The Road to Gaozhou.....

I lost my internet connection for awhile. Not sure what happened, but after lots of tinkering I got it up and running again. I didn't have my tech expert, BK, to call for help, but somehow I fixed it :). Amazing what you can do when you are desperate!

Anyway.....the last two days have been interesting. We have definitely seen all sides of life in China. Beijing, Xi'an and Chengdu are very progressive and upscale and Zhanjiang is even a nice city in and of itself, although much smaller. It is called the "pearl of the south" and parts of it look a lot like Florida. But our "road trip" to Gaozhou allowed us to see a rural side of China where life is still very "unprogressive". Even though there are almost three million people living there, it is considered a "village" and it is the "country". We saw farmers with single water buffalo drawn plows working in the rice fields. People walking with huge jugs of water and other liquids or grains hanging from a bar across their shoulders. But our accommodations were very good and we stayed at the 4 star Gao Zhou Hotel, which was just as nice as our previous hotels.

Upon arrival, we had lunch with the Vice Director/Doctor of the Gaozhou Social Welfare Institute, Mr. Wu. He seemed very pleasant and although he didn't speak English, our guide/interpretor was able to facilitate the conversation. He did bring along a bound book of files/papers from when Mia and Cat were adopted and it had all the documents from their adoptions. It did not have any information or documents we did not already have, however we were pleased to see they did keep some type of record of the girls' arrival at the SWI as well as their adoptions. We did not get to visit the SWI but we did visit each girls' finding site. I had received pictures of Mia's site from two different sources, one of which was a native Gaozhuren. It is a popular, well-traveled bridge at the base of a large pagoda-like tower. It looked just like the pictures and afterwards we got lychee seed necklaces, a popular tradition in Gaozhou. Lychee is a fruit that Gaozhou is known for producing and the seed is extremely hard. They represent "protection" and "good fortune". I didn't quite understand what the guide was telling us, but it is somehow connected to the tower. You can have anything you want carved on the seed, such as your name, your Chinese zodiac or other Chinese symbol. Mia had her name and an Ox (her Chinese Zodiac) carved on hers. I had her Chinese name and the symbol for "love" on mine.

I would like to think her birth mother/parents placed her by the bridge and tower for the dual purpose of knowing she would be seen quickly as it is a well-traveled bridge and the symbolism of the tower being they wished her " protection" and "good fortune", both of which I feel came to her :).

Our guide also took us to some local tourist attractions in Gaozhou. The most meaningful one was the shrine of the "Xian Lady". She is a revered heroine in Gaozhou who lived about 1500 years ago and was the wife of one of the governors. She ended up being much more famous and respected than her husband because she is credited with uniting the people during a time of great division among the different districts. She also successfully devised a plan to thwart a takeover of the King by most of the other Governors in the area and was able to bring down the Governor behind it. Because of her efforts, peace was restored to the area. Deb and I loved that our girls' were from an area where a woman is practically worshipped and there is a whole "temple" built for her and people come and pray to her. Don't get me wrong, we don't believe they should, but it's amazing that a place like China where the male is held up in such high esteem that there is any place where a woman is a hero!

After one night there though, we were ready to return to Zhanjiang. At the Haibin, they have a very nice Hot Springs and Spa. The girls had a great time swimming. I attempted to get a more relaxing/normal massage, unfortunately they had no masseuse working.

All in all it was a good journey, but Mia and I both ready to head home. We miss our modern conveniences, comforts of home, family, friends and pets! M & m