i love this city! no shaiman island this time; the legendary white swan hotel, where every adoptive family used to stay, is under Perpetual Renovation, so we've left the charm of the east-meets-west island in the pearl river behind for the big city swank of the shiny-neon-skyscraper part of town in the china hotel (a marriott). dig the giant martinis outside the sapphire bar. jeff and xiang-xiang pass out on the comfy sheets; and that's the view from our 15th-floor room (xia and i like to stare out the window before we go to bed and watch all the people puttering around in their apartments across the way).
sunday was half-day city tour; to six banyan temple (where we stupidly missed the buddhist blessing -- argh!) and the chen family house... a group dinner at a nearby restaurant... and then a stroll through the locals' hood, where jeff bought gardenia flower tea for a boil on his back, which he crushed and consumed in a way that basically poisoned him. do not crush the gardenia flower tea pellet and eat it!
i love this guy taking a picture of his tiny buddha in front of the mighty chan pavillion....it must be a hysterical photo.
the first half of the trip, nanning for us, is where you finalize the adoption with the chinese government. guangzhou, the second half, is where you finalize the baby's immigration stuff with the american government (so many officials, so little time!). so we're quite fond of this city from our days here with xia, and it just feels good to be back. babies had their medical checkups monday to make sure they're not bringing any contagious diseases to the u.s...all went smoothly.
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