We made it Home!

We have now been home for almost a week, and are almost recovered. Lexi has been amazing and Karen is starting to recover. Lexi has the requisite ear infection and cold, but her brothers love her and she has quickly become a part of the family.

To tie things up, I have some pictures and video from our last days in Guangzhou and our trip home and some video from the Great Wall that is worth viewing.

Our trip from Beijing to Chicago was uneventful, nee; even pleasant. The United flight attendants were wonderful - they made a bed for Lexi on the bulkhead and she slept for almost the whole trip. When the junior flight attendant has 34 years of experience, you know you have a sought-after route.

First - our review of the Sino-Swiss Hotel:



And our final lunch with our new friends:





And Dr. Allen:



And Candy at the Airport:



Getting ready to go:






Lexi was already comfortable on the plane:




The trip to Chicago only took 12 hours, which seemed much shorter than our trip over (maybe it was because we slept a bit). Once we landed, I stopped to retrieve the strollers which we were told would arrive at the end of the jetway by a woman who could barely speak English. I had just spent two weeks in China with people that spoke the language better, and here was an incompetent that could barely spit out the language. Needless to say, we DID NOT get the strollers and were last in line at immigration. United may have great senior flight attendendants, but their ground staff leaves a lot to be desired. As one of our travel mates said - at least things were predictable and on time in China. The strollers did finally show at the baggage claim.

We did get through immigration and customs, and Lexi became a citizen (once again - how cool is that!) and then sat in O'Hare for the next three hours, changing gates three times. That's what you get for flying through Chicago in the winter.

We finally landed at Bradley at about 12 AM - and yes - it was still Thursday. Fortunately, it became Friday by the time we walked in the door at home. After 15000 miles and over 24 hours of travel, we had made it back. And Karen has never looked so peaceful on an airplane:



In the interest of posting everything that was interesting (at least everything that I found interesting) - here are a few more video clips from the trip. The first is from early in the trip - footage from the Great Wall that is truly amazing:



And video from our Buddhist blessing:

As I process more of the video, I will put it up - I have video from the Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square, and the Temple of Heaven.

Thank you to everyone for following our trip and meeting our daughter. It was a truly incredible, once in a lifetime experience.

On our way home!

It is Thursday, December at 3:50PM, and we are sitting in the Air China Lounge awaiting our return flight to Chicago. This is the first net access I have had since our return to Beijing, so I wanted to get in a quick update.
After our swearing in ceremony, we got on a China Southern plane back to Beijing. It was a much better flight than the one we took into Guangzhou, but when we landed, we actually used the old-syle stairs to go outside (this is what we expected from China the whole time, but we have been spoiled).
We got to the Sino-Swiss Hotel at the airport at about 11:30 PM. WHAT A DUMP! We have been spoiled by the hotels of the last few weeks. As we walked in, we heard Queen coming out of the karaoke bar and many of us spontaneously started singing Bohemian Rhapsody, a-la Wayne's World. It was a riot.
We spent the day today basically waiting to go to the airport - and here we are. At the immigration check, the border guard gave us a suggestion - "why don't you try to have your own next time?" Thanks guy - why don't you work on your reproductive policies and take care of your daughters.
When we land in Chicago, Lexi immediately becomes a US Citizen. How cool is that? And it will still be Thursday...
As for the lack of multi-media content in this post - I will post pictures and video when we get home. We can't wait to get back!

Guangzhou

We have been in the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou for the past two days. Aside from sleeping on a bed of concrete, we have been lucky to have nice weather and more to keep us occupied, and lots more to buy. There are multiple shops right outside the hotel with lots of people trying to sell almost everything - from suitcases to clothes. We were willing participants in this dance.
First - here is some video from Guangzhou - first a little tour of Shamian Island (note the British architecture) and then some "local cuisine"





We took a nighttime cruise down the Pearl River past our hotel. If we weren't in China, you would think we were in Epcot Center. There were some spectacular views.




The White Swan is in the background, all decorated for Christmas

Lexi doing the Brett-style back arch:


One of the big events in Guangzhou is the "Red Couch" picture, in which all the babies from the adoption group are put on a couch in the lobby for a group picture. What a riot - ten babies posing (and fighting).





The report from the orphanage had a little section that said that Lexi is active and has a strong personality, she likes grabbing other babies toys, and fighting some other babies. She is going to fit perfectly in our house:




But she does get along with her friends. Here she is having lunch with Zoe:


The video from the couch is hilarious:



Finally, we were taken to a Buddhist temple for a baby blessing. I will post that video as soon as I can unload it from the camera, but here are the pictures. This is the one place in Guangzhou that actually looked Chinese.







We love to eat!


And this is our guide, Candy. She was absolutely wonderful, and made the trip extraordinary.


This afternoon we are going to the US Consulate to swear-in Lexi as a US Citizen and get her visa. Then we fly back to Beijing, and come home tomorrow! I will try to make one more entry from Beijing.

Some Catch-Up

We arrived in Guangzhou yesterday afternoon after a questionable flight on Hainan Airlines. It seems that they don't believe in fliying over 25000 feet on short flights, so the upshot is the plane bounces all over the place. Needless to say this was not well received.

Guangzhou is a much nicer city (or at least it appears that way, since the sun is out). We are at the White Swan Hotel, which was billed as the ultimate hotel. It is not the ultimate hotel - it is ok, but a bit dated, and extremely crowded and expensive. The area is tailored to Americans adopting babies (since the US Consulate is here) so it is priced accordingly. Furthermore, the hotel is on an island - Shamian Island - that was built by British occupying forces early in the 20th century, so the buildings show a lot of colonial British influence. It feels a bit like Charlotte Amalie in St. Thomas - tropical climate, British Colonial architecture, and lots of people trying to sell you everything. I'll add some of the video tomorrow.

Since I am catching up, here is a little more from Chongqing. On Saturday, we went to a park at the highest point in the city and climbed to the top of a pagoda to take some pictures. As it was all week, the city was socked in, but you can see some of the city:










Check out the twin girls we saw in the park:



And finally, as if this city weren't big enough - everywhere you turn, you see cranes and construction:




I will show you Guangzhou tomorrow!

A Trip to the Zoo

I truly love the ability to provide multi-media in these postings. Here is our trip to the Chongqing Zoo, along with my favorite attraction thus far - the dancing bear. I have put these videos on You Tube, which seems a bit friendlier, and I hope that the bear will reach the masses!

First - the pictures. The Zoo in Chongqing was an oasis in an otherwise dank city, with all sorts of exotic animals. Leading up to the Pandas were these raccoon-like pseudo-bears (they are Red Pandas):



Then the main attraction:





And then the Tiger:


The Bear:

Ostriches:

Even the payphones are pandas:



Here is the video of The Bear - I can't get enough of this one:


And more video of the Pandas:


As we left the zoo, we passed a super Wal-Mart. It is a novelty, but it very interesting to see the most ubiquitous store half a world away. There is only one in Chongqing, and it isn't very popular.



And then it was time to eat more Chinese food (that's Lexi's friend Zoe):

And get ready for bed:

Lexi's First Video!

Here is a small video clip from Lexi's first few days with us. The first piece is with Karen at the Civil Affairs Office where we first met, and then a few days later at the Chongqing Zoo in front of the Tigers. The irony of this clip is that I can't view it in China (without going through a proxy). Google Video is blocked...

One Week In Chongqing

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog - I know lots of you are furiously clicking refresh looking for more information. We have been spending time with Lexi, adjusting to the time zone and the sleep schedule, and trying to keep sane.

Chongqing (pronounced Chong-CHing - we have been doing it wrong for a while) is a very large industrial and somewhat ugly city. Karen has aptly described it as a cross between Detroit and Pittsburgh on steroids. It sits on the confluence of the Jailing and Yang Tse Rivers and is divided by those rivers - however unlike Manhattan or even Pittsburgh, there doesn't seem to be any real city plan. There are just skyscrapers on top of other skyscrapers piled on teeming streets that seem to wind their way among the buildings. The streets are so busy, they have built fly-over walkways for pedestrian traffic. The streets are covered with a layer of dirt and the weather is perpetually misty and damp - probably due to the smog. There are 31 Million people in this municipality - a number so large it is difficult to process.

We are staying at the Hilton, which is an absolutely fabulous hotel. It is nice to know that we have an American oasis in this huge city. Since we are practically living here for a week, I promptly upgraded our room to a large suite with executive club access. Both have been a godsend.

On Tuesday, we spent a large part of the day getting acclimated to Lexi and to our surroundings. The morning was spent at the China Communications Bank making our "donation". As the teller scrutinized every bill, I wondered why we couldn't have just wired the money in and avoided the exchange rate hit (the dollar continues to weaken against the Yuan). We then went on a shopping excursion to another part of the city to get diapers and formula.

Here are some pictures - we quickly got Lexi into her new wardrobe...






We were then on to the "shopping district" Liberation Square:

You just cant avoid Oracle!






The next day, we went to lunch and a Silk factory, where they showed us the silk worm cocoons and the process to make silk blankets.
A note about the food - as you can see from the pictures, they serve all of us around a large round table and put dished on the lazy susan. We change location and the guides tell us they are ordering "something different" but it has become all the same. The food is somewhat tasty, but it gets old quickly. I am brought back to college when we had Hunan Garden takeout three times a day, then I didn't eat Chinese food for three years. The same is happening here. We have been avoiding dinner - thankfully they serve french bread and cheese and other snacks on the executive floor (our dinners). Last night, we got the guides to bring us KFC to the hotel.




Thanks everyone for their emails - keep them coming! We are trying to respond to everyone, but know that you are getting them through and that we appreciate the contact.

We saw Panda Bears yesterday at the zoo. That is coming up in my next post - along with a dancing Tibetan Bear!