Final Days in Guangzhou

On Tuesday night we joined our group and headed out on the Pearl River cruise. It is a dinner cruise along downtown Guangzhou. They have colorful lights on the buildings and bridges so it was very pretty. We had a buffet dinner which was not very good. I figured I could at least eat a roll and when I bit into it it was filled with some weird brown goo. We couldn't decide what it was but Hadley liked it. Anytime I got something that weirded me out Hadley would eat it. She likes everything we have given her, except yogurt. That is the only thing she tried and clearly disliked. After dinner we went on the top outside deck of the boat and enjoyed the lights. If was breezy and cold outside so we didn't last long.

Apparently this building in one of the tallest buildings in the world.

When we got back inside, the after dinner entertainment began. I was glad we didn't miss it. It was a sight to see. There was a woman dressed as a clown (I think that is the look she was going for). She juggled oranges, knives, a soccer ball, and made balloon animals for the kids. The grand finale of her act was when she spun a soccer ball on her finger and then went around the room putting it on the audience's finger as it was spinning, all while Livin' La Vida Loca blasted from the sound system. She tried to hand it to Hadley and obviously that poor baby was weirded out and refused to touch it. She put it on my finger and although I was equally weirded out by her I participated and held the spinning ball on my pointer finger. Someone got a picture so I will be sure to get that and post it here at some point.

This lady was so strange. We didn't know what to thing about the show. It was very odd, but funny.

Wednesday morning we headed to Shamian Island to do some shopping. It is a manmade island build by the British in the 1800s. It was very quiet and quaint and you forgot you were in China when you were there.

Starbucks on the Island

 There are different shops that cater to the tourist and sell silk dresses, squeaky shoes, chops, jade, etc. You get to haggle for a lower price with the different shop owners. I have discovered that they respond much better when a man does this. Aaron didn't like the lowest price they offered and walked out and the shop owner chased him down the street and gave in to Aaron's price. When I tried this technique they gave me a sob story about how bad their business was and how they really couldn't go any lower on the price. I am such a sucker and bought the items anyway. We stocked up on silk dresses in a variety of sizes for the girls to wear for years to come. We also got a few gifts and knick knacks that we had been eyeing all week. The prices on the island were definitely cheaper than elsewhere for the same exact items. We finished off our morning shopping with a quick lunch at Lucy's. There is a statue on the island that adoptive families photograph their child on. We tried to pose Hadley, but didn't have much success.


We headed back to the hotel and finished packing. We were getting picked up at 4pm to catch a van to Hong Kong where we would spend the night before catching our morning flight home through Chicago.

We met our guide in the hotel lobby a little after 4 and picked up Hadley's visa. We received our special sealed envelop to give to US immigration when we got to the US. At this point we were free to leave.

Moms and babies in our group. All four baby girls are 15-16 months old. 

Our guide Aron. She was wonderful!

We had a 3 hour van ride to Hong Kong. The driver drove like a madman bobbing and weaving into traffic or driving in the emergency lane to pass cars and then cutting them off. It is totally acceptable to cut people off, drive within inches behind or next to someone else's car and honk constantly. We had to pass through immigration when we left China and entered Hong Kong. We had our passports and some paperwork that we gave to our driver. Our van pulled up to the guard booth and the side doors and rear tailgate door flew open and bright lights were blinding us. The man in the guard booth check our passports, carefully making sure who was who and that we were the people on the passport. I had to hold Hadley up so he could get a closer look just to be sure. He nodded and we continued on to the next set of guard booths. Again they were checking our passports and making sure we were all legit. While the man in the guard booth was carefully examining our paperwork and passports a woman came up to my side of the van and pointed something at our drivers head and pulled the trigger! Well, fortunately it was not a real gun but a thermometer scanner gun. From about three feet away she was able to scan our driver. Next she aimed for Hadley's head, then me, and finally Aaron. Aaron mentioned after the fact that he was very relieved she aimed for the driver first and not Hadley or I, since he had bot idaeApparently, if you have a fever then may not let you in. Note to other's traveling. Give your children Advil early in the van ride so it has time to kick in before you get scanned. I had heard about having your temperature checked but figured it was at the airport. I am so relieved none of us had a fever.  

We were dropped off at the hotel that was connected to the airport. We got checked in and headed down to find dinner. It was already almost 8pm by this time and Hadley was hungry and tired, as were Aaron and I. Everything in the hotel was ridiculously expensive so we decided to walk into the airport and try to find something more affordable. I am sure you all can guess what we ate....McDonalds, again. We headed back to the room, ate dinner and decided to call and check on our flight to confirm we had reserved a bassinet for Hadley to use on the plane.

This is when the story starts to go downhill....continued in the next post.