you.

What did did the harmonica band sound like? Did you like their music?

It was sort of boring, since I was having a lot of fun doing different things. I didn't want to stay and watch them for long. It was loud, because they all had microphones on their harmonicas.

Were you able to climb on anything like the lion or did you just have to look at it?

I could have climbed on it, but I didn't because you're not really supposed to.

Let us know if you try a bug.

Uh, Okay. Does an arachnid count? Did you know I ate sheep brains? They were pretty good.

Some of the class didn't know you were doing school work there. They want to know if it's any different to do your school work while you are in China.

It's a lot harder. There are lots of distractions, it's a lot busier in the city than at Worthington Christian Elementary School.

Have you seen any different clothes than what we wear?

Yes. I've seen a lot of silk robes and stuff. The dresses sometimes look different too. I'll report if anything else happens. Bye.

We pray for you all every day!

Love, Miss Burby's Class 

Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Tienanmann Square. Tonight? Sleep. We're exhausted. G'night, all.

Practicing the ancient art of calligraphy

Practicing the ancient art of calligraphy
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Buddies

Buddies
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

I know this is blurry, but it captures the attitudes. Our boys really are having fun.

Speaking of blurry, most of the photos I'm posting today were taken using my ultra-cool Lensbaby attachment; no blurring was added in Photoshop. Difficult -- if not impossible -- to achieve tack-sharp focal points, but worth it in my opinion. Quite dramatic, I think.

Something like badminton

Something like badminton
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Leader of the band

Leader of the band
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

The band was composed of about 3 dozen harmonica players, and about 8 or 9 percussionists. The woman in the blue top and plaid skirt danced -- for hours.

Morning waltz

Morning waltz
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Calligraphy master

Calligraphy master
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Behei architecture

Behei architecture
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Yeah, it really does look like this.

Behei Park

Our morning at Behei (Bay-high) Park was enchanting. Chien said it was one of the best days of his life. Pak wants to go back again tomorrow. 

Behei Park seems to me to be a perfect symbol of Beijing. Like its lithe tai chi practitioners, the park -- and the city itself -- is ancient, but not decrepit, surprisingly vibrant for its age. Built nearly 1,000 years ago as the emperor's private playground, Behei Park lies less than a mile from the walls of the Forbidden City; not nearly as formal and imposing, the park was until 1925 just as forbidden.

Today, the park seems to be the social center of Beijing, the real China as I had always imagined it. After breakfast, we took a taxi ride from our hotel. The traffic was awful; less than a mile from the park, we got stuck behind a tour bus in a left-hand turn lane. The light turned green and then red again six or seven times before we got through. We probably could have gotten there faster by foot, but I was glad we had saved our energy.

Upon arrival, we paid our 10 yuan (about $1.25) admission fees and joined hundreds of Beijingers in our enjoyment of the park's architectural, artistic and natural scenery. We watched couples dance, old men practice calligraphy using long brushes dipped in water, choirs rehearse and a harmonica band perform. We strolled the tree-lined brick and cobblestone paths, took pictures of each other, and talked about how much we love China, its people, its language and its food. We rented a paddleboat, sipped tea and ate pumpkin seeds. In short, we had a fantastic time. The pictures I've posted will give you an idea of the park's atmosphere, but you'll really have to come see it for yourself some day.

We returned to the hotel at about noon, rested, did a little homework and headed out for some lunch. We found a restaurant that described itself as "Chinese Muslim Cuisine." I asked to see the menu, couldn't understand much of it, but decided to give it a try anyway. We got the 'special hot pot,' a ring-shaped copper pan with a charcoal fire in the center, which kept the vegetable broth at a rolling boil. We ordered plates of mixed vegetables and sliced meat to cook in the broth, dip in a small bowl of sesame paste and eat. The veggies were great. The mutton was good. The sheep brains? Meh. Not my thing. We all ate a bite or two to say we've done it, and reached a consensus -- "edible, but pretty gross."

After stuffing ourselves with what ended up being a fun, but rather ooky meal, we walked around the shopping district until it became clear that we were on the verge of overextending ourselves energy-wise. We've been back at the hotel for a couple of hours. Chien's relaxing with his GameBoy, Pak and Kori are sleeping, and I'm blogging in between short sprints to the restroom. Seems I'm fighting a slight case of Chairman Mao's revenge.

My intestines aside, we're all having a grand time. Hopefully I'll be able to get this posted; the internet access is spotty. I'll write more later when my insides stop fighting so hard to get outside. Peace and love.

For Miss Burby's Class

Miss Burby and class, Chien has the following answers to your excellent questions:

When do you expect to see you sister? 

In two weeks.

What did you find to eat? 

Lots of things. Last night we had noodles, beef with onions and broccoli with garlic. It was all good.

Have you seen anything interesting yet? 

The Forbidden City was interesting.

Gabe wants to know if you seen any different kinds of bugs then we have.

Not yet, but my dad saw some bugs to eat at a night market. We might try them tonight. There were crickets and scorpions and grubs.

Forbidden city moat

Forbidden city moat
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Lions at the gate

Lions at the gate
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Red door

Red door
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

The emperor's disco ball

The emperor's disco ball
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Another red door

Another red door
Originally uploaded by John McCollum.

Into the Forbidden City

By 6:00 a.m., all four of us were dressed and ready. Breakfast at the hotel doesn't start until 6:30, so we decided to take a walk around our tiny piece of this huge city. Once again, we were surprised at how quiet the streets in Beijing can be. Our hotel is situated on one of the town's main drags, but there were probably only five or six cars on our block at one time. 

We walked most of the way around our block, and then decided to take a shortcut down a gray, winding alleyway which passes between a couple of 'hutongs,' which are ancient, walled neighborhoods whose wooden gates conceal a network of cobblestoned warrens, whose streets contain contain countless right angles originally designed to confound the evil spirits who, according to legend, can only travel in straight lines. By the time we stumbled back onto the sidewalk, the traffic had picked up considerably; Beijingers seem to go to work at exactly the same time.

We returned, and took advantage of the food at the hotel's 'free' breakfast buffet. We didn't just partake. We took advantage. Like a whale takes advantage of krill, like a Dyson takes advantage of dust. Like a lonely sailor... well, you get the picture. Pak had two two omlettes, a three dumplings, two links of sausage, 6 pieces of bacon, a cup of coffee, two glasses of juice and a plate and a half of various goodies. Chien, whose tank is considerably smaller, also filled up. Kori and I didn't starve either. We would soon put all of that food to good use.

After returning to our room, we called our families, posted to the blog and set out for a walk. We didn't know it then, but we would decide after a half hour or so to spend the rest of the morning at the Forbidden City, a vast compound which served as the personal residence and imperial headquarters for two Chinese dynasties. After almost getting taken for a ride by a crooked pedicab hawker who at the last minute changed the price from Yuan to Dollars (thus multiplying the cost by 8) and who tried to demand that we take an unscheduled tour not included in the previously negotiated (and then disregarded) price, we found the huge South Gate entrance and proceeded toward the ticket line.

We were intercepted by a young woman with bad teeth, but excellent English, who offered her services as our guide. We accepted her offer and began the tour. The Forbidden City is both fascinating and appalling. Fascinating, because the place took 20 years and more than 1 million workers to build. It's a masterpiece of architecture and engineering; each and every brick and beam were laid with purpose, usually to fulfill some geomancer's secret symbolic or spiritual criterion. Appalling, because there is literally a Starbucks inside the complex, attached to the gift shop. Don't worry, I apologized on America's behalf. Our guide laughed. I apologized again, this time more earnestly. She shifted her gaze uncomfortably and said, "It's okay. We are not politicians." I offered to buy her a coffee, and she reminded me, "It's okay. Most Chinese people do not like coffee." Sigh.

After a couple hours of touring, the kids were exhausted. We hurried our guide through the last section of the city, thanked her and paid our tab. With about a mile and a half left to walk, Pak decided that he couldn't take another step. Underestimating the distance to the hotel and Pak's newly augmented weight, Kori and I agreed to take turns carrying him. When we finally arrived back at our room, Pak was almost in tears. We checked his temperature -- he was running a fever of 101.5. We gave him some Motrin and put him to bed. 

Within 30 or 40 minutes, the medicine had kicked in, and Pak was ready to play. I decided to take the kids to the hotel's pool and let Kori rest. The pool attendants made us buy some dippy-looking swimming caps before letting us enter. Chien nailed it when he commented, "We look like complete dorks, don't we, Dad?" "Yes, son. Yes we do." The pool was okay -- wet, but nothing special. The boys liked it. I felt uncomfortable. Everyone stared at us. Maybe they were mesmerized by the blinding reflection of the fluorescent bulbs on my pasty white hide. Perhaps they were intrigued by the fact that I had more body hair than the entire male staff of the hotel combined. Most likely, they couldn't figure out what to make of the creepy white guy with the two asian kids in the non-skin-tight (very un-Asian, I'll tell you) swimsuits.

We're now back in our room, It's 5:30p.m., and I'm the only one awake. No plans for dinner yet, we'll probably play it by ear. 

Ni Hao!

Ni Hao (howdy) from Beijing. The clock reads 4:30 a.m., and my body is in condition neither confirm nor deny. The jet lag has combined with the travel fatigue to rob me of all sense of time. I feel neither exhausted nor refreshed.

Last night at about 9:30 pm (Beijing time) we arrived in surprisingly good form and spirit in a dark and dusty People's Republic of China. The boys' attitudes had weathered the plane ride quite well; they are both excellent travelers. The next few hours would test our patience -- it's difficult as an adult to endure the lines at customs, immigrations and baggage -- for a child it's nearly impossible. Still, there were no major breakdowns, just a few stern warnings and and some grumpy 'hmphs.'

Our baby-faced guide, Joe, met us at the main terminal exit as our travel agent had promised, and ushered us efficiently and calmly to a minivan waiting about 200 yards away. Joe's English is accented, but excellent. He's 31, but looks much younger. He was born in Sichuan province, but has lived in Beijing since 1996 when he moved here to study English and History in college. He'd like to be married some day; right now he's saving money and trying to decide between his many girlfriends.

Save for the signs in Chinese, the road from the airport to the city center could be confused with any major artery running to any major city in the West. It's massive and modern and well maintained. It's also unusually well policed; I noticed some fifty squad cars, lights a-blazing, and at least four times that number of trim, neatly dressed officers on, beside and above the freeway. "Must be VIPs coming this way," said Joe. "Maybe Hu Jintao is back from his visit from America," I commented. Maybe. Maybe the Chinese are just really happy to see the McCollums and wanted to make sure we were given a suitable welcome.

From the road, and in complete darkness, Beijing looks enormous. Big and burly like Chicago without famous skyscrapers. It also looks quite sleepy; there are far fewer lights on than there would be in an American metropolis. Of course, by the time we reached the city it was 11pm on a Sunday, but I was a little surprised at how sparsely lit the city appeared upon arrival. And though the main streets of the city were relatively traffic-free, it was not difficult for me to imagine the capital bustling with millions of pedestrians, cyclists and motorists I'd seen in pictures.

By the time we reached our hotel, every business that isn't a hotel was closed, and it was clear that we had arrived too late to enjoy anything of the city's delicious food but the tantalizing smell that seemed to emerge from every brick of the Wangfujing Grand Hotel Beijing's marble foyer. After a few moments at the front desk, Joe handed us our room keys, shook my hand and bid us good evening. We beat the bellboy to Room 921 by only a minute or two, and after he unloaded our bags and thanked me for his tip, we began to upack, unwind and to a certain extent, unravel. We watched a half hour of American Idol (with Chinese subtitles) and hit the sack.

It took Chien quite a while to settle down, but we all finally got some badly needed Zs. Unfortunately, neither Pak nor I can sleep any longer. Thankfully, we have no big plans for the day. We're just going to relax, get oriented to the neighborhood and see what yummy things we can find to eat. Oh, and we're also going to try to figure out how to get the internet connection in our room to work...

Thanks for all of the love and prayers. So far, we're doing a.o.k.

Comments fixed

Hey. Now anyone can comment, not just registered Blogger users. So, start commenting... ...now!

Kori's toe...

Kori's toe is feeling some better. It's looking much worse -- all purply and livid -- but she can walk. We're praying for a full recovery before we have to traipse all over China.  I'll pull her by her ankles or maybe hire a rickshaw if I need to, but I'd rather she achieve semi-autonomous locomotion to the largest degree possible.

Go team!

Just wanted to give a shout out to the Element team, without whom my trip would be impractical, if not impossible. Thanks Jeremy, Megan and Kara for all of your hard work. I'm proud of you all, and proud of what Element has become. Thanks also to all of the un-official Element fixtures -- the friends, mascots, hangers-on and ne'er-do-wells who make the place something much more than an office and only a little less than an asylum. Peace, and bon voyage.

Oh. And Kori may have broken her toe.

Sigh.

Pretty much ready

Well, the suitcases are all packed and weighed, the tickets are purchased, and the hotels reserved. Andy and Amanda have been suitably briefed on how to operate all of the appliances, and the neighbors have been briefed about our travel plans. We still have to pick up a couple of prescriptions, and I have some 'mopping up' to do at work. We also have to do one final cleaning of the house, but other than that, I think we're about ready to go. The biggest concern now -- and one you can pray about for us -- is the money. We have all of the cash and traveler's checks we need, and we've technically arranged everything to pay our bils while we're gone, but this is pretty darn expensive. If we were broke, we'd be much further ahead than we are now. We've pretty much leveraged all of the equity in our home to do this thing, and unless we have a fantastic year at Element, we'll be strapped for the forseeable future. At times (last night at 1:30am, for instance) it's been stressful, but we take comfort in the fact that we're absolutely certain that we're doing what God wants us to do. If Chien or Pak was stuck in another country, or needed a surgery or had some sort of dire need, we'd sell the cars, the house and incur unlimited expenses to make sure they were taken care of. It's no different with Xiu Dan. We're confident that God will take care of the money stuff, but we're not exactly sure how, or over what period of time. All that matters is that in a couple of weeks, our family will once again be complete. We can't wait to meet Xiu Dan, and we can't to bring her home to all of you.

More information than you need, or even want.

Well, here it is, the complete and unedited schedule. Not that you asked: 22 APR 06 - SATURDAY AIR NORTHWEST AIRLINES FLT:3722 ECONOMY COLUMBUS OH-DETROIT METRO OPERATED BY NORTHWEST AIRLINK LV COLUMBUS OH 125P EQP: CANADAIR REG JET 01HR 00MIN AR DETROIT METRO 225P NON-STOP ARRIVE: E.M. MCNAMARA TERMINAL AIR NORTHWEST AIRLINES FLT:11 ECONOMY MULTI MEALS LV DETROIT METRO 330P EQP: BOEING 747 400 CHANGE OF EQUIPMENT AT TOKYO NARITA EQP: AIRBUS A330-200 DEPART: E.M. MCNAMARA TERMINAL 17HR 55MIN 23 APR 06 - SUNDAY AR BEIJING 925P VIA TOKYO NARITA April 23: Arrival Beijing with NW11 at 9:25pm. Upon arrival, your guide will pick you up and transfer you to Wang Fu Jing Grand Hotel. April 24, 25, 26, 27: Free. April 28: Guide will pick you up at your hotel, then you go to Mu Tian Yu Wall. April 29: Free. 30 APR 06 - SUNDAY AIR CHINA SOUTHERN FLT:3282 ECONOMY LV BEIJING 1220P EQP: AIRBUS A320 02HR 50MIN AR GUILIN 310P NON-STOP REF: HT0XE April 30: Upon arrival, your guide Nancy will pick you up and transfer you to Waterfall Hotel. May 1: Li River Cruise. Arrival Yangshuo. Paradise Hotel May 2, 3, 4, 5: Yangshuo. Paradise Hotel May 6: Afternoon, your guide Nancy will pick you up with a van and transfer you to Waterfall Hotel in Guilin. 07 MAY 06 - SUNDAY AIR CHINA SOUTHERN FLT:3269 ECONOMY LV GUILIN 800A EQP: BOEING 737 500 01HR 10MIN AR NANCHANG 910A NON-STOP REF: HT0XE May 7: Mary will pick you up and transfer you to Gloria Plaza Hotel. May 8: Rest. May 9: Morning Gotcha time. May 10, 11, 12, 13, 14: Adoption week in Nanchang. Your guide will help you to finish your adoption paper works and make sure all paper works are correctly done. The guide will also help you to arrange orphanage visiting and local tours. Fees involved with all these, your guide will let you know how much and you can pay to your guide directly. May 15: Passport ready. 15 MAY 06 - MONDAY AIR CHINA SOUTHERN FLT:3540 ECONOMY LV NANCHANG 1015A EQP: BOEING 737 300 01HR 00MIN AR GUANGZHOU 1115A NON-STOP REF: HT0XE Upon arrival XiXi will pick you up and transfer you to Whiteswan Hotel. May 16: Medical check. May 17: Appointment. May 18: Afternoon around 2:30pm, your guide will take you to Consulate for your swearing ceremony. Your child's passport will be ready around 4:30pm. May 19: Free. 20 MAY 06 - SATURDAY AIR NORTHWEST AIRLINES FLT:10 ECONOMY BREAKFAST LV GUANGZHOU 820A EQP: BOEING 757 04HR 30MIN AR TOKYO NARITA 150P NON-STOP ARRIVE: TERMINAL 1 AIR NORTHWEST AIRLINES FLT:26 ECONOMY MULTI MEALS LV TOKYO NARITA 300P EQP: BOEING 747 400 DEPART: TERMINAL 1 11HR 45MIN AR DETROIT METRO 145P NON-STOP ARRIVE: E.M. MCNAMARA TERMINAL AIR NORTHWEST AIRLINES FLT:1691 ECONOMY LV DETROIT METRO 324P EQP: AIRBUS A319 DEPART: E.M. MCNAMARA TERMINAL 58MIN AR COLUMBUS OH 422P NON-STOP Important Phone Numbers The calls made from States to China should be dialed as: 011 86 then number. Harrah's AIM office @ hfsadopt.com Phone: (281) 465-9990 Fax: (281) 465-9992 Harrah's China Adoption Coordinator Mr. Henry Jia Beijing Phone/fax from U.S., dial 011 8610 6232 1254 Cellular phone in Beijing, dial 1370-115-1373 Cellular phone outside Beijing, dial 0-1370-115-1373 U. S. Embassy, Beijing Phone 8610 6532 3831 U. S. Consulate, Guangzhou Phone 8620 8121 8000 BEIJING Guide: Jeff: cell phone:13301363193 Wang Fu Jing Grand Hotel 57 Wangfujing Avenue Beijing, China 100006 Phone 86-10-65221188 GUILIN Waterfall Hotel 1 North Shanhu Road, Guilin, 541001 Phone: 86-773-2822881 Yangshuo Paradise Hotel 116 West Street, Yangshuo Guilin 541900 Phone: 86-773-8822109 NANCHANG Guide: Mary: cell phone 13807914383 Gloria Plaza Hotel 88 Yan Jiang North Road Nanchang, Jiangxi 330008 Phone 86-791-673-8855 GUANGZHUO Guide: XiXi cell phones: 13707730323 and 13710500730 White Swan Hotel 1 Southern Street Shamian Island, Guangzhou, China, 510133 Phone 86-20-81886968 Travel Agent Lien All American Travel, Houston 713-981-8879 Travel Coordinator Betty Guo bettyguo_77036 @ yahoo.com (remove spaces) Home 281-579-6316 Fax 281-599-7334 Cell 832-465-8888 Travel Coordinator Patricia Martin palex6265 @ yahoo.com (remove spaces) Phone 208-664-0595 House Sitters Andy and Amanda Trip blog http://beautifulred.blogspot.com/

Tentative itinerary for sightseeing portion of our trip

Itinerary Day 1: Arrive in Beijing in a.m., meet the local guide and transfer to Novotel Peace Hotel, relax in hotel, the rest of time free to adjust the jetlag, lunch and dinner tba Day 2: Breakfast at the hotel Shopping, Hongqiao Market, silk market Beijing rickshaw tour Lunch in a Sichuan Food restaurant Dinner tba Day 3: Breakfast at the hotel Visit Tiananmen Square — fly kites if weather permits Lunch at local restaurant near Tiananmen Square Relax at hotel Visit Forbidden City Dinner eat Ethnic Uighur food Day 4: Breakfast at the hotel drive to Great Wall (Mutianyu section) Lunch at local restaurant near Great Wall Relax at hotel Peking duck dinner at fancy restaurant (possibly Qianmen Quanjude Restaurant) Martial arts show Day 5: Shopping in modern district of city, Wangfujing Walking Street Lunch at the local restaurant Afternoon free Dinner tba Day 6 Breakfast at the hotel Free day Lunch and dinner tba Day 7Breakfast at the hotel, Morning transfer to the airport for the flight to Guilin, upon arrival, meet the local guide and transfer to the Bravo Hotel, lunch and dinner tba Day 8: Breakfast at the hotel, Embark on Li River cruise to Yangshuo Lunch on board cruise Check in the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat Relax at hotel Dinner at local restaurant Day 9: Breakfast at hotel Day trip to local villages Lunch in village Return to hotel Shopping and dinner local restaurant in Yangshuo West Street Night fishing with local cormorant fisherman if possible Day 10: Breakfast at hotel Nature walk to explore, hike, bike, river raft if water level allows, etc Lunch and dinner tba Day 11: Breakfast at the hotel Free time Lunch and dinner tba Afternoon drive back to Guilin and stay in the Bravo Hotel Day 12: Breakfast at hotel Fly from Guilin to the Nanchang (to get Xiu Dan!)

Beautiful Red

This blog will chronicle the McCollum family's journey to bring home Xiu Dan ("Beautiful Red" in Chinese). We'll have pictures and stories and maybe even movies.