The big red couch

This is a photo of the children's last day here in China.  They try to make it a little more formal, but that is really hard because our group is so large and the kids do not want to sit well. There are about 60 adults staring at them too!  We are off to the US tomorrow morning (which is your Wednesday 1-27-10 afternoon).  We fly to Shanghai, then Chicago, then to Harrisburg airport arriving around 10pm Thursday.  Remember we are actually flying back in time - Leola students do you know why that happens?

SEE YOU SOON!!!

Boats and bright lights

Every day there are a lot of boats that pass our hotel. They are moving things like sand, boxes, trash, ferries for people,  etc.  There is a photo below of what they look like. They are not very glamorous but they are getting some jobs done!  At night when it turns dark there are much more colorful boats that pass our hotel as you can see in the pictures. They are beautiful boats that are lit up very brightly.  The boats even have huge video screens playing commercials that we can see all the way up in our hotel room.  When they are out on the river they also play very loud and festive music with lots of spotlights all over the place.

Interesting things

We went out exploring and found a local playground and the local school (notice in the window the old computers they use).  These places don't look too different than our playground and schools.  The playground is also used by the local adults for exercise!  The woman in the photo with her hands up by her head is slowly jogging and tapping her head with her hands at the same time.  Takes coordination! The other adult is stretching, which we saw adults doing quite a bit.  Check out how the mail is delivered -- I don't think our mailman would like that much!

The town of Guangzhou on the Pearl river

Here are some photos of the town of Guangzhou. You can see that it kind of looks like Florida and in one of the photos the building is wrapped in green. Behind the green wrap is scaffolding so that they can refinish and paint the buildings. They are having the Asian games here in November 2010.  The city is on the river.

Lucy's American Dining

We tried a lot of "traditional" Chinese meals here in China and they were pretty much OK.  I like Chinese food so most of the items were good.  My least favorite was seaweed and my favorite was some of the spicy dishes that had chicken and pork in it.  We went to an American Grill here and it really does have the closest food to American food.  I had an "All American Cheeseburger" and it was wonderful!  The kids like to fold paper while they wait for their meals (origami).  We went to dinner with our new friends from Mechanicsburg, PA and our two new friends (families) from Tennesee. 

First airplane ride

Hope's first airplane ride was on Air China from Shanghai to Guangzhou (pronounced gwan-jo) .  It is like flying to Florida in the US.  It is a very nice little town. So far it is my favorite place!  Hope has been keeping Mickey Mouse close by because she loves him.  We have learned that she also loves to write, draw, play word games, fold paper into shapes, fold clothes (yes!), organize (yes!), and she seems to be a little like my daughter Cayla as well. We went to the toy store and she didn't prefer the Disney princesses she more preferred Mickey and friends.  Too cute!

Xin TIan Di

This is our visit to a shopping area and it was really neat. Can you see Starbucks?  Can you see in one of the other photos something old and something new? Do you see the zig zag bridge?  The big animal type statue is made of cans!
Xintiandi is a car-free shopping, eating and entertainment district of Shanghai, China. It is composed of an area of restored traditional shikumen ("stone gate") houses on narrow alleys, some adjoining houses which now serve as book stores, cafes and restaurants, and shopping malls. Most of the cafes and restaurants feature both indoor and outdoor seatings. Xintiandi has an active nightlife on weekdays as well as weekends.  In China, romantic settings are more common than loud music and dance places. Xintiandi means "New Heaven and Earth", and is considered one of the first lifestyle centers in China.  The zig zag bridge was built like this because the zigzag makes it more difficult for 'bad spirits' to cross.

Silkworm farming

The process of silkworm farming began with the 10-to 14-day incubation of silkworm eggs, which are produced by adult silkworm moths. According to the Silk Museum, keeping the tiny, delicate eggs (about the size of a pinhead) at just the right temperature was very important.  Once hatched, the worms, only about one millimeter long, had to be fed mulberry leaves night and day. From a birth weight of only half a milligram, they would grow 10,000-fold to a final weight of around five grams 3 inches in just 30 to 32 days. Then, in the final three days of their larval stage, the worms would start to spin their cocoons out of one continuous thin filament of silk—up to 4,000 feet long—which they emitted from a "spinneret" located near their mouths. The filament, formed primarily of a substance called fibroin manufactured in two glands on the underside of their jaws, hardened instantly when it came in contact with the air.

After about a week, the cocoons were placed briefly in a hot, dry oven to kill the adult moths inside. (If allowed to emerge from a cocoon, an adult moth would ruin the silk, so just enough adult moths were allowed to fully mature to maintain the reproduction cycle.) The cocoons were then put in hot water to facilitate the difficult and tedious task of extracting the silk. The small end of the cocoon's silk filament had to be located and threaded onto a reel, which then unwound it from the water-warmed cocoon. The silk thread was then cleaned, twisted (to prevent filaments from separating) and woven into fabric.

Silk companies now buy most of their undyed raw silk (both fabric and yarn) from China.

The Shanghai Zoo- Baby Pandas!

We didn't stay long because it was chilly and we had to catch a flight to Guangzhou.  TEN giant panda cubs will be on display at the Shanghai World Expo next year at the city's zoos, giving tens of millions of Chinese and foreign visitors a glimpse at the highly endangered species.

The Oriental Pearl TV Tower

The Oriental Pearl TV Tower is located in Pudong Park inShanghai.  The tower, surrounded by the Yangpu Bridge in the northeast and the Nanpu Bridge in the southwest, creates a picture of 'twin dragons playing with pearls' and attracts thousands of visitors year-round.  I don't really get the twin dragon part but that is the story they tell.  There is a security dog at the gate and can you tell what is funny about him? Look closely.

This 468 meters high (1,536 feet) tower is the world's third tallest TV and radio tower surpassed in height only by towers in Toronto, Canada and Moscow, Russia. The tower's unique architectural design that makes the Oriental Pearl TV Tower one of the most attractive places anywhere. Check out the picture with Hope, see how the floor is "see through" and you can see the buildings below.  We are only about half way up the tower and look how high it is!

The whole crew

Here is the whole group that is coming to the US.  We will all be together until we arrive in Chicago on the 28th.  The kids are really enjoying it and love to play together, they only had 2 hours of playtime per day when in the orphanage. Can you believe that?

Pretty?

Mr.Jones' class asked earlier in the blog if Beijing was beautiful.  I told them I would post a couple photos of it.  Below are just a couple of photos of both Beijing and Shanghai.  They are both very crowded places!  That doesn't leave much room for beautiful grass, or flowers, or lots of trees.  Beijing had a lot of garbage around and Shanghai is a much more modern clean city. I don't know if you can tell that in the photos or not but at least you can see how crowded the streets are and it is every single street that is like that. Every single one of them!  In Beijing there are 4 million people and in Shanghai there are 14 million people. That is a lot for me to even think of-- maybe Mr. Whitney can share the book How Much is a Million?  with you to refresh your memory.  I personally think that the US is much more beautiful!

Adoption Certificate and Passport processing

This morning we went to another government office and we processed the official adoption certificate - similar to a birth certificate in the US.  They also processed all of the children's passports.  It was such a long process because we have learned that here in China there is a lot of paperwork involved in this process.  We were in this government office for almost 4 hours and all of the children were very very well behaved. Below are photos of the office, which are not terribly exciting - but we sure are glad that part is over!

As we get to know Hope she is very much like my daughter Natalie when she was little.  She  LOVES to color and do puzzles. She has been a little quiet but I said to Bob that I am pretty sure that she knows some English. Well, this morning we had to go back to Civil Affairs Office to get her official adoption certificate and passport. In the envelope they also give you any information that they may have received regarding the parents if there were any to be found. For example one couple got a letter from a mother that gave up her child because she was a teen parent and she knew there was no way she could support her child. She also knew her child would need a surgery on her hip. The letter was written in Chinese, one of the officials read it to the new mom in English and it gave everyone chills. So in Hope's envelope was a school achievement award from her ENGLISH CLASS!!! Boy did I have her number :-)

I know that is limited learning since she is so young but it just cracked me up.