Hello Chongqing! Xin Nien Kuai Le ! (Happy New Year)

Just a short 2 hour plane ride from Beijing and we arrived safely this morning in Chongqing, Met our lovely new guide "Jimmy" and checked into the Fabulous Golden Resources Hotel. It's no wonder we get so nostalgic about China, we're staying in extremely lavish 5 star hotels. This hotel is a lot like the white swan, it's a very grand scale with lots of marble, fountains, and service staff. We ended up taking a short walk around the public square in front of our hotel. Chongqing is decorated for Chinese New Year, and it is wonderful. There are flowers EVERYwhere, big inflatable decorations and lights at night. The party has definitely begun here in China, and you can feel the buzz. There is a stage just below our hotel room in the public square and we heard lovely singing until fairly late last night.

There are 2 things you have to know about Chongqing. First, breathing is extremely difficult here, and compared to Beijing, there is NO English spoken here. There are 3 or 4 people at the hotel that speak any english at all, and theirs is quite rough. It took me about 10 minutes to explain to the room service staff that we wanted 4 orders of spaghetti, I can say 4 in chinese no problem, but conveying that we wanted to receive 4 separate orders took some doing. It did work. Not so much with the Natatorium (That's what they call teh pools here). Fei needs to do a sports and recreation class. I'll have to have the front desk staff who does speak english work out how to use the pool for me.

One of the CNY flower decorations below, this kind of decor is all over the city.

This pictures shows the grand scale of the public square complete with a 100 foot long TV screen and western shopping. This place reminds me a lot of Times Square.

I was so excited to be treated to a cultural event in the middle of the square until the guide explained that this is an elaborate cell phone advertisement. I suppose in teh Big Picture, this is still a cultural event. I mean, isn't cell phone advertising still part of our cultural heritage?

Of course we found the starbucks....DUH. Can you see the sign just to the left of Sephora. Turns out that Seattle is Chongqing's sister city and there are several starbucks here. Chongqing is a very large population center with more than 37 million people compared to Beijing's 18 million.

Some more CNY decorations in the square. This picture doesn't quite convey the intensity of the smog. After arriving at the airport in Chongqing and stepping off the plane, I could immediately feel the pressure in my chest as I struggled to breath the air swollen with pollution. I have seen pictures of this place before, but never really imagined what it would feel like to try to breathe here. You do (sort of) get used to it, you must ignore it in order to have a good time, All 5 of us are doing both. The problem with Chongqing is it's mountainous location. It's in the middle of a large valley that creates an inversion and holds down the smog. It's a lot like portland from that standpoint, if there were 37 million people living there and several large factories, automobiles, and don't forget the Chinese propensity to smoke cigarettes. Unlike Beijing where there are actually non-smoking sections in restaurants now and we actually saw a LOT less smoking that a few years ago, here cigarette smoke hangs in the air everywhere. I can smell fresh smoke seeping in through the hotel room as I type this.

Our hotel has a glass elevator, and from the 32 floor we can see the holiday lights of the public square below. It's beautiful and there is no way to capture the grand scale of the light display with teh camera we have. The lights extend in either direction from this picture for another couple of blocks. The square is crowded with celebrants.

China is a lovely place to be during Chinese New Year. It will definitely take some of teh sting out of missing the FCC CNY celebration (sorry guys).

And lest we forget the REAL REASON FOR THIS TRIP...... tomorrow is GOTCHA day.

We are meeting our guide, Jimmy, at 1:40 PM and will walk over to the civil affairs office across the street to get OWEN at 2PM. This is Sunday, January 31st at 10PM in Portland (Daylight savings makes the time difference 16 hours in the winter) and Monday the 1st at 1AM for our east coast family and friends. So those of you at home who are still awake, drink a toast, say a prayer, light a candle, brush your teeth...whatever. If you are asleep, just dream a little dream about baby Owen joining his family.

Kris and Sher and Libby prepare the gifts for tomorrow. It is customary to present orphanage staff and city officials with a small token of gratitute for helping us. They are not expensive gifts, just a thoughtful exchange to say thanks. I am sure there is a more crass explanation for providing gifts to adoption officials, but this is a truly magical time, and I prefer to focus on the positive as we prepare to bring Libby's baby brother home. Next stop...gotcha day. See you all on the blog tomorrow.

Beijing Day 5 - Still a very good wall

On day 5, Kris and Matt decided to stay home in the morning. We missed the Forbidden city and Tianmen square. But we have seen these twice before and Libby desperately needed a break. The pace of sightseeing on adoption trips is frankly impossible for a 4 year old, even a kid with as much energy as Libby. Irv and Sher can fill you in on their visit to the historic landmarks, I know they are stunningly beautiful and historic, steeped in history and tradition, yada yada.

For our peng yos who are returning for their second adoption and are bringing young children, I recommend you simply cross off about half your itinerary, and spend more time close to the hotel just visiting the neighborhoods. This will allow you to take more time to rest your child (and yourself) rather than racing at a breakneck pace to gotcha day and arriving exhausted. Okay, no more advice

Some of you may remember I have previously suggested that we simply rename the great wall to the "very good wall". Not because it lacks grandeur, or shouldn't be one of the great wonders, which it clearly is. But simply because it's so treacherous to walk up a few feet, and with a 4 year old extremely terrifying, that it's a bit difficult to truly take in it's majesty. Hence the name change. Here I have presented some photographic evidence that Irv and Sher have indeed made a treacherous and death defying climb up the first battlement to claim their rightful title of "Hero". Our guide informed us that Mao had said that all Chinese citiizens who stood on the great wall were Heroes. I assume he was talking about tourists too.

The pictures simply do not do justice in showing the sheer magnitude of the slope, and extrememe unneveness of the stairs, some of them are about 18-20 inches tall and others are 3 inches tall, this uneveness combined with the extreme slope makes for a seriously scary ascent.

An important tradition is placing a lock on the great wall, and keeping the key. There is a long chain affixed to the great wall where thousands of locks have been placed over the years, and we are told that many people do this so their wishes will come true "forever" as the lock will remain on the wall forever. The lock also connects you to China forever, as you leave your name etched on a lock permanently affixed to the wall. I'd like to think we have both our wish and the connection. Libby put the lock on the wall for us, she wouldn't say what her wish was.

I bet she wished for ice cream. Refridgeration is at a premium here in China and the grocery stores have very little of it. The ice cream is stored in small chest freezers and very expensive. I believe that Kris paid about $5 US for this strawberry Hagen Daaz, which is probably not much more than you would pay in the US for this, but extremely expensive by Chinese standards.

The next morning we awoke at 4:30 AM when the tailor delivered our clothes. We had clothes made, and since there was little time for refitting, we did our fitting at 10PM the night before we left, and the tailor had to go back and do the final alterations in the middle of the night and deliver the clothes by 4:30 since we had to leave the hotel by 6AM. I have a great respect for Chinese tailors. Can you imagine an American tailor doing that for a tourist.

Beijing Day Four - Temple of Heaven, Chinese Public Health, and the Hutong

Here we are at the Temple of Heaven. Where the 15th Century Emporer came to pray to the "God of Heaven" for a good harvest. It's a stunningly beautiful place and a lot of fun to visit. Some of us had been here before, but in a place this large with such a rich history, you can always get more out of each visit.

Here is a sacred center stone that tourists take pictures on for good luck. Figured we could all use some good luck now and then.

Retired Chinese people gather in public squares, ALL the public squares everywhere in the city are full of retired chinese people exercising - apparently there is a large number of retired Chinese people....who knew. They do this is in the middle of winter. Here is a group of happy dancers spinning away in the 27 degree weather. I believe that this is why Chinese people live longer. Old people don't sit in their houses and watch TV. They go outside and dance.

After the temple tour, we headed out for a "traditional" lunch with minority group dancing. The lunch was excellent, we had rabbit cooked in bamboo, fried melon, fried fish, fried duck balls (yes I said duck balls, and they were delicious!) The only thing we couldn't eat was the chicken because they brought out the platter of fried chicken, which looked delish, completely covered in mayonaise. A note to anyone traveling in China. do not EVER EVER for any reason eat mayonaise of any kind for any reason. Chinese refridgeration and safe food handling practices are Bu Hao when it comes to mayo. Speaking of public health...The 5 pillars of Chinese Public Health appear to be: washing hands, covering your face when you cough, exercise, get immunized, and go to the doctor.

I just had to post this public health poster we saw in the restaurant. A shout out to all my public health peng yos!

The traditional dancing was very beautiful and the very lovely young ladies had us all entranced. Of course the large back tatooo must have also been quite traditional. I believe this one dated back to the 4th century BC when all the ladies in the Emporer's court was sporting similar tatoos.

After a hearty lunch, it was off to the Hutong to visit the traditional urban neighborhood. We got to ride through these neighborhoods on rickshaws, winding through the narrow streets (Hutong means narrow street of course) and stopped to visit with a family whose job it is to educate tourists about the average family who lives in a 3 million dollar urban estate. Actually, here is the scoop on teh Hutongs, for those who don't already know. First, they are single family dwellings build for important officials families and have a wonderful large courtyard and bedrooms on each side. They have been largely nationalized, and 80% of the existing Hutong houses are owned by the government, and rented to the tenants (poor or middle class citizens who have been living there for generations) for a very cheap price - about 60$ per month or so. The other 20% of the Hutongs have been privatized and are worth about 3 million because they are are a)rare, b)close in to the city, and c)historically valuable (e.g., just plain cool). These characteristics you may recognize as exactly the same things that drive up real estate everywhere. Chinese society is more similar to US society than it is different.

Everywehre we have gone, we have enjoyed spending time with the people we have encountered. The grandpa of teh Hutong (yi yi) enjoyed teaching libby chinese chess, and Libby rather enjoyed stacking up the chips and pushing them over. We probably overstayed our welcome here, but we did have to stay to get the traditional wedding pictures anyway. Irv looks like a man sentenced doesn't he?

Ice skating on a frozen lake near the Hutong. I just love these chairs with runners and propelled with golf club shafts. I really wanted to go ride one, but there was no time.

We finished off the day with a very exciting acrobat show, the best one we've seen so far, and an Exhausted Libby and Kris went to the hotel room for macaroni and cheese ( atreat brought from home for just such an occaison) and matt and Irv and Sher went across the street to have a bowl of noodles at a little shop. Of course this little diner had no english menus or signs or english speaking staff. But again, thanks to teacher Fei I was able to ask for Ju Ruo (pork) and Mein (noodles) and we recieved the most EXCELLENT bowl of pork noodle soup. It was an absolutely perfect end to a long day and cost 10 yuan each, about $1.50. This is another reason I believe that Chinese people live longer. In America we have the dollar menu, in China they have very lean pork and vegetable noodle soup.

Beijing Day Three - Dinosaurs!

Waking up at 5AM is sleeping in in this time zone where night is day and day is night. We all felt rather refreshed and ready for the day. After a lovely American/Chinese breakfast in the hotel, we jumped in a cab and headed out to pay our respects to the Chairman. You are not allowed to bring in any bags or cameras when you visit Mao, he lies in state only four hours a day and the rest of the time he is kept on ice. (If only the Chinese were as careful with Mayonaise) So we have no pictures of the Chairman, but here is the front of the "People's Hall" where Mao lies in state. Since Matt had to hold everyones bags, everyone else went through first to see Mao. Kris bought Libby a Chrysanthemum from the lobby to place on Maos tomb. We were the only white people there that day. When libby placed the flower next to Mao's tomb, the very young and stoic Hall Guard couldn't help but smile at Libby. When it was Matt's turn to go through, Libby asked to go again, so she got to see Mao twice.

After Mao, we went to the Museum of Natural History. Since we weren't able to get a cab to take us, we were approached by a pedicab (bicycle cab) who said he could take us to the museum. we asked how much? in chinese, and he made a hand sign for 3. We assumed 30 Yuan, about $5 US and what a cab costs across town. There is room for 2 people in a cab, so we split up and went in two cabs. After about 15 minutes negotiating the heavy street traffic on a bicycle, we arrived at the Museum and then the cabby pulls out a card that says in English....the Charge is 300 Yuan because Pedicabs are important cultural preservation. So they were asking for $50 US per cab, for a 15 minute bicylcle ride. Let me tell you, this is basically theft. Matt told him in English that that was just silly, we handed them 200 Yuan each and told them to get lost. Which they eventually did after much argument. 400 Yuan is about $60. Still basically extortion, but it was a good lesson in being specific beforehand about price. We enjoyed the pedicab, and would definitely take another one, of course we'll negotiate price ahead of time. It was a lot of fun to see the city and the traffic on a bicycle.

The Museum is amazing and is highly recommended for all families who are coming this way. We spent about 3 hours or so there and really enjoyed it. There are several very large dinosoars, the exhibits are all very interesting, we especially liked the Darwin exhibit. It was a travelling exhibit from the American Museum of Natural History and was exceptional. Libby loved the dinosaurs and all the taxidermed animals. She also really enjoyed the 3d movies about the dinosaurs, the effects were very cool and included being sprayed with water, getting hit with a puff of warm dinosaur breath, and vibrating seats.

After the Museum, it was getting late and after about 15 Nervewracking minutes standing outside in 27 degree weather with Libby and not being able to get a cab (again!) Kris stepped up to the plate and asked for directions to get a cab from the traffic cop, she managed to be understood well enough for the cop to point to the spot to wait. Then a sweet chinese woman who saw were were struggling to get a cab, gave us her cab, that she had just flagged down. Once inside Kristin used her Mandarin again to say "ma fa ni, di wa dao, Ji Chang" which means take me to the airport. He looked at her funny and she realized her mistake and said "Jo Dian" which means hotel and he nodded in understanding (Thank you FEI!) then she gave him the hotel card with the address on it and before you know it we were home.

We finished the day with an exquisite hot pot (lamb, beef, vegetables, tofu, noodles). When Kris asked for noodles, the wait staff repeated "noodles" and laughed uproariously so kris said "mien" and we got noodles. The hot pot here made me really appreciate what we have in Portland. The Beijing Hot Pot restaurant on 82nd avenue is very authentic. Our food here in Beijing was basically the same as we got in Portland.

Beijing Day Two - Blue Zoo and Grilled Cheese

Waking up this morning was very interesting. Kris and I woke up around 2AM and were ready to go, nothing like a little 15 hour time difference to get those circadian rhythms going at 2AM. Unfortunately we couldn't go to breakfast before 6 and thankfully Libby was still asleep.
Kris and I took a walk around the block and greeted the early morning "Beijingers" with their fluffy little dogs.... They were very friendly and got a kick out of the fact we recognized them on our second trip around the block. It was about 27 F outside, but sunny and no wind so it acutally isn't too uncomfortable. We thought that we would spend most of our time here cold. . . it is quite the contrary. The heat is blasting and we are peeling layers. For our friends traveling in the winter. Beijingers love their heaters. the restaurants, hotels and even the aquarium are all rather warm.

We met our guide after breakfast, around 9AM and went to the HuongQiao Market to have some clothing made. The HuongQiao market has changed a bit, the merchants are incredibly aggressive, like nothing I have ever seen. As you walk by the merchants they call out to you and even grab you. The recession has hit China with force and made everyone a bit desperate. Here is Libby examining the fabrics. She has been a big hit in China. Walking around with her is a bit like walking around with a movie star

The highlight of the day was the amazing dumplings we had for lunch. We asked our lovely new friend, guide Cindy, to take us to good place were locals go to get dumplings. We went to a storefront restaurant with a large lobby completely full of fish, frogs, and eels in buckets (smelled GREAT!) and we ended up in a very large and very full restaurant. There was no english or even pictures on the menus so our guide had to order and it was absolutely delicious. We had 4 different kinds of dumplings.

After lunch we went to the BlueZoo, Beijing's famouse aquarium with the very long underwater glass tunnel. It was a really nice aquarium, we are obviously spoiled by the amazing aquarium in Newport, but it was good to have something fun for Libby to do, and the grownups all had a good time too. There was better access to the sea life. We could get nose to nose with a giant Loggerhead. They were beautiful! Libby commented that she really liked the divers.
By the time we got back to the hotel it was 4 and we were all jet lagged an exhausted. Kris and Sher went shopping and Irv and Libby and Matt hung out in the hotel room and watched CCTV (China Central TV) news in english. For those of you have not been here for a few years, English language is everywhere, signs, television, menus, and many people speak English. This is both nice, and disappointing.

For dinner we were exhausted and Libby had already fallen asleep by 6PM (she slept through the night waking up at 5AM with the rest of us) so we decided to order room service. The extensive menu includes everything from pizza, fried chicken wings and burger and fries to seafood stirfry and fried rice. Since there was such an extensive menu, of course Kris and Sher decided that they wanted a grilled cheese sandwich, one of the only things NOT on the menu. So being the dutiful husband and son-in-law, I called room service and asked for a grilled cheese sandwich. What number please? asked the girl downstairs, referring to the item numbers on the menus. I said, it's not on the menu. She said, Oh, okay, how do you make it please. Now I was expecting her to tell me to just pick a number. I was not expecting her to ask me in a very nonplussed way, How do you make it? So I explained as best as I could the intricacies of the American grilled cheese sandwich. She asked lots of follow up questions like "you mean just cheese on white toast, no sauce?" I said no sauce and cook the sandwich to melt the cheese. She said she would send it right up. If i didn't like it I should call her back. I promised I would and about 1 hour later the sandwich arrived. It was a club sandwich with three pieces of dry toasted white bread and cheddar cheese and nothing else. The cheese was just a bit warm from the toast. The fries were absolutely perfect as was the Australian table wine that went with it. Even though Kris and Sher brought back some Chinese Wine from the grocery store, the cheap hotel wine opener broke off in the cork and it had to be sent down with the bellhop to try to remove the corkscrew embedded in the wine. He sheepishly came back about 20 minutes later and handed me a new bottle of australian table wine with a screw top (he demonstrated how to open this for me), and the chinese wine with the corkscrew still intact.

As much as we enjoyed "going native" on our fist trip. . . we have to admit the comforts of what we know as normal are more important with a child traveling . Since they had only delivered one sandwich for all four of us, we had to order pizza and fried rice (matt stubbornly refuses to eat western food here, the rice was his). The pizza was very good, much better than the toasted cheese.. . . I think it is better to stick with what is best. . . Chinese food! Dumpling and soup are perfect meal but not all that accessible in the Hotel.

We made it!

We arrived in Beijing safe and sound yesterday at noon, Beijing time after a 27 hour trip. The trip was uneventful, if somewhat physically painful. Airline seats were not meant for a 15 hour sit. Libby was amazing. She slept for 10 of the 15 hours on the LA to Guangzhuo leg, then kept herself busy with lots of activities. Here we are in the lobby of the Radisson, BLU hotel in downtown Beijing with our new friend, guide Cindy.

After a swim in the pool, and a lovely dinner in the lobby hotel, Libby crashed in her "roll-away'bed". Sort of reminds you of a laundry basket doesn't it. We LOVE china.

Libby (and mommy and daddy) sends her love to our friends and family back home.