A trip to a "beautiful place"
December 3, 2005

Today we took a trip to Baiyun (which means White Cloud) Mountain, what the locals call a "beautiful place".  It truly was.  It's actually a very small mountain, but there were thousands  and thousands of people there.  Most of them walk up the mountain which is about 3 miles.  But we figured we would die of a heart attack if we tried, so we took the cable cars that were built especially for lazy Americans I'm sure.

Once we were at the top, we became the attraction.  When we are staying at the hotel everyone is so used to seeing Caucasian people with Chinese babies that it no longer phases them.  But as we get off Shamian Island, we become a rarity.  People continuously would point at us and talk about us.  Older women would come up to us and say, "lucky baby".  Younger kids would come and practice their English on us.  No one ever said or did anything negative, but it was a bit disconcerting having eyes on us everywhere we went.  Overall, we truly appreciated Baiyun Mountain and seeing an area of Guangzhou that everyday people come to all the time.

The people in this area spend a great deal outdoors.  Some of that is because of the beautiful weather, but we also think it is because they have so little space in their homes.  Entire families of four or five people (sometimes 3 generations) live in one-bedroom apartments.  I showed a shopkeeper a picture of our house back in Virginia and she said it looked like a hotel!  The people here have no front or back yards and not much room in their homes.  So instead they head out to the parks.  Each morning we watch as hundreds of people, mostly the older generation, practice Tai Chi and fan dancing in the nearby park.  All day long there are older men playing board games and younger men and women playing hacky-sack.  Everywhere you turn in the park there are people walking or sitting, enjoying themselves.  We always feel comfortable there.

Tomorrow we head out to the countryside to get an idea of rural life in this area.  We are looking forward to this.  We enjoy Shamian Island, but it is getting rather small after being here for seven days.  Good news is that we received all the adoption paperwork from China, so JacJac is officially ours and can never be taken back by the Chinese government!  All that is left is to get an American visa for her.  Our U.S. Consulate appointment is scheduled for Monday morning.  After that Janie has to use all her Ph.D. powers to figure out how to fit all the stuff we've bought into our suitcases for the trip home on Wednesday!

More tomorrow…
Kevin & Janie