Trip to China
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Tuesday, August 5, 2008 MAOMING We're acclimating a little better now so it's becoming more difficult to get up at 5:30 in the morning. I think we finally rolled out at about 5:45, but we were leaving at 7am and still needed to get breakfast. The boys went down early with Dad and Lori and we got to breakfast with about 10 minutes to spare. We crammed whatever we could eat, took a quick trip to the cash machine (it spits out Yuan, more on that later), and then we were off to the van. Our guide for the day, Shelly, works for Lotus travel, but is one of Holt's contracted guides. She is one of the few guides that can speak Cantonese, Mandarin, English, and one other Chinese dialect fluently. She also has friends in Maoming and is familiar with the area. We were very fortunate to have her because we've already gotten to know her from past adventures. Our driver for the day was Dale Earnhart Jr. Let me just say we're lucky to be alive. The vehicle was a Mercedes van and seated 12. It was actually relatively comfortable and the large windows gave us optimal viewing room of all the close calls with death we would experience throughout the trip. Lane markers on Chinese roads are merely suggestions. The Chinese are masters at turning a two lane highway into a 5 lane interstate, with only inches to spare on either side of a vehicle. The Chinese way of driving is normal and customary to any Chinese, but is absolutely terrifying to an American. I now know why the Chinese don't rent cars to foreigners. It probably has to do with further pollution, but culturally you simply would not survive on the road. At one point our driver was "drafting" behind a petrol truck. ("Drafting" is a term used in car racing in which one car gets as close as possible to the car in front of it to cut down wind resistance and conserve fuel.) The hazardous materials diamond indicator on the back of the truck was square in the windshield in front of us. Exiting Guangzhou, we entered a city called Foshan. Foshan is known for its tire production so you'd see advertisements for tires as far as the eye can see. We then crossed a great bridge. In Portland Oregon there is a bridge called the Fremont Bridge. The bridge is exceptionally high in order to allow tankers to pass underneath. This bridge in Foshan was probably another 25% higher than the Fremont however several months ago, a supertanker hit one side of it and destroyed the lanes on that side. Shelly explained that the broken pieces of the bridge were actually hanging down until they finally removed them just recently. Now it's under construction again, at the same height. I bet they'll regulate it a little more heavily from now on. Once passed the bridge we entered farmland for the balance of the trip to Maoming. We'd now driven about 45 minutes. Chinese villages all have a couple common characteristics. First, the buildings are all 2-3 stories high and have a common owner. The owner then rents the buildings to multiple families. At the entrance to every village there is a pagoda-like entry monument with a Chinese inscription on it. If I remember correctly, it usually wishes the guest safe passage. The villages generally sit uphill from the myriads of rice paddies. Some villages have more extensive farmlands than others but it's a general layout that repeats itself hundreds of times along the route. Today was during the 2nd harvest for the year and many of the farmers were out working the rice paddies. Many were using big gray oxen to help with the burden and fewer were using machinery. The tilling machines reminded us of a pod racer out of Star Wars or something. The machines had a bulging front end where the engine was, tapering down to the tilling blades at the back end. The driver stood just in front of the tilling blades. The wheels were metal and had enormous teeth, like gear teeth, on them for gripping the mud. They would zip around pretty well in the muck and plow with efficiency. Another thing you noticed were all the chicken and duck huts. Wherever there was a pool for irrigation water, you would see small dilapidated huts on the water's edge. Many times you would see a few hundred pure white specks dotting the banks of the pond. At first they looked like sandbags or something but when you looked closer they were actually ducks. The ducks were all white and the chickens were all red. The villages we could see were nestled in the valleys before the surrounding hills and mountains. Being a rainy area, the terrain was all lush and green. I was encouraged by the fact that the Chinese timber harvesters have done quite a bit of forest replanting. Like in Oregon, you would come upon a patch of land in which the trees looked lined up all too perfectly. There were a few of those and no visible clearcuts. The Chinese are starting to become very conscious of their environmental disaster. In part, we have the Olympics to thank for that. In the lead up to the Games, Beijing has actually removed half of its 3.3 million cars and shut down factories. They are experiencing blue sky up there likely for the first time in years. Chinese expansion and production is at an all time high though, so they have a real challenge in order to balance the output with the natural resources. There are parts of Guangzhou for example, in which the entire area was forest 20 years ago. Now there is suburban housing for as far as the eye can see. 12 million people need room to live. We made one pit stop at large gas station/food mart. It was very similar to what we have in the US along the interstates but you don't see any of the smaller, more rural variety of gas stations - only the big megaplexes and they're very well marked. Some of them are a destination in and of themselves, like this one. This one was known for its quality knives so there was a whole shopping section dedicated to the knives. As we entered the outskirts of Maoming, the first thing you notice is the utter poverty. Guangzhou, a city of 12 million, is very cosmopolitan compared to Maoming, a city of 6.8 million. Maoming is known for its oil production and those lucky enough to work in that business receive some nice stipends for living. Those not live in pretty squalid conditions. Guangzhou is actually a relatively clean city but there are no such luxuries in Maoming. There is garbage and graffiti throughout most of the city. The graffiti is strange. It's totally different than what you'd find in America. Instead of gang tags, profanity etc. you see a series of Chinese characters with a phone number underneath. There are literally thousands of them painted on walls of all shapes and sizes, even on the small walls in the center of the roundabouts. Perhaps the Chinese characters say "for a good time call..." Driving in Maoming is a competition. The Chinese don't believe in standing in line for anything so they simply push their way to the front. It's just a way of life and a way of survival. Cars are no different. You simply drive to the point you want to go and if somebody deflects off the vehicle, it's their problem. In other words, you put your blinders on and hope for the best. Our driver did it skillfully without so much as a glance at his blindspot. There were many close calls, some with mere bicycles, some with semi-trucks. The sounds of horns are pervasive. In America, people usually use their horn to indicate some animosity toward another driver for some stupid thing that driver did. In China it can mean "watch out, I'm right here" or "hurry up", but it is never done with animosity. Frankly, it's as useless as a car alarm going off in a grocery store parking lot because nobody really pays attention anyway. The roundabouts are especially interesting and they're in every intersection in Maoming. Drivers and riders of all kinds of vehicles enter from every direction resulting in a big circular, horn-honking free-for-all. Somehow everyone comes out unscathed on the correct street, it's amazing. Lot's of poverty still in view and we pass a completely naked man just walking down the street as casually as could be. You can't help but wonder what the story is behind someone like that but it's obviously very serious so the best you can do is just pray for the guy. If they have laws against indecent exposure I imagine they would be tough to enforce in Maoming just because of the poverty there. At least it is always warm. A few more turns and we turn into an alleyway. The alleyway is marked by the ever-present apartment buildings on both sides, with laundry hanging on the balconies all the way to the top. On the corner there is a small restaurant with a few locals eating and talking. Soren notices a rat running along the foundation of the same building. Immediately on the left is the building for the Social Welfare Services Administration of Maonan District - YaYa's orphanage. We have had arrangements made and they are expecting us. I step out of the van to take a few pictures and we enter as a group. Upon walking in the building you notice a strong smell that smells like marijuana. I'm not sure what that's from because I'm quite sure they don't do anything like that in the orphanage, it's exceptionally clean and orderly. Hopefully it's just a conglomeration of cleaning agents and poopy diapers or maybe the surrounding neighbors, I don't know and I'm not asking. The orphanage spans the first three floors and is a relatively smallish orphanage. The five floors above house the nannies and other tenants.

We are greeted under Mao's picture by Miss Chen and a lady who is responsible for record keeping at the orphanage. Our first stop is the Director's office one floor up. We had arrived about 10 minutes early so the director was out for his midday nap. I'm not kidding, in China they take midday nap breaks. You'll see guys resting in the bed of their pickup-truck style bicycles all over the streets. Miss Chen began to serve us tea in his office, but it was suggested that we head upstairs since the nannies would soon be breaking for lunch. Walking upstairs there was a small landing where everyone removes their shoes. They told us they would simply mop again since our feet were too big to put in the slippers. Up we went. Turning right at the top of the stairs we noticed several sleeping babies laying in cradles in the hallway. I think there were five of them, all recently orphaned. One of the babies could have fit his entire length on my forearm and his head was as small as my fist. We were instructed to take no pictures or video of the babies, and no footage in the sleeping rooms. It was a reasonable request so we complied. There was no reason to suspect anything wrong here, it's a top-notch facility. First we went to the sleeping room and found YaYa's crib. Her crib was near the corner underneath a window. All the cribs were of simple, tubular metal, stainless steel construction. They did allow us to snap some pictures of that. There were nannies playing with some babies on a mat on the floor. The babies were all fairly placid and inquisitive. We turned around and went next door to the play rooms. THE play room. The play room is where YaYa's referral pictures were taken several months and 9,000 miles ago. Yet here we were standing in it. What an unbelievable feeling. Here we were interacting with the nannies that she has interacted with for about 17 months. This is a simple room of block construction with a distinctive bookshelf painted in light pastels of pink, blue, and yellow. We memorized every edge of that bookshelf that we could see in the photos. We would sometimes see a picture of this room on the internet and get very excited. And here we were. We took some time to photograph Theresa and Dave's daughter Hannah's crib and nannies as well. Their daughter was in an adjacent room with slightly older children. Most of the children in this orphanage are younger - infants to toddlers. There are a few however that are quite a bit older, perhaps age 10 or so, but they are severely mentally disabled and unable to care for themselves at all. Time to meet the Director. The Director, Mr. Huang Qingsheng had come up to greet us. Mr. Huang was a short, fit man who was fairly young, perhaps late thirties. He gave us a very warm greeting and took some time to explain their play times and early education. We had noticed that YaYa picks up a pencil with proper form and loves to draw. (another reason she'll fit right in with this family). We then went down to his office once again. Mr. Huang handed me his business card in the traditional Asian fashion, two hands extended to hand over the card. I received it with two hands. He then took out a map to plot out the finding places for YaYa and her "sister" Hannah. We talked for a few more minutes and then headed out the door. At the entrance to the orphanage we paused for some group photos with Mr. Huang. He and his assistant then jumped in their vehicle. They were going to personally lead us to the finding places! YaYa was abandoned in front of a Maoming news printing press. Hannah was abandoned in front of a bookstore. Both were very close to the orphanage in Maonan District (there are 3 districts in Maoming). We followed Mr. Huang and his assistant as closely as possible without killing cyclists or getting killed by trucks. Eventually we ended up driving down a street that was in bad need of repair, flipping a U-turn and coming to the correct alleyway. The printing press had since been abandoned in the past year, but apparently Mr. Huang had friends there and upon calling them by cell phone they pinpointed the proper location. We verified by the old sign overhead that it was the right location when we arrived. The exact spot was located off the main street down an alleyway next to the nondescript entrance. There was lots of garbage here and quite a few motorcycles and scooters moving in and out. We took lots of photos of the spot and the surrounding area. We were very conscience of the fact that we could be being watched too. With the exception of the hospital in Huangzhou, we had now traced YaYa's entire history. I thought a lot about this moment on the ride back to Guangzhou. Next it was off to Hannah's finding spot. Hannah was left in a much more civilized place, near a Xinhua Bookstore in downtown Maoming. The storefront was very clean and it was located at a busy intersection. We paused for pictures. Nearby the bookstore were several motorcyles and their riders. Shelly explained that they were motorcycle taxis. For a few Yuan you could hail the driver, rent a helmet (a construction hard hat) and climb aboard for a ride across town. The women always sit side saddle and riders rarely pay the extra for the "helmet". A women hailed one as we stood there. There were also street vendors in the area that juice sugar cane and sell it. They put the cane through a juicer and leave the empty husks to fall in a basket. Another vendor makes cigarettes out of bamboo. Imagine a cigarette about 3 feet long and 2 1/2 inches in diameter. We watched some guy smoking one of those! Having accomplished our mission, I gave Mr. Huang's assistant a couple hundred Yuan for some petrol. She wouldn't accept but I insisted. Then we were informed that they would like to take us to lunch. They wanted to take us to a traditional Chinese restaurant but we were starting to run out of time. We also weren't sure how our stomachs would take that, so Shelly recommended the only Western restaurant in Maoming... McMao's. Contrary to popular belief, McDonald's is NOT the same everywhere. In Maoming you can order chicken wings and bowls of corn to go with your meal. the hamburgers have cucumbers as a dressing. The Happy Meals had the Olympic Fu Wa figurines for their toys. Not being beef eaters, we settled on filet o'fish meals. Shelly was kind enough to translate our orders and Mr. Huang took care of the funding. I think we were the only Caucasians in the entire city that day and we were quite the novelty. Every where we looked we were being stared at. The easiest way to disarm the inquisitor was to flash a great big smile. You were always rewarded with a smile in return and we found the Maoming citizens to be warm and friendly. All pointed at YaYa and some would comment about how lucky she was. Shelly explained that people in outlying cities like Maoming are still very traditional in their thinking about child-rearing, which means that boys are preferred to girls. That explains the high rate of abandonment. After lunch we thanked our guests profusely and still managed to carry back 3 cases of dragon fruit, more gifts from our hosts. Dragon fruit is an interesting exotic fruit. You have to husk the thing and it looks like a clear grape inside. You eat the grape-like substance and spit out the seed. The Chinese love it but I have to admit to not being exceptionally fond of it. We gassed up at a petrol station quickly before exiting Maoming. The driver paid about $6.43 for a liter of gas, filling the tank for about RMB320. If you do the math that works out to about $3.62/gallon USD. Apparently our driver was in a hurry on the way back because he took some extraordinary risks. At least we slept for about an hour and a half of it, or we would have been more tense. The main highway had a normal level of traffic for even an American divided highway but the traffic close to Guangzhou was a parking lot and cost us an extra hour. YaYa is not used to riding in vehicles and pitched a fit for most of the way. We actually put seatbelts on and had her strapped in to the Ergo baby carrier I was wearing. Here eyes are very red still from the screaming. It gave us a good glimpse of what to expect on the flight home. Ugh. Along the way we had seen 3 accidents that were probably fatal. If you do the research you find out that the accident rate is actually relatively high. Duh, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. In one case all the traffic had settled to a stop because of an accident. A tour bus was close to the guardrail and let several people out to do a nature call right there in front of the rest of the drivers. Shelly said this was very normal and culturally acceptable. In the US people would be calling 911. In another instance a man was relieving himself at the back of a bus. Just then the bus began to inch forward - and so did the man, trying to keep pace with his cover as it drove away from him. We laughed for a good half hour after that one! Even Shelly found it hilarious. Our driver began to carve his own path through the traffic, making lane changes whenever there was sufficient enough room for the van. During high speed lane changes he would squeeze in between cars when there was not quite enough room to pass comfortably. He would actually start changing lanes before he was beyond the previous car. It was nuts and we told ourselves to just avoid looking. Eventually we made it back to the hotel. We all dove to the pavement and kissed it. (kidding). We were all glad to be alive and all felt very gratified at having accomplished our mission. There was also a strong sense of suspicion and skepticism because the Chinese media doesn't often allow foreigners to see what it's real issues are and we saw it first hand in Maoming. All in all, this was a very rewarding and humbling experience that I would recommend to any adoptive parent that doesn't mind getting their fingernails a little dirty. In the evening we had planned to join the group for a dinner cruise on the Pearl River had we gotten back on time. Catherine had phoned Shelly on the way back to say that it was cancelled due to inclimate weather. The group was meeting over at La Dolce Vita instead so we had the driver drop us off there. We had some excellent Italian food and once again walked the riverfront on the way back. That's it for today's novel. In yesterday's post I had mentioned the red couch pictures but didn't have any to post. I've included them at the end of today's post. Also, I left out a detail from the medical examination. People have been asking about YaYa's size. She is 23.1lbs and 32 inches tall. Everything seems to be in order medically, but we'll have a more thorough exam once we get back.

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