Train Station (Wednesday)

Rainbow and the girls play games while waiting for the train.

We traveled the five minutes or so from the restaurant to the train station, which was very crowded and chaotic. Getting through the initial security scan was frantic, with literally hundreds of people trying to squeeze through two checkpoints similar to the TSA baggage screening machines at airports in the U.S. It was nuts. We tossed our baggage onto the conveyor and walked through a metal detector, then tried to grab our stuff at the other end along with dozens of other people at the same time. I can’t imagine the check really accomplished much. Once we arrived in the enormous waiting area and found a place to wait, we discovered that the train we’d arrived an hour early for was going to depart 30 minutes late. Great. Over an hour and a half in a crowded waiting area that lacked air conditioning. Rainbow entertained the girls, and they entertained her for the next hour or so. Then they announced that the train would be further delayed, now departing more than an hour later than the originally scheduled time. That meant we would not be arriving in Nanchang until well after midnight. Poop.

Once we actually started boarding the train it only took about five minutes or so to get the mass of people waiting in the station on board. I was impressed with how fast it all happened.

As of this writing we are en route to Nanchang. The train is comfortable and we have a lot more room than if we were traveling by air. But the point of going by train was to see the countryside and since we left so late it is now well after dark and we can’t see anything in the windows other than our own reflections and occasionally a few lights outside.

Train Mess (Wednesday Night)

We left Changsha over an hour late...around 8:30pm. Approximately an hour later we stopped in Pianxing (I think), which was expected. After we were stopped for about 60 minutes it was obvious the other passengers were becoming very restless and agitated with the train crew. When an explanation was offered there was quite a commotion among the passengers. Something was clearly wrong and they were not happy about it. I called Helen, our Nanchang guide, to see if there was anything I could learn from her or if she could talk to someone on the train to find out what was going on. She spoke to a gentleman seated one row in front of us, who told her that due to flooding in the section of tracks we were about to enter, the train could not proceed safely and that there was no indication when the condition would improve enough for us to continue. Our options at that point were to wait on the train indefinitely or get off in Pianxing and try to arrange for other transportation, neither of which was particularly appealing. We told Helen we'd wait for awhile and see what happened. After about 2 hours stopped in Pianxing, the gentleman in front of us showed me a text message on his phone (I think he used a translation program) that said we should be underway in another 15 minutes. I called Helen to let her know, and she spoke to him, as well as one of the crew, and confirmed that we would be proceeding, but at a reduced speed due to the unknown condition of the tracks. Not real comforting. She told me to try and get some rest because we had a busy day ahead. Right. I'm on a train that is headed into a remote area of China that has recently flooded, it’s on suspect tracks, and I'm supposed to get some sleep. Not so much.

We spent the next 90 minutes or so crawling through the valley at 25 mph in a train that normally would have been going well over 100 mph. Once we passed Yichun station our speed increased and we proceeded to Nanchang. We finally arrived at our destination at 3:45am on a train that was originally supposed to arrive at 11:00pm. We met our guide outside the train station and after checking in and settling into our room made it to bed at 5:00am. The alarm was set for 8:00am.

Foster Mother and Orphanage (Thursday)

Just like I-64 near Charlottesville.

The alarm went off at 8:00am…just three hours’ sleep. Helen met us downstairs and we headed out for Fuzhou, which is a two and a half hour ride southeast of Nanchang. Once outside of the city we started seeing rice paddies and fruit orchards on both sides of the road. Eventually the landscape began to change into low rolling hills and then piedmont. It was almost exactly like riding up Interstate 64 from Norfolk to the Shenandoah Valley, but compressed into a couple of hours instead of three, and substitute rice and fruit for Virginia’s corn and tobacco.

Ally and foster mom (she really is that short).

When we pulled up to the orphanage in Fuzhou, Ally’s foster mom was sitting on the steps waiting. We recognized her instantly from the photos we have.  She smiled as she got up and accompanied us to meet the orphanage director in a conference room. One wall of the conference room had a large banner welcoming Ally home to Fuzhou. We got to ask Ally’s foster mother about her experience with Ally as a baby, like her disposition. We also got to see her original orphanage record, which included handwritten information regarding her finding and placement in the orphanage. This was the first time we’d seen this particular document. Helen translated the information for us. Before we left, Ally exchanged gifts with the orphanage director and we got to take down her banner to bring home. Although we were under the impression we would be taking her to lunch, Ally’s foster mom left and we went to lunch with the orphanage director and his assistant, who really had little to do personally with Ally or us during the adoption process. We were to meet up with Ally’s foster mom again later.

Ally's finding spot in front of the Red Cross hospital.

Unlike Amanda’s adoption trip, we did not get to Ally’s home city on her adoption trip in 2004, so we had no pictures of where she lived or her finding spot. This time we got to do both. Ally was found at the gate of the local Red Cross hospital, not too far from the orphanage. We were able to get pictures of the hospital and the street in front of the gate itself. Then it was bonus time. Amanda spent all of her infancy prior to adoption in an orphanage. Ally spent all of her infancy in a foster home. There was some confusion as to the exact location of Ally’s foster home. Fortunately, Helen was able to locate her grandson, who agreed to show us where it was. Good thing, too, because we’d have never found it on our own, even with directions and an address. Ally’s foster home was in an older part of Fuzhou. Her foster mother has lived in that home for over 60 years. We drove as far as we could, leaving the city behind and going down progressively smaller dirt roads through the middle of rice paddies until the car could go no further and we had to walk. As we walked through the village we collected quite a little following of curious locals, including some who turned out to be neighbors who remembered Ally. Her foster mom was not there when we arrived, and we found out through her grandson that she had stopped at a local free clinic on the way back from the orphanage because she wasn’t feeling well. We talked (through interpreters) to some of the neighbors about the village and Ally’s foster mom. The village itself is devoted to rice farming. The first crop of the year is due in August and some of the early rice was being processed. Ally’s foster home had two rooms: a front main room and a back bedroom. Allys’ foster mom had told us at the orphanage that Ally slept in bed with her (in the back room) when she was young. I guess the best description of Ally’s foster village is simple and gritty. The people we encountered were friendly and happy. Three of the neighbors are pictured with Ally and Jerri in front of her foster home.

With Gary, who would have been like an older brother.

When we left the village we stopped by the free clinic to check on Ally’s foster mom. She was still there and feeling a little better. Jerri gave her an additional gift and we got out picture taken with her one more time, this time with her grandson “Gary” who was living in the foster home with Ally back then, but has since graduated from college and has his own home within walking distance of the village.

We enjoyed our visit, but we are tired and looking forward to being home. One more day and then it’s back to VB.

More pictures from Fuzhou...

Reviewing Ally's orphanage records.

Typical "street" in Ally's foster village.

Front room of Ally's foster home. The small picture is Ally's foster father (deceased).

Three neighbors who remembered Ally as a baby.

Rice production in Ally's foster village.

Return to Changsha

View from our hotel room. Rainy day, not just hazy.

We got up at 4:30am today in order to make our flight out of Chengdu. Then we sat on the plane for over an hour waiting to take off, which put us into Changsha very late in the morning. We met our guide, Rainbow (really, I’m not making that up), and headed into Changsha. On the way she told us that there had been a fire at the Dolton Hotel recently and that we’d be staying at the Tong Chang Hotel instead. It’s a kind of odd twist that the last time we were in Changsha we could see Amanda’s orphanage from our hotel room and this time, due to the fire at the Dolton, we can see her “finding spot” from our hotel room at the Tong Chang Hotel. In the picture, it’s on the left about two blocks past the curve in the road. This hotel is very nice, definitely the fanciest room we’ve had so far on this trip, but no one here speaks any English except one of the managers. He has gone out of his way to make sure we are comfortable, but we are on our own when we go to the restaurant or leave the hotel (more on that later).

Koi pond at the ancient academy in Changsha.

After checking in at the hotel we visited a local academy on the grounds of Hunan University. This academy has been in existence since about 1000 A.D. Rainbow showed us around the academy’s buildings, which have been preserved as they were in ancient times. Some of the lecture spots still get used for special occasions. We also visited a museum (an honest-to-goodness museum) that houses ancient texts and artifacts related to the academy. The museum opened so recently that some rooms on the top floor are still under construction. One of the texts on display dates from the year 1340, and it’s the real deal, not a reproduction. Jerri and I enjoyed that part of the tour immensely, but the girls were unimpressed. Someday they’ll appreciate the history…maybe.

More academy pictures...

Keeping a local tradition by touching the symbol of prosperity on an academy wall.

Academy text from the year 1340.

So not impressed.

Hunan Adoption Administration Center







Welcome sign in the conference room.

We went to the Hunan Adoption Administration Center today. Honestly, we didn’t even know about this part of the adoption process prior to today. This office is responsible for (among other things) collecting information for each child’s dossier from the orphanage and compiling everything for submission to the China Center for Adoption Affairs in Beijing. They are also responsible for coordinating activities for returning adoptees. We met the current director, Zhang Ying, who said she was a registrar when Amanda was adopted, so we probably met her in 2002. She and Amanda exchanged gifts and then we sat down and talked with her about some of the tasks of the office she directs. It was just a little wierd that everyone consistently addressed Amanda as Xiaofeng, never Amanda. The director also made a point of noting that at least one adoptee had returned to China to work in Beijing, and that she might make that decision someday, as well. We toured several of the offices and met the current staff. We asked what kind of things the children in the orphanage might like to have and she suggested art supplies, so Rainbow took us to a local stationery shop after our visit and we picked up some drawing paper, journals, and a bunch of pens. We will give them to the children at the orphanage when we visit on Wednesday.

With director Zhang (black blouse) and her assistant.

Dinner Stroll

We decided to take a walk before dinner. Call it Real China 101. This is not a fancy neighborhood. These folks are not like the BMW and Land Rover crowd from Beijing or Chengdu. They are day to day plain Chinese working to put food on the table. It occurred to me that since we were only a few blocks from Amanda's finding site it was very likely if she had not been adopted, this would be her standard of living. It was a very sobering moment.

We walked a couple of blocks before venturing into a shop to buy some bottled water. You wouldn’t think buying three bottles of water would be a difficult exercise, but they spoke absolutely no English and my Mandarin is pretty much useless for meaningful dialog. Somehow we managed to understand each other enough for me to pay 4.5 yuan (about 75 cents) for three half liter bottles of water. This same size bottle was 25 yuan each at our last hotel if you used the ones in the room.

There didn’t appear to be any restaurant that would work for us other than the Kentucky Fried Chicken half a block from our hotel. We knew from experience in Chengdu that most fast food restaurants have a picture menu that we could just point to and select items. When we got up to the register and the clerk realized we were Americans, she looked a little confused and turned to some of her coworkers, who immediately all ran to get the (apparently) only person working there who might be able to help. A young man came over, smiled, and said in perfect English, “Welcome to KFC. May I help you?” It was clear from his body language that he enjoyed using his English to help us with our order. I made sure to tell him before we left that his English was excellent. It was kind of fun to see how tickled he was to be speaking English with us. Jerri and the girls were waiting at one of the tables for me to pick up our order and noticed some teenage girls looking at them. Jerri smiled at them and they giggled. We’ve gotten that reaction a couple of times here. In other cities I’ve sort of ignored the stares when they’ve been close by, but today I’ve actually looked directly at them and said hello, which elicits smiles and giggles. Westerners must be a real rare sight in this part of China now that the number of international adoptions has dropped significantly.

Tomorrow we visit the orphanage and Amanda’s finding site before hopping on a train bound for Nanchang. It’s a very busy, very long day.

Pandas!

Patiently waiting with Jenna.

It’s finally panda day for the girls! They call the breeding center the “Chengdu Panda Base.” Imagine this place as an enormous zoo with oversized enclosures devoted entirely to pandas. We took a shuttle from the front gate to the “kindergarten” or baby panda house. After walking around the outside of the entire kindergarten complex and taking pictures of adorable small pandas, Kevin announced that it was time to fill out some paperwork, pay the “Panda Keeper Experience” fee, and spend some time holding a baby panda. It’s not that different from a behind-the-scenes opportunity offered in the United States, except that you get to interact with one of the rarest, and cutest, animals on earth. The girls were given a sort of backstage pass on a lanyard and led away from us. We watched on the video monitors from the lobby area. One by one the girls were dressed in booties, a smock, and gloves, and given a 10-month old panda to hug/hold. Even though they were only ten months old, the pandas outweighed Amanda and Allyson by quite a bit, so holding one on their lap wasn’t really an option. They each got to spend about five minutes with a panda while the handlers took pictures with our cameras. All of the girls were positively giddy after the experience.



Amanda & panda.







Ally & panda.

Next we went to the red panda exhibit. Red pandas are not related to giant pandas, but they are native to Sichuan province and are protected by law. Red pandas are more closely related to raccoons and are about the size of a fox.

The final exhibit was the adolescent panda enclosure. They were very active and funny. It’s a little odd to see so many of them in one place. We’ve been to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., but there are only two there and they were almost catatonic when we saw them. There were a half dozen or more in one enclosure and they were eating and playing a lot. There was quite a crowd around the perimeter and it was difficult to get a good picture. We’ve kind of gotten used to…well, not really…the lack of consideration for personal space or for waiting one’s turn that exists in China. Although we’ve encountered some very nice people, the vast majority are very impatient and will push you aside to get a better position. This was especially true at the panda exhibit.

Just before leaving we were taken to the panda museum, which unfortunately was closed for renovation, but…guess what WAS open…one of the ever-present gift shops. Please forgive my slightly cynical attitude, but ever since we left Beijing we’ve had the nagging feeling that much of what we’ve done has been about the power of our tourist dollars, not the cultural or historical experience. Don’t get me wrong, we’re having a great time and the girls are pretty oblivious to this aspect of the trip, but Guilin and Chengdu have been very a different experience overall from Beijing. I chalk most of that up to our wonderful Beijing guide, Nancy.

More pictures from the Chengdu Panda Base...