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.