Spotlights
Day 2 and 3. Sightseeing in Guangzhou and flew to Changsha (Sophies region).
Day 2 - Our translater, Peter, is great! He goes with us almost everywhere to do our communicating (no one speaks english). We met Brian and Sara, a very nice couple who is also adopting a little girl, they are from our agency so we will be traveling with them the whole trip.
Peter took us all to see some sights today. We went to Six Bannon Tree Temple. A 2000 year old temple with 3 Buddas that weighed so much, no one knows how they got there. Then we went to Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall he is the forefather of modern day China (they compared him to George Washington). The architecture was very impressive.
Next, we went to the porcelian factory and watched the articians hand paint each piece. They were incredibly detailed and some porcelian was so fine they called it eggshell, it weighed close to nothing. We bought Sophie an authentic tea set to give to her when she is older (on a special day.) We then continued to Xiajiu Lu shopping area. It was such a cool experience! The shopping area was filled with so many people it was hard to walk the streets, every price was neogiable. At night we walked to dinner to a small resturant near the hotel. A cute little girl (about 10 years old) came and sat with us. She said "Hello and Nice to meet you" very clearly but that is the only english she knew. Noel and her communicated all night by drawing on the back of a placemat.
Day 3 - Traveling to Changsha - Sophies Region
We flew to Changsha today, It was a 1.5 hour flight and all went smooth. People keep taking pictures of us. Some sneak up and try to act like they are using their phone, other say "Hello" and take the picture.
Our Hotel in Changsha is beautiful. We had a buffet dinner that cost 14.oo US and included everything that you can imagine. Noel ate snake (Nic tell Cole, Lisa tell Andrew and Christopher) and deep fried eel. (the eel is actually alive before they fry it!) Kim and Mom ate all kinds of interesting things.
After dinner we all went for a message that lasted 1 hour and cost 11.oo US. It was amazing. The little China girls walked on us, kicked us, massaged us with their feet and used their whole body to get a deep tissue massage. This was the best massage I have ever had.
Tomorrow we get SOPHIE!