Our Journey to the Middle Country

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Friday 24 March 2000: Nanning - Guangzhou

David handed out the family certificates and the baby's passports. The photo on Delainie's passport was the same as her original referral picture. The photos on the certificates had been taken back on the afternoon of Tuesday 21 March.

I was quite sad to leave the city of Nanning. It's a lovely city, and it's where we met our daughter. In a way, we've taken a part of the city with us in the form of Delainie. And a part of us both will always remain there.

Nanning Airport

We looked for postcards of Nanning again without any luck.

We said goodbye to Joy and took down her address. I didn't know that her Chinese name was Zhu Yan. Tammy gave her the necklace that we had meant to give Delainie's foster mother. Tammy said that Joy had been like a mother to us all on the trip.

We paid 150 Yuan ($18.58 USD) per family for our luggage being over-weight.

CZ 3332 - China Southern

Fly to Guangzhou with CZ3332 at 5:20pm. This was Delainie's first airplane ride. She was wonderful on the flight which was good. We would have four more flights to go until we were home.

While we all flying as a group to Guangzhou, Wesley, Lori, Adam and their new daughter Xiao Yun arrived ahead of the main group at around 6pm. We had not seen them since Beijing.

Guangzhou, Guangdong

What first struck me when we were on the bus to the hotel was that it was much bigger here and more modern. There were elevated roadways and so many lit signs, many of them neon signs.

David collected a blank medical form, form 157 and baby's passport from everyone. He also collected 400 Yuan ($49.56 USD) for the fee for the Visa for Delainie.

Some place I picked up a flyer for apartment in Guangzhou. It was interesting.

Dong Fang Hotel - Guangzhou

Dong Fang Hotel
120 Liu Hua Road
Guangzhou, China 510016
Phone: (8620) 8666-9900
Fax: (8620) 8668-1618

We ordered room service for dinner. Tammy had the fried rice and I had the beef and peppers. It was wonderful! I would end up ordering this many more times. It would have made the greatest fajitas too.

After we were unpacked the first night I went down to the lobby to exchange some money and go out and get some bottled water. David had said that there was a 7-11 around the corner. I walked outside and headed over to the right along the street. I ended up crossing the street on an elevated crosswalk.

A woman who was loitering there asked if I wanted a "massage". I didn't expect this. I just shook my head and said Bu shay shay. ("No thanks.") I looked around a bit more for the store, crossing back over to the side of the street with the hotel. It was better lit there. I was shaken up a bit and felt a bit paranoid. I decided to head on back to the hotel. I looked around at some of the shops connected to the Dong Fang and then went on into the lobby. A second woman near the entrance also asked if I wanted a "massage". This was unsettling. Here I was propositioned twice and I'm not even wearing a sailor's suit.

This experience gave Guangzhou spoiled feel and I wished we were back in Nanning.

At some point, we visted a doctor at the hotel for some cream for Delainie's face. She was getting something like excema. I think that we went with Loretta and Elisabeth, but I'm not certain.

The hotel was very different than in Nanning. We paid for room service when it was dropped off. They took the tray and we simply put the stacked dishes in the hall adjacent to the door. We also had a difficult time explaining that we wanted napkins with our utinsils for dinner. They ran us up a roll of toilet tissue and a box of tissues.

One other thing that was different is that we were all on the same side of the hallway and some of us were on the other end of the lobby on our floor. We didn't spend as much time outside in the hallway's camping as I had taken to calling it.