Shanghai

We just THOUGHT Beijing was busy, but it was NOTHING compared to the amount of people in Shanghai! Of course, Shanghai IS the largest city in China. And it is so different from Beijing - almost like one is not even in China but maybe in a place like Singapore instead. It is undoubtably very western.

We spent 3 nights in Shanghai. The first day we got in late so we just did a self guided walking tour down the Bund. Along the way we stopped at Subway :) for dinner and then treated ourselves to ice cream for dessert.

The second day we went to cloth market and loaded up on reasonably priced Chinese clothes for Wren in different sizes. Then it was off to the French Concession. Along the way we found a tasty spot for lunch called the Urban Soup Kitchen. Once in the French Concession (an area that is now a revitalized shopping/eating area), we visited a traditionsl home that showed how upper class Shanghai families lived during the 1920's.

On our walk to 7-11 (of course Jason would find a slurpee in China), we came across some cross-dressing men putting on a show in a park. They were drawing quite a crowd!

Then it was more shopping - handmade Chinese slippers, silk fans, etc - and finally off to Shanghai Circus World to see the 7:30pm acrobatic show. This was the highlight of Shanghai for Wren and it was quite a sight to behold.

Our last full day in Shanghai we went to the 2010 World Expo. The China Pavillion was GIGANTIC and a sight to behold. Many of the big pavilions had wait times of 2,3 and more hours so we were content going to some of the smaller pavilions like North Korea, East Timor, the Maldives, Libya, and more. We ended the night at a fancy Indian restaurant which was too pricy but the food was good.

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SWI Day

This was the big day that we visited the SWI (social welfare institute). We were supposed to meet our guide Macy in the lobby in the morning after breakfast. She said the SWI director was supposed to meet us and guide us to the SWI location. We were ready a little early so Jason and Wren went to the plaza across the street to take pictures of the people doing their morning tai chi. Jason said they had just started on their way back to the hotel when a woman came up to them and he recognised her as one of the women who brought the babies to Wuhan 4 years ago! She asked if Wren was Si Hui and when Jason said yes he said she picked Wren right up and toon her back across to the hotel. Jason said she was so happy to see Wren!

I had been waiting for Wren and Jason to come back to the room and didn't know they had already met the SWI lady so when Wren and Jason knocked on the door to the room I was surprised to see the lady with them but I also recognized her right away and gave her a hug.

Then we all proceeded downstairs and got into the van and drove to the SWI. When we arrived, the staff was lined up in the driveway and the drive was also lined with decorative flower baskets. They had also hung a banner over the entrance to the main building that said, "Welcome Chong Si Hiu back to your home town!". I'm pretty sure the use this banner for each child who returns as it looked like the Chong Sui part that all the children have in their names was permanent and the Hui part was changed depending on who came to visit.

When we got out of the van all the staff wanted to hug and pick up Wren. Then they took us on a tour of the main building and afterward we went upstairs to a meeting room. The room had a long conference table and it was set with fruit platters and bottled waters where we all talked with Macy translating for us.

We learned that the woman was the SWI dean. We already knew the man who who came with the babies the first time was the director and he was with us some of time on the this visit. There was also another woman they called the manager and she seemed pretty important whatever her job was.

We did learn a new thing and it was that Wren only lived with the foster family about a month or two and actually lived with the Dean woman most of the time - for about the first 8 months she told us. This made sense to us because when we met Wren that lady stayed with us and held Wren and we could tell that Wren knew her. The dean also told us she had a 15 year old daughter who was 11 at the time and that her daughter played with Wren quite a lot.

The staff told us that there were only special needs babies at the SWI at the present. One of them, a 1 year old boy with a repaired cleft palate, would be going home with an American family next month. I had actually emailed with this family before we left for our trip.

Wren sang a few of her Chinese songs and that was a big hit. Then, after chatting, we then went outside where the elderly residents of the SWI were being given a special treat. They were visited by some young cosmetologists who washed and massaged their feet and then some high school students from the nearby school visited with each if them for a time. This was being done for a local festival celebrating the elderly.

The high school students also came over and talked to us for a bit. One funny teenage boy did a magic trick for Wren and then he demonstrated some Kung Fu.

We were also introduced to a sweet 11 year old girl from the SWI who lived with a foster family. She stayed with us most all of the time we were visiting. Also a very sweet 15 year old mentally handicapped SWI girl spent quite a lot of time with us.

After all of this, the Dean (along with the 2 girls and Macy) walked us down the street to the bridge to look at the river. The name of the river meant something like "mother river of Chong Yang.". While we were down there the Dean told us that
she had worked at the SWI since 1989 and that all the children meant meant so much to her.

Next we walked back up to the SWI complex and loaded into 2 vans and went into town to a restaurant for lunch. It was HUGE! It was about 4 stories tall and the first floor had 2 big halls that I think were having wedding banquets while we were there. We went up to the 2nd floor to a private room. There were 11 of us in total - the three of us, Macy, our driver Mr. Jio, the Dean, the 11 year old, the director, another man that was a staff member, and there driver. Although we had asked to pay, the SWI payed instead. I think maybe they always pay for the first meal but if we go back for more visits then they will let us pay.

They ordered all kinds of food and did quite a few toasts. Luckily, we were able to do it with coke! I made Jason do a toast also. :)

Wren was quite a trooper trying most of the dishes. One dish was fried shrimp and small fish - all in quite a natural state. They asked Wren if she would like some fish and she said yes. Jason put some of the little fish on her plate and she looked at it and said rather emphatically (hand gestures and all), "I do not like eyes on my fish! Can I just eat up to the eyes?". Everyone laughed at this. :)

After lunch we said our goodbyes and headed the 3.5 hours back to Wuhan. Macy had promised to play poker (really just cards) with Wren so the played a couple of games of memory and go fish before they both took a nap.

Wren really liked Macy and even though we had said goodbye to her and Mr. Jio at the Wuhan hotel she didn't realise that we wouldn't be seeing them again.
As we were getting ready to go out for dinner, she drew a picture she wanted to give to Macy but I told her that Macy had gone home and poor little Wren just cried and cried. :(

But I told Wren that we would email Macy and maybe see her in Missouri one day if she goes there for grad school. She was okay with that so we were able to go out for a nice dinner.

Location:Zhongshan Ave,Wuhan,China

Chong Yang

This was the day we went to the city where Wren lived most of her first year. The guide and driver met us at our hotel at 8am and we were off on the 3.5 hour drive. It was still raining but at least we were in a van and not walking around. Our guide was a 24 year old graduate student who goes by the English name Macy. She is getting her post grad degree in journalism. She said she would later like to go to get further education at the University of Missouri b/c they have one of the best journalism programs. Our driver was a very kind man named Mr. Jio. He said he had a 22 year old daughter in college so my guess is that he was around 50. He didn't speak any English so we did very little talking with him accept a few things here and there with Macy translating.

The drive was very interesting seeing the countryside and the sites such as water buffalo and people working in the field and on boats in the river and such. I was most surprised by the mountains as I had envisioned the whole area to be flat land.

view of mountains while driving

Once we arrived in Chong Yang Macy told us that there were 8 villages in Chong Yang county with the village of Chong Yang being the largest. It seemed to be similar in size to Birmingham but you could tell the people were not quite as well off as in some of the bigger towns. It also seemed to be fairly agricultural. We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant and Macy ordered us some tasty vegetarian dishes - the most interesting being a local dish of lotus root. We paid for the meal and the total for all 5 of was something like $15.00!

After lunch we drove up to a very small village to see a scenic spot where a dam had been built and created a very beautiful resevoir at the base of the mountains.



boat on reservoir

It was while we were looking around this village with the reservoir that we found out how kind our driver Mr. Jio was. He had driven us over to where we could view the dam and as we were walking down the road I spotted this beautiful blue bird with a long beak just sitting on the ground in the rain. Jason got a photo of the bird on the big camera but I forgot to get one with the iPod. Mr. Jio said it was a local bird that uses its beak to fish. He picked the bird up in his hand and covered it with a tissue and carried it until it was dry enough and could fly away. I figure that only a very kind person would take this kind of care with a wild bird.

Afterward, we drove back to the hotel and had a break before we all went back to the same spot for another tasty dinner. After dinner we went back to the hotel in order to get ready for our big visit to Wren's Social Welfare Institute (SWI).

Wuhan

Today we are on our way to the Xi'an airport to fly to Wuhan in Hubei Province. Wuhan is the city where we met Wren and became a family on October 30, 2006 - almost exactly 4 years ago! We had hoped to stay at them same hotel (the White Rose) but it is closed for refurbishment. Instead, we will just take a taxi over to the area and walk around and show Wren all the things we did our first days together.

We've been really proud of how Wren has handled all the attention she has gotten here. Many people have wanted to stop and try to talk with her and some have even picked her up. She gets a little shy but she does well and uses the very basic Chinese we know thanks to our Chinese teacher Wanda. And my high school friend Erica Fox Brindley was nice enough to type me up a phrase in Chinese that explains Wren is our adopted daughter and speaks very little Chinese. This seems to help the local people (and us too) greatly, so THANKS Erica! She also typed out a phrase explaining we are vegetarian and this has come in quite handy too!
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Okay, arrived in Wuhan to RAIN - yuck! And it rained all day. :(. The rain made it a bit unpleasant to walk Wren around and show her all the sites of our first days together as a family but we trudged through anyway.

We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel and the first thing we noticed was all the roadwork. The city is putting in a subway and so many of the city roads are just a big mess.

We stayed in a different area of Wuhan this time and our hotel, the Marco Polo, was very nice. Actually, I told Jason that any place with Louis Vuitton and Tod's shops in the lobby was a little too fancy for us! :)

Wren in hotel room tub.

We had a taxi take us to the area where we stayed in Wuhan four years ago. The driver dropped us off right in front of the Carrefour (kind of like Super Walmart but it is a French company) which is the store where we and the rest of our travel group bought initial supplies for the babies.

After walking around the store we headed down the street to the square that was across the street from the White Rose Hotel. In late October 2006 there was a wonderful flower show there but now the square has been obliterated by the subway construction.

We next walked over to the White Rose, which we thought was closed for renovations but it was most definitely still open. So we went into the lobby and looked around and snapped some photos. There was a large skyscraper building being constructed in front of it that obstructed access a bit though.

Afterward we continued walking down the main street and ended up eating dinner at the Pizza Hut where all 14 families celebrated the girls 1st birthdays together with a beautiful cake our guides were able to arrange for. We had planned to eat at the Taoist Temple at the end of the road where we had eaten before with the Millards but the miserable weather made us go for the easy choice.

The waitress told us where to catch the bus to get back to our hotel and we made it back around 8 pm. It was a fairly productive day considering the weather!

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Xi'an - Day 3 - Terracotta Warriors

Unfortunately, it was overcast and drizzly again today. At least yesterday was pleasant for all the outdoor sites and walking we did and today, I think, most of the things we are doing are inside.

We started off the day by going to see the Terracotta Warriors. Getting to them was a bit of an adventure though. First we took the local bus to the train station (quite an experience in itself b/c the buses are so crowded). Of course the train station is a busy, busy place and we were looking for either the mini tourist buses or the local long distance buses. But, there were no English signs pointing the way. After wandering around and being accosted by locals trying to rope us into tours, we finally found the long distance bus #306 and boarded for the hour long drive to the warriors. They collected the fare on the bus which was a bargain at ¥7 each - which is about $1. Oh yeah, and the local bus fare? Only ¥1-about $.15!

On the bus.

I should mention that while many things are still fairly inexpensive, not everything is as cheap as it was when we were here 4 years ago. Also, there are a lot more cars and less bicycles and scooters now. We were told this was because the Chinese are experiencing greater wealth and earning power than ever before. That's not to say that we haven't seen a lot of poverty still, but things are definitely different than when we were here before.

Anyway, back to the Terracotta Army. The drive there took us by the beautiful Li Shan Mountain. Even though China has so many tumbled down places, there is still beautiful scenery in the midst of it all the jumble and junk.


Beautiful Mountains



Buildings in front of mountains.

We made it in about an hour and it was as great as we had expected. We had seen the touring exhibition in London about 3 years ago and while that was certainly wonderful and informative, it was a great experience to be able to see them on their excavation site. We also saw the farmer who discovered the tomb back in 1974. He now makes his living signing books for tourists!











Wren makes a new friend.



Wren has ANOTHER dumpling lunch before leaving the Terracotta Warriors.

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Xian - Day 2

Today was a much better day because there was NO RAIN!

We started off with a yummy breakfast at the hostel. Here's a picture of the chrysanthemum tea and Wren's fresh watermelon juice.

Then it was off to see the ancient city wall of Xi'an. We were hoping to ride bikes along the wall but they didn't allow children. Wren wad very sad about this but we told her that she would be big enough next time we visit China and that made her feel better.

After our walk on the wall we strolled over to the Muslim Quarter where we visited the Great Mosque, the Muslim market, and a traditional Chinese home (400 years old) that was lived in by the same family until 1966 when it was taken by the government during the Cultural Revolution. We ended our morning with a tasty steamed dumpling lunch at a Muslim restaurant.

Oh, and Western people are very interesting to the locals. People seem to like Jason the most! But sometimes they want us all - and one family wanted Wren to pose with their daughter.


Next it was off to try our hand on the public bus in order to get to the Big Goose Pagoda.


Afterward we got Wren an ice cream at the local DQ-complete with terra cotta warrior statue.


What Jason found funny was that the name on the cashier's name tag. Many people in China seem to give themselves Western nick names and this man had chosen Lovely for his name. So his name tag read Lovely Wang. Jason asked to take a picture of him but he declined.

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Xi'an - Day 1

The night train pulled in about 8:30 am and a person was waiting for us at the station to take us to the hostel. The hostel is located very conveniently inside the old city walls and near the south gate.

Unfortunately, it rained all day today so we didn't get as much accomplished as we would have liked. We did manage to do our laundry and visit the drum tower and bell tower.

Also, the jet lag really caught up with Wren today. She fell asleep around 4pm while watching the drum demo at the drum tower. Jason couldn't carry her all the way back to the hostel b/c she's such a big girl now so we decided to stop in Starbucks for hot chocolate to let her rest and then see if we could get her awake so she could walk. But, she slept the whole time there too. Jason carried her out and we stopped 1/2 way down the street and took the easy way out by stopping for dinner at Pizza Hut. And she slept that whole time too! We decided it was best just to take her back to the room. Jason and I woke about 2am and we were a little nervous about all the sleeping she was doing so we woke her up for about an hour and made her eat a snack and play her travel bingo game with us. She seemed fine so we went back to sleep around 3 am.

It's not supposed to rain tomorrow so we hope for a better day.


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The Great Wall

The Great Wall is the only thing Wren said she specifically wanted to see - probably because we have the DVD "Big Bird Goes to China" and Big Bird and Barkley go to the Great Wall in search of the Phoenix bird.

She was really excited to be there. We rode a cable car up and walked back down. We wanted to take the toboggan ride down but Wren was too small this time around so we promised her we'd try to do it on our next visit.

I forgot to take a photo of Wren on the Great Wall with the iPod Touch camera but I took one of her at the bottom after we had run the gauntlet of Wall vendors.
She's posing with her prize "fuzzy" flower (something like a brown dandelion) she found on the way back down.

Wren napped on the 2 hour long drive back to the city and when we got back to Beijing we had the driver drop us off at Tianamen Square. We then walked through the park next to the Forbidden City on our way to grab a bite of dinner. We decided to try our luck at one of the restaurants in the Oriental Plaza mall. Without being able to speak Chinese it can be challenging to find vegetarian options but we lucked up and found a place that had quite a few options for us to try. Wren, of course, wanted more steamed buns. :)



After dinner it was time to pick up our luggage and go to the train station to catch the night train to Xi'an. The train station was quite an experience with so many people. But in the cavernous waiting room it was easy to tell when our train was ready to board because of all the guides getting their western tour groups rounded up. This was our first time on a sleeper train and it was quite a pleasant way to travel the 11 hour trip as the motion of the train, with the help of the busy day we had had, lulled us to sleep.

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Beijing

It's hard for me to comprehend a city of over 22 million people! Even though we've been here before, the size is still mind boggling. And Beijing is only the second largest city in China. In comparison, NYC is the US's most populated city with a population of about 8.5 million.

We started off our day walking toward the Temple of Heaven. Along the way we stopped at an Islamic temple complex

and also a very busy Buddhist temple complex in a traditional hutong neighborhood.

By the time we were on our way again, Wren was really wanting some food. Luckily for her we found just her kind of a place - a steamed dumpling restaurant! There was no English menu but a nice woman working there spoke a little English and got Wren an order of six steamed pork dumplings and she ate every last bite right up!


We continued walking to the Temple of Heaven park and visited the buildings and walked through the park.


We saw many people exercising and playing Chinese hackey sack


and then we found a woman demonstrating Chinese ribbon dancing as well as selling the ribbons. Wren thought this was THE BEST THING EVER! Jason bought her one and she spent almost an hour happily ribbon dancing in the park.


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Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Okay, so our 24+ hours of travel was really more like automobile, plane, train, plane and automobile! :)


We had a very early flight to Chicago where we connected thru to Beijing. But first there was a 12 hour layover in Chicago! We hated to waste a perfectly good day so we rode the train into the city to visit the field museum. Sue the T Rex was a BIG hit!

I had hoped to meet up with an old friend but I couldn't message him since I couldn't get any free wi-fi at the museum and had left the phone at home. So that was a bit of a bummer.

Made it back to O'Hare in good time and the plane on schedule for the 13 hour flight to Beijing.



Wren is a great traveller and had agreed to cooperate and sleep the first half of the flight and watch movies the second half. This was important since our plane gets in at 11 pm China time and we'll need her to sleep again as we try to get used to the time change (they are 12 hours ahead so will only be 11 am back home).








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Testy testy test

Is this gonna work

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Location:Elk Meadows Dr SE,Brownsboro,United States

Thanksgiving 2009

Mom'a pretty table


not too close please


does she have to do this?


much better. i like my personal space.





sweet Wren


pretty Sammy and pretty Sissy

Halloween and other October photos

Fall Sing procession at preschool


Getting her creative juices flowing!


The finished product!


Getting ready to trick-or-treat in the neighborhood.






with cousin Ryan


Raking leaves...


Jumping in leaves...

Our Third Family Day Anniversary

Three Years ago today, Jason and I were in a hotel conference room in Wuhan, China where we and Wren met each other for the first time and finally became a family.

Happy Family Day to the rest of my CHI traveling group friends!!!


It started out with lots of crying. Poor Chong Si Hui didn't know what was going on or who we were.


Seems like Jason didn't know what to make of the whole situation either!


Finally back in our room, Wren was exhausted from all that crying.


That afternoon, we took a walk down by the lake. We got our first smile out of her then. Baby Hui Hui loved being outside.


Wren in a recent photo.