July 14 – Liam’s Sweet Sixteen

Happy Birthday Liam! We woke up and Skyped with Liam, who is officially 16 in China though it’s still the night before his birthday back in Indianapolis. Today is a lazy day – breakfast in the lavish breakfast buffet on the ground floor of the White Swan, followed by a tour of Shamian island with 4 families from our travel group – the Marshes, the Corns, the Vanderhorns, the Evans-Cohens, and us. We visited the shop where the babies’ visa photographs were taken, and the medical clinic where children were checked prior to returning to the United States. We then dove into the seedy shops of Shamian island, where receipts are nonexistent and bargaining is ubiquitous. I get really stressed out in such contexts, but it helped to be in a group. After our shopping was officially done (I hope it’s done – I eventually just petered out) – we grabbed a quick swim, then a quick lunch – then we just hung out and read by the pool and explored the park next door to the hotel. We’ll enjoy a dinner tonight with the families who are still here – then early to bed to be out the door by 5:30 to catch the ferry to Hong Kong! It’s been a wonderful trip.

July 13 – Shamian Island and the Beautiful White Swan

Not much of import happened en route to the train station from Maoming. Emblematic of this is the fact that my camera was covered with condensation when attempting to take photographs of our guide, Ben, and our driver Mr. Oh – they look completely shrouded in fog. I’m wallowing in a sea of mucous, which makes sharing a train with the Evans-Cohen clan rather uncomfortable. I confine myself to a corner of the ‘soft berth’ – using a saturated cloth handkerchief to try to stem the tide. Five and half hours passed relatively quickly and we were back to the scaldingly-hot and chaotic Guangzhou train station – searching for the blue Lotus flag. Our guide, Jocelyn, brought us back to the White Swan and checked us in. After a swim in the pool and a ‘German cold cut’ bread thing from the neighboring deli – we’re feeling human again and ready to explore.

The White Swan is just as it was in 1999 – save for the absence of Christmas decorations and the presence of significantly more adopted babies with special needs. We’re surprised by how many adoptive families we see – most of whom are toting older brothers and siblings, often also from China. We dabbled in a bit of shopping, but my cold is raging and we quickly gave up and retreated to our soft beds. I’ve been downing Chinese orange juice (think ‘Tang’ accompanied by a bunch of pulp) and trying to lay low to get over this weird virus.

July 12 – Back Home Again in Xinyi City

Xinyi City is a county-level city within the Prefecture of Maoming. It’s about 100 km from downtown Maoming and reached by a relatively new freeway in about 90 minutes. We met Ben and Mr. O at 8:15 to begin our journey north into the rolling hills and small mountains that surround Xinyi and that border the province of Gaungxi (ironically we were pretty close to Xinyi when we were in Guilin, but we could not reach it because there are very few roads that pass through the mountains – it is faster to fly to Guangzhou and take the train to Maoming). The road to Xinyi reminds me a bit of the roads in Florida. We are at about the latitude of Mexico City and it is very hot. The road is flanked by rice paddies, banana farms, lychee and dragon eye tree farms, and mango, and large cattle (and an occasional chicken) are easily spotted along the roads. Maoming has fewer than 1% minority groups (most people are Han Chinese) but Eliza looks so much like Rose Corn and Eve Rosenthal (both of whom were from near Maoming) that we’re pretty sure that her birth family must be from the Yao tribe (or a related tribe with more Indian/Vietnamese-looking features).

Xinyi City has benefited from China’s economic successes, which is very reassuring to see. The City has 1.1 million residents (Maoming has 7 million) and there is a great deal of construction going on everywhere. We drove by the orphanage originally without recognizing it – but then immediately noticed the courtyard where we had parked 10 years ago. Back then the courtyard was riddled with chickens and trash – this time it’s much more like a parking lot. We were escorted to the 3rd floor, where the reception area had been remodeled (and air conditioned!). We were introduced to Mr. Hu, who has been the physician for the orphans since 1984¸ and who now also serves as Director (as well as an administrative position with the Office for Civil Affairs). He was accompanied by 2 women in their late 20’s/early 30’s – who now serve as Assistant and Associate Directors (the previous men have now moved to other positions). The Evans were much more prepared than we and brought photographs from 1999 – which we spent much time going through. Just about everyone from that time has moved on, though the Associate Director had been employed in 1999 and had helped bring the babies to Guangzhou (she indicated that she remembers the trip well because their van had gotten a flat tire).




We were presented with the ‘official folders’ for each of the girls, which contained copies of all of our adoption documents, medical records, and finding site information. We already had copies of all of these documents except for one – the police report, which Ben translated for us. Eliza was found on the Duotong bridge by a woman whose name is in the police report. She had called the police, and the police brought Eliza to the orphanage. Anna was actually found by one of the more senior nannies present in our 1999 photographs, who has since retired – this was a terrific bit of new information for her to find out. We took many photographs of these documents and the staff were very kind and generous in answering our questions. We were invited to visit one of the rooms where children were playing, but were asked not to take any pictures indoors- this was a huge treat and I think that Eliza especially enjoyed interacting with the children, some of whom spoke a few words of English. We were told that in 1999 there were about 70 children living at the orphanage – today there are about 50 (and 40 have been adopted in the United States – others have gone to Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, and Denmark). Most of the children residing in the orphanage today have handicaps, though many of these were correctable (there was a beautiful little girl who is being adopted next month who has a hand deformity – but who otherwise is perfect). The older girls were helping with caring for the younger girls and all of the older girls seemed very happy and kind. The babies cried quite a bit and some seemed quite delayed (which they probably were) – but it seemed that there were plenty of toys and food. In front of the orphanage, the staff had created a beautiful red banner which read ‘welcome back Yuxiang and Yuyu’ and we took several pictures there. Though I had been quite concerned about this visit, it couldn’t have gone better. We also learned that the older girl (of about 8 or 9) who held Eliza in 1999 in one of our pictures has now been married and is living in her own home with her own daughter – this was a great epilogue to our collection of pictures from 1999.

After leaving the orphanage we traveled to the Duotong Bridge (Eliza’s finding site) and the gate for the Ministry of Civil Affairs (Anna’s finding site) to take pictures. Both places were buzzing with people and clearly were ‘safe’ places in which babies would be found very quickly. I’m quite convinced that whoever decided that they couldn’t afford to take care of Eliza – whether it was a grandparent or parent – wanted her to be found quickly and brought to safety. We met an elderly gentleman at the Civil Affairs gate who was very happy that we had returned. He spoke to both girls at length and Ben translated that he was asking them to study hard and do well in school so that they could help to connect the US and China in the future. We received many ‘thumbs up’ signs and the director commented that they never worry about the girls who are adopted to the United States because he knows they receive good educations and are well cared for.




Following our tour of the finding sites we visited a beautiful hotel in Xinyi City that was built only 1 year ago. We first had tea in a private room, followed by a lavish lunch at which both Anna and Eliza were presented with beautiful jade necklaces (and we presented our own gifts to Mr. Hu, the Director). The lunch was lovely – though it was a bit surreal that a replay of the final game of the world cup was playing on a wide-screen TV in the background. We were able to continue asking questions of the staff…and the staff asked whether Eliza did well in school (yes), and if the babies were good babies and well behaved when we brought them home (yes, again). Eliza asked whether the children in the orphanage celebrate holidays – it appears that they do, and that local families and people from schools around Xinyi participate in these parties. Xinyi also appears to now have some foster families, which is great. Mr. Hu also indicated that most of the adoptions from Xinyi are domestic at this time – with children staying in China. We had several more toasts and photographs, and the girls were told that they would always be ‘relatives’ and welcome to visit/stay in Xinyi. The staff also seemed quite pleased that the 5 families who adopted from Xinyi in 1999 see each other every 2 years and have remained connected, even though we live far apart. We agreed that we would try to collect funds from our travel group to purchase a piece of equipment for the orphanage – they need both an air conditioner and a washing machine.




Following lunch, Ben and Mr. Oh drove us up to a beautiful pagoda on a mountain that overlooks Xinyi City for more pictures, and so that the girls could run around a bit. We also stopped at one of Xinyi’s many jade stores (Xinyi is famous for jade, fruit production, and mountain chickens). As Eliza needed to use their restroom, I felt obligated to buy something – I picked up a jade bangle for 500 yuan ($75) which Eliza thinks is fake…but that I think is a beautiful color. Hopefully she’ll like to wear it when she’s older. The tour guide (probably also worrying that it is fake) asked the shopkeeper to throw in a couple of rings for Eliza and Anna. I’m now trying to repress the potential fakeness…in a weird way, I’m a fake ‘Xinyi mother’ so maybe it’s quite fitting that my jade bangle is masquerading as well.
Back in Maoming my 2 weeks of trying to hold things together to make it through the orphanage visit completely collapsed and I have a full-fledged cold. We walked around the downtown area and found dinner in a little restaurant and looked half-heartedly for a suitcase, but gave up and returned for an early bedtime. My strategy is to drink a lot and sleep as much as possible to make it through the rest of the trip. Tomorrow morning we’re on a train back to Guangzhou and 2 nights at the incredibly lavish White Swan Hotel.

Sunday, July 11 – Back to Guangdong

At 6:10 AM we were whisked by our guide, ‘Bing’ to the Guilin airport to catch a 9:20 flight to Guangzhou. Transit was uneventful and we made it in plenty of time, munching on boxed breakfasts prepared by the Sheraton. In Guangzhou we were met by our guide, ‘Philip’ who took us through the free market. The sights and smells were as overwhelming as they were 10 years ago, though there were far fewer beggars and animals were primarily sold as pets – not food (though we cringed at the small cages holding upwards of 15 puppies in a hot cage with no water). We had lunch at a restaurant famous for its moon cakes, then were whisked to the train station for the 6-hour trip to Maoming (where I got caught up on my writing!).




In Maoming we were picked up by our guide, Ben, and our driver, “Mr. O.” – both of whom were exceedingly nice. We are staying in the International Hotel of Maoming, which has a beautiful lobby but very 1970-esque rooms…and I’m pretty sure that it’s frequented by prostitutes, as well as business clientele. We were exhausted and went to sleep early for our big day tomorrow!

Saturday, July 10 – Kung Pao Chicken and Cha

On our last morning in Guilin we started off our day at the Cloud 9 Cooking School. The adults tromped up to the roof and donned chef hats and aprons and proceeded to be taught the fine art of preparing kung pao chicken and beef with peppers and onions. I’m proud to say that it was really just like my own cooking at home, with one exception. We each had our own wok positioned over its own gas burner which gave me wonderful heat control - my own wok never gets so hot…and can never be cooled down incredibly quickly to regulate the speed at which vegetables are cooked. I also learned to fry dumplings without burning them and having them spill their contents into the wok. This was lunch. I was hoping that the children could cook, but it turns out that there are too many knives, raw scary meats, and flames for it to be even remotely safe.



After lunch we piled into a van to tour the Guilin Tea Research Institute – a tea farm developed to promote research on the medicinal value of teas and to develop new variants of tea. We participated in a formal tea tasting ceremony and spent the obligatory 30 minutes in the gift shop (again, didn’t buy anything). It was fascinating to see how tea is harvested, kneaded, fermented, and dried. I’ve also now learned that my Chinese manners are horrendous – one should never put the tips of chopsticks in one’s mouth; one should never cross one’s chopsticks; if you drink your tea in one gulp you are a water buffalo; if you drink your tea in two gulps you are a donkey; if you eat everything on your plate you’re indicating that you didn’t have enough food, etc. etc. Then back to our cushy Sheraton hotel and a pre-dinner swim in the exceedingly warm pool.



Dinner was a lavish ‘farewell feast’ at an excellent restaurant about a 5 minute walk from the Sheraton in Guilin. There were many toasts, a few tears (mostly among the children who didn’t want to leave each other), ‘Great Wall’ red wine (yuck), and excellent food. We turned in early after dinner because we need to catch an early flight to Guangzhou.

July 9 – Friday on the Li River

This morning we left the cushy Sheraton and piled back on the bus to drive an hour to the Li River where the flat-bottomed riverboats are launched. Because my group has a reputation for being spoiled, averse to heat and squatty potties, and generally a bit whiney…we were upgraded to a river boat that had western toilets, air conditioning, and a buffet lunch. I would have preferred a simple bamboo raft. The scenery was stunning and my camera really didn’t capture it (though I tried – particularly the point on the river that’s featured on a 20 yuan bank note). The people of Guangxi province include many minority groups, including the Yao, which look to me a lot like Eliza. She doesn’t notice this, and I think is generally annoyed with me any time that I point such things out. We saw many fishermen and farmers along the river banks, including fishermen that fish with cormorants (they tie little nooses to their necks and let them dive to catch fish – the ‘leash’ keeps the cormorant from swallowing the fish, which seems a bit cruel to me!). Though the air is clean and the water generally is clear, rural China is definitely more poor. The street vendors are quite aggressive and we’re perpetually warned to beware of pickpockets. Rafters would actually paddle to the riverboat and attach to it with hooks like pirates - all to try to sell us fake jade and other trinkets, and walking on streets is quite tiring – I devolve from polite smiles to ‘bu xie xie’ (no thank you) to ‘bu yao’ (don’t want it) to a scowl + sunglasses. Poor Eliza is fascinated by the beggars, which makes her a sitting duck for fiscal assaults. Wei assures us that most of them are faking it…but we saw a few people with such extreme deformities that it would be impossible to fake such things.





In the afternoon, the children swam at a rather algae-infested pool outside of the Yangshuo New West Street Hotel (we traveled 44 miles down the river so we’re staying in Yangshuo for 1 night before returning to the cushy Sheraton full of Italians and pancake breakfasts).



We had dinner for the ‘Mei You Café’ (very yummy), followed by a trip to the famous Yangshuo ‘Impression Show’, which is difficult to describe. Basically several hundred members of minority groups where traditional costumes and act out a traditional folktale, using the Li River as a stage. The music was magnificent and the use of light, sound, smoke, fire, and water was beautifully choreographed (actually, the director is a famous Chinese movie director whose name escapes me…who choreographed the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics). The mountains were lit up – somehow – with beautiful colored lights and we sat outside under the stars and mosquitoes. It was particularly impressive that none of the actors were professionals – they all were farmers who also were members of various minority groups – including their water buffalo and cormorants. The children were very into it, despite the heat.

July 8 – Guilin and the Reed Flute Caves

Our American compatriots were dissatisfied with the hotel in Guilin (which was decidedly a few notches down on the hotel pole in comparison to other places we’ve stayed). A few people who are sensitive to mold got sick and didn’t sleep at all – so Louie upgraded us (at his expense) to a Sheraton hotel with 5 stars. It was a bit embarrassing (and we were totally cool with the first hotel)…but the Sheraton is much cleaner and in a better part of the city.

We first made a stop at the obligatory adopto-tourism cultural education (this time on how silk factories work) + trip to the government store (still refuse to buy anything). It was amazing watching the silk cacoons be stretched out into layers. The women who work there can do it effortlessly...but our children obviously don't have the knack:




Guilin is quite tropical and very beautiful – it is famous for its unique mountains, sparkling water, beautiful rocks, and caves. The craggy mountains are made of limestone, which erodes over time to create the beautiful shapes. Waterfalls are abundant. Rice is grown here and we’re finally seeing lots of rice paddies. The mountains are stunning – just like the picture Sally gave us that’s in our bathroom…craggy and beautiful. The reed flute cave was like nothing we’ve ever seen. Supposedly the population of Guilin was saved during attacks by the Japanese because they hid in the caves and went undetected. The only thing that was odd is that they’re a bit Disney-esque. Flute music is piped through them (which is lovely) and colored lights are positioned throughout (double-lovely), and there even was a light show inside the ‘crystal palace’ room that involved a soap bubble machine that the kids loved….but it’s too clean – too beautiful – no cobwebs, bats, or bugs (and the street vendors outside the cave entrance are very aggressive). Very surreal.





We lunched on rice noodles and had a pretty quiet afternoon – switching hotels, getting caught up on email, and swimming in the pool. For dinner I took Eliza down some streets outside of the hotel to eat at a busy noodle/hot pot restaurant (we were told to aim for restaurants that were crowded and noisy because the food would be good). Her dinner (which I just had a taste of) was 15 rmb…about $1.75 – there are perks to being in the more remote regions of Guangxi province! We also walked along the Li riverbank and saw many people dancing, strolling along the water..and swimming (I let Eliza wade in her sandals even though the tour guide warned us not to go in the water because of strong currents.) And THEN I got caught up on this journal!