Leaving Hong Kong

After two full days, we are leaving Hong Kong to travel to Nanning China. Hong Kong was nice, but it feels strange touring when we know we are here for another purpose. Our group traveled to Victoria Peak, visited a fishing village where the people lived on their boats, toured a jewelry factory, and went shopping at an outdoor marketplace. It was exhausting, but we also learned a lot about how the residents feel about themselves, their government and China. Afterward, we had dinner at the hotel and the bill was over $600 ($80 US). We didn't even eat very much.

We departed for Nanning this afternoon at 1:55 PM and arrived around 3:25 PM, not a bad flight. We have 36 people in our group of 15 families and there was another adoption group from Illinois on the plane that had 10 more families. Arriving at the airport was a major awakening. Things are VERY different here. The plane had to make a U-turn on the runway immediately after landing just to get back to the terminal. There was only one runway (it is an international airport). The officials here all wear uniforms and are very ominous looking. The buildings are a mix of crumbling ruins and modern medium-rise apartment buildings. Nanning's population is just under 3 million and it is considered the "Gateway to Vietnam". Chinese citizens can visit only three countries without a visa--Vietnam, North Korea and Cuba. They even told us that we were not allowed to bring a Hong Kong newspaper into mainland China.

The bus ride to the hotel was a 40 minute drive where we could see amazing sights; however, our guide was also giving us vital information about our babies at the same time, so it was hard to look out the window and pay attention to him. CCAI, our agency, is extremely organized. Unlike other agencies, we will be able to fill out the paperwork and shop at Walmart BEFORE we get our babies tomorrow.

They gave us some more information about Chloe. Her personality is described as "active, cheerful and social". She does not wear a diaper, but is held over the toilet and responds to verbal commands...."mmmmm" for poop and "shhhhhh" for pee. She also sleeps with the foster mother and is fussy when going to bed. I can see this will be an interesting transition for all of us.

Well, that's about it for now. Our next post will be after we have received Chloe.