Amanda's Finding Spot (Wednesday)

Amanda's finding spot.

After lunch and a short rest we went to the Changsha South Bus Station a few blocks from our hotel. Other than the bus station itself, the area is nothing like I remember it. In 2002 it was on the outskirts of the city and the attached hotel and office buildings were the tallest structures around. It is now in the middle of very dense development and there are office buildings and apartments easily rising 30 stories or more all around. The small, beat up road we drove down to get there in 2002 is now a six lane divided roadway that normally carries more traffic than Virginia Beach Blvd. at rush hour. The parking lot of the bus station was nearly empty when we visited before, but this time it was packed with buses and people, making crossing from the street to the strip mall sidewalk quite an adventure. We made our way to the area where Amanda was found before being taken to the police station and ultimately to the SWI in 2001. We stopped at the spot indicated in her orphanage record, which was the same spot we took pictures of her in her stroller on our first visit. Amanda was kind of underwhelmed by the experience. I think it meant more to Jerri and me, but someday I hope she’ll appreciate having returned to the place her biological mother last saw her.

Changsha South Bus Station

Rainbow took us to dinner at a “Chinese-Western” restaurant and ordered some local dishes for us to try. There were beef and chicken dishes, mushrooms, green beans, rice noodles, a local sweet treat for an appetizer, and of course, white rice. All of this served to us in a private dining room. It was very nice and everything was delicious. Even Amanda, who has been kind of cool to most of the Chinese food we’ve eaten so far, loved the rice noodles. They were kind of spicy for my taste, which is saying something, because I tend to like spicy foods, but mild here would be considered hot at home.