Our favorite place in Guangzhou, so far, is Shamian Island. Most of the buildings are roughly 200 years old and were used as Western corporate offices and embassy buildings in the 1800's and 1900's. They still have that old world charm as well and most of them have been kept up rather nicely. The island is bordered by the Pearl River that flows through the city all the way to the China Sea. All along the river wall that surrounds the banks of the island, huge, ancient Banyan treas grow, with their gnarled trunks and their hanging aerial roots that look somewhat like Spanish moss. This very quaint, very antique, very European feel is also mixed in with the flare of modern Chinese culture- a very interesting combination. It makes for a really enjoyable place and we have had fun bartering with shopkeepers, talking with the many adoptive families that stay on the island and eating at the nice restaurants.
On Sunday, we stayed inside for most of the day getting things organized, watching Chinese television for comic relief, and working on Anna's paperwork. Over breakfast we had a nice conversation with an Australian winery owner/professor from Perth. Later that night, we walked down the street to an authentic restaurant for dinner with other families in our group. The entire front of the restaurant, open to the street, housed rows and rows of water tanks of all sizes. These tanks held every living thing you can imagine: beetles, eels, turtles, frogs, snakes (actually a few different kinds), snails, clams, mollusks, and all kinds of fish, including catfish, flounders, salmon, and mackerel. There was also a cage of ducks, and, as we discovered after our meal, there was a small crocodile pond with quite a few crocodiles swimming around, in back of the hotel. The most interesting part was that this mini-zoo was actually dinner waiting to be selected, cooked and served. As we entered the restaurant, we could see the kitchen through huge windows (they made sure you could see every last detail) where the newly-prepared heads or feet of duck, whole fish, or segments of snake or crocodile were displayed. Needless to say, we ate very typical Chinese food that night, but it was a very interesting experience and we took quite a few pictures like the silly Western tourists we are.
On Monday, while Micah slept in, I got up early to go see the tomb of a Nanyue king (c. 100-200 BC), a ruler from an old dynasty that ruled in the south during the Han rule in the north. The mausoleum was cut deep into the rock, with small, confined little chambers where we could walk around. The museum next door was filled with interesting artifacts as well, all dating from around the time of the golden age in Greece. There were cooking untensils, jade, gold and silver jewelry, official seals, old musical instruments, old swords, spears and bows and arrows, all pretty well preserved.
We joined the group in the afternoon to take the bus to the "mall"/shopping center and to eat dinner on the island. We went to look for pearls and jade, as Guangzhou is considered one of the best places to find quality pearls and precious stones. Butit wasn't a mall, as we know it in America. It was a massive 5-10 story building with huge sets of esclators and stairs. It extended several stories below and quite a few stories above the ground level. There were entire floors dedicated to one type of merchandise. For example, there was a pearl floor, a jade floor and silver floor. There was everything- toys, food, clothing, music and videos, jewelry, furniture and local crafts. In the huge open spaces in the center of the mall that typically would act as a central location for finding the store of your choice, vendors and shops had set up temporary tents with piles and piles of wares spread out on tables that stretched on and on and on. It makes you completely stop what you are doing and just watch, when you come upon something so enormous and busy and thronging with people and you feel somewhat exhausted just from watching. At one point, we had to visit the baby section of the mall, so we crossed a huge plaza and entered into another huge mall (apparently it was actually just another part of it) opposite and identical to the one we had just left. Since the baby store was not inside this building, we simply had to pass through the second mall to enter out onto a vast plaza with several main avenues, crammed with shops and vendors, leading off of it. I do not think I have ever seen so many people doing so many different things and going so many different places, all at the same time. It was truly a sight to see. Exhausted, we enjoyed our dinner at Lucy's, the favorite American restaurant on the island and headed back to the hotel.
Tuesday became our 'Shamian Island Day'. After finishing up some paperwork, we hailed a taxi (a 'chuzuche'- probably our favorite Chinese word) to the White Swan. From there, we walked all around the island and enjoyed the day thoroughly. Every shop (and there are dozens of them), looking for tourist customers, will have someone standing right outside in the narrow street, something Jay termed 'the scout'. These scouts, if you will, literally walk right out in front of you and begin to talk to you about how much they have inside and how you should come in to take a look and how they have the best selection on the island. They are usually very, very persistent and if how much we spent is a measure of their success, I would say they are doing pretty well. That is not to say we didn't barter, however.
We enjoyed walking along the island's narrow streets, under the low-hanging banyan trees; on Tuesday, the weather was not that terribly hot, either. The old, European buildings with their quaint architecture turned into little shops with all kinds of merchandise, gave everything a slight New Orleans feel. The Guangzhou Starbucks became one of our favorite stops as well (so far, we've gone about three times in four days...shameful, I know). It is also built into a beautiful, white, old world style building with a small court yard and porch. We enjoyed the different encounters we had that day. We befriended quite a few shopkeepers and one Starbucks employee. We ran into several American families from other agencies that were just walking around the island as well. At one shop, the owners asked us if we were Christians and said they were as well. The entire shop wall was covered in plaques with verses of Scripture in Chinese and English and they sold NIV Chinese-English Bibles. The store next door, called 'Gift from China' was probably our favorite shop. All of the proceeds benefited disabled and foster children, as well as orphans and some minority peoples. I enjoyed talking with one of the clerks who knew quite a bit of English. Our most interesting encounter of the day happened as we walked by the Catholic and Protestant churches and by the guarded entrance to the American consulate. As a consulate employee made his way outside the building, Jay hailed him and began asking him a number of questions, on everything from religion in China, to the work of the consulate, to the difference between a consulate and an embassy, to his recommendations for restaurants and shops. Jay even took his picture and got his card. In what was probably the best close to an awesome day, he recommended that we go to the Italian restaurant on the island, La Dolce Vita and it was fantastic, even if we were eating Italian in China. Our backpacks loaded and carrying several shopping bags, we headed back to the hotel.
Wednesday, we stayed at the hotel for most of the day as well as we sorted out paperwork problems. As it turned out, the consulate had still not received the necessary documentation That meant much more faxing, scanning, emailing and skyping and more hard work from our amazing team back in the US. After we had finished all we could do with the paperwork, Jay and I set out on a search for jade cufflinks for my eighteenth birthday. I thought it would be a nice souvenir and we looked at some in Beijing, and had already asked several shop owners on the island for them. At one shop in particular on Tuesday, the shop owner, Linda, had asked us to come back the next day when she would have acquired some for us to look at. When we got there, she had gotten several jade cufflinks of very high quality as well as some with agate and pearl inlay. So, finally, after a long season of searching, I now have my jade cufflinks, along with some agate and pearl as well.
Thursday, we stayed at home and mostly packed things, getting ready to leave for Kunming. We are excited about seeing our friends and the children they sponsor! We left about 3 in the afternoon to go to the American consulate building for Jay and Angelle to take the oath promising to care for Anna and be truthful to the American government about all the facts regarding her history and adoption. Arriving at the consulate, with Angelle, Rebekah and Anna all wearing their matching, gold gowns Momee had made (thank you, Momee!), we filed up the escalators, showed our passports and were escorted into a large room with lots of toys in the back and interview counters lining the front wall. The adoption officer got up to speak and talked to us about advice for when we go back to the States as well as a brief overview of the process. Then, in a very simple, informal and somewhat chaotic manner she asked the adoptive parents to stand, raise their right hand and swear or affirm that all the information that they had provided was correct to the extent of their knowledge. Then, just as it started, it was over. The adoption had been finalized in that simple little step. It was, again, very amazing to watch.
That night, Jay, Micah and I, decided to say one last farewell to Guangzhou by taking our river cruise on the beautiful Pearl River. We got to see the skyline as the tall, oddly-shaped building began to light up with their flashing adds and signs. The sky darkened, turned red, then orange and finally the sun set. It was good farewell to a city that has been beautiful, but somewhat troublesome as well. Goodbye, Guangzhou! Hello, Kunming.....and, later....welcome back home! [Once again, I apologize for the excessively long post- but, I did cover four days...]
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