May 17, 2013 - Off and running

We've recovered from our misadventure in Causeway Bay and have bought tickets for the first leg of our journey, Hung Hom to Guangzhou East. We had originally intended going straight through to Yueyang but have decided to stop in Guangzhou for a few days. K's sister, who lives in Guangzhou, was planning to meet up with us in HK but got detained (!) in China and was unable to travel to HK. Luckily we are flexible enough in our travel arrangements to be able to change our schedule less than a week in to our trip! We could never have foreseen...

Feb 26, 2013 - Huang Pu, China (Guangzhou)

We spent the day in China's third largest city, Guangzhou. It was an amazing contrast of "old China" traditions with old temples/pagodas and open local markets and the "new China" with towering Skyscrapers most dissapearing into the fog/smog at the top. It is simply amazing how they fit so many people in such tight quarters. The government apartmant buildings are subsidized and the average square footage is about 600 sq feet with hundreds of units per in these amazing high rise buildings! Cheryl suffered through another family style asian...

Jan 24, 2013 - Clumsy back in China

Hi Kadence and Classmates, After several days visiting Cambodia, we flew back to Guangzhou, China to join family. One day we visited the Safari Park in Guangzhou. We had a great day. Here is a picture of me with Asian black bears in the background. They look different than our Canadian bears. Clumsy Hi Grade 3 Class, Can you see the white tigers in the background? They are very rare in the world. At the Safari Park you can feed a baby white tiger. Clumsy The elephants look sad and I am sad too because I have to leave China tomorrow and...

Nov 1, 2012 - Clumsy's First Halloween

Hi Kadence and Friends, I am still in Guangzhou, China and I have just celebrated my first Halloween. I had a lot of fun tonight!! My travel friends and their family all got dressed in costumes. My travel friends and I went out "trick or treating" and I got a lot of candy. After that, we all went to the park in the community for a bar-b-que (hamburgers and hotdogs--just like in Canada). By nine o'clock we went home and I dumped out all my candy to see what I got. WOW!! I hope you have as much fun tonight on Halloween as I did! I love...

Aug 3, 2012 - Last Day

We're in Guangzhou today at the China Hotel. A bunch of us were driven to the China Hotel while others went to Hong Kong and elsewhere. Renn and I hung out with Crystal and Sydney this afternoon. We took a cab to Shamian Island even though some people told us most of the shops are closed. It wasn't exactly true. There are still several shops and we were able to find a lot of bargains. They need customers while the White Swan is under construction. Tomorrow we head home. We have had the best time, and I am so glad we made the trip.

Aug 2, 2012 - Finding Location

We went to Renn's finding location today. In 2007, we saw it at dusk so I was anxious to see in the light. Renn is from Tanshui, which is about 40 minutes southwest of Yangchun. Tanshui is a town, under the district of Yangchun. The guide and the assistant orphanage director came with us in a van along with another family whose location was in the same general direction. Renn's town has changed since we saw it in 2007. The built an additional section on the main drag. And, the assistant director told us industry has come to Tanshui. It is...

Aug 2, 2012 - Hotpot and Mrs. Yu Sings Karaoke

Today was the last day in Yangchun. After we saw Tanshui, we came back to the hotel and ran into Crystal and Sydney. They were off to find something to eat. We joined them. Since we did not have a great experience in the hotel, we wanted to find something in town. The first restaurant we entered did not have a menu with pictures and no one knew any English. We kept walking. I saw a place that looked like a hotpot place based on the fact that the tables had burners on them. We tried speaking in English and one guy knew enough that we...

Aug 2, 2012 - Sadness

There is a sad story that we learned about earlier in the week. It has haunted me ever since. On the first night in Yangchun we met the two oldest kids in the orphanage. One is a boy who is 10, and he has been there over a year. His paperwork is in Beijing so that he can be adopted. The other is a girl who is 12. She just arrived at the orphanage. In fact, she has been staying with Mrs. Yu for awhile. Her story makes me so angry and sad. She was adopted as an infant domestically and lived with her family for almost 11 years until her mother...

Aug 1, 2012 - Caves, Stone Forest, Bumpy Roads, and Tutus

Today we visited the caves and the Stone Forest. I really enjoyed the caves. First, they were cool. Second, there were interesting formations. Renn rushed me through them because she saw a bat when we first entered, she hates dark places. To get to the caves we had to travel over EXTREMELY bumpy roads. They were almost as bad as the roads from Chengdu to Wolong in 2007. They were the worst roads I have ever traveled. Our guide told us that the trucks don't want to pay the tolls so they don't use the expressway; therefore, the regular road...

Jul 31, 2012 - Fireworks, Iced Red Wine, and the Dinner that Wasn't

Today, we went to the the orphanage. It is really called the Social Welfare Institute because it houses both orphans and the elderly. When we first arrived, the SWI workers set off a bunch of firecrackers in the courtyard. It was a big surprise for sure. Most of us had one hand over our ear while holding our cameras in the other. We toured the three buildings of the SWI. There is the oldest building where the elders are housed starting on the second floor. On the first floor, they have pigs and chicken used for fresh meat. There is also a...

Jul 30, 2012 - Amazing Welcome

We started off today checking out of the hotel and driving to the Guangdong Provincial Archive Building. We had to go there as an official visit to get permission to go to the Yangchun orphanage. They require a fee to visit the orphanage (800 yuan) and another fee to see the file (100 yuan). This was not optional even if you didn't want to see the file. We had already seen the file during our 2007 visit and took pictures of the pages. Today, we were not allowed to take any pictures; however, a translator sat with each of us and answered any...

Jul 29, 2012 - Guangzhou - Seeing Old Friends

We had another chill day so that we could rest up for the Yangchun reunion part of the trip. We had breakfast with another Yangchun family who have three girls. Their oldest, a 15-year old, is from Yangchun. We walked around a bit and shopped a bit, but mostly, it was a chill day. Just as we were heading for the pool, it started raining. In the late afternoon, we got a call from our adoption trip travel mates, the Guerney/Duhamel Family. Renn has been looking forward to seeing Zoe. Just had a nice dinner with them and caught up on their...