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Our Trip
November 25, 2001 - Day Eight: Tick Tick Tick click HERE for Day Eight Photos Questions for Ms. Foster's Classroom: The Great Wall is more than 50,000 kilometers long. How many miles is that, and how far across the United States would that be? Paige’s Comments: It's marginally frightening to imagine, but at this time tomorrow, Ann and I will be parents. We roll out of bed at 5:30 a.m., leave for the airport at 7:30 a.m., catch an 8:50 a.m. China Eastern Airways 737 to Nanjing, get in 90 minutes later and then drive three hours to Changzhou, where our daughter Sophia will be waiting for us. Along with mounds of paperwork to sign and notarize and doublecheck for errors. ANY errors. If we sign it without catching a misspelling or an incorrect date, then we're going to be plunged into a bureaucratic nightmare that is going to be difficult, if not impossible, to dig our way out of. Once we finish the paperwork, we meet her and drive back to Nanjing, check into the Hilton and begin a four day waiting process for every thing to get "officialized" by the Chinese government. Then we fly to Gaungzhou on Friday for five days of US paperwork at the consulate there. Today was spent with the other families of Group 64, starting out at 8 a.m., and heading first to a jade store (aka: jade tourist trap) that the tour group I think gets kick backs from for dragging gullible rubes like us to. Then it was a bus trip up into the mountains and the Great Wall. I'll tell you what: we've been very fortunate over the years to get in some incredible travel experiences courtesy of the (seemingly) millions of frequent flier points I rack up with Clifton Radio. Snorkling on the Great Barrier Reef and hiking in the Brazilian rain forest were incredible…but are completely different compared to this experience. Words and photos don't even capture the unbelievable wonder that is the Great Wall of China. The portion closest to Beijing is HIGH up in the mountains, and the temp in the city was 15 degrees. So imagine the temps up there, accentuated by gale force winds. Almost ripped the clothing from our bodies. The first thing I did off the bus was buy an authentic Chinese army, Red Brigade winter cap, complete with a red star on the bill and ear flaps. This might be the coolest article of clothing I now have. My goal? To complete the ensemble with a copy of Mao's little red book and sit at the bar at Trails End in Scandia, reading it and wearing the cap. I even got my photo taken with three of my new comrades. Unfortunately the photo is three inches too high and crops my product-placement of the new Ja Rule CD. We hiked to near the top of one of the rises and then, with the wind propelling us, returned the way we came. We drove back towards Beijing and had lunch at a government-run roadside cafeteria. We split the tour early, skipping the Summer Palace and are now back at the Radisson for a nice, quiet (last) meal together in the Huang Du dining room before coming back upstairs and trying to re-pack everything. Which is going to be interesting. We've accumulated some items in the past seven days. Whoops. The
next time we log on, we'll be parents. Laugh. Cry. Point. Whatever.
Just share in the experience as we log on tomorrow night with the
first ever photos of the new (and improved) Rinke-naber Family. Ann’s Comments: Started the day with a nice breakfast with Kelly and Suzanne, and then we went to the business center to do some emailing for the website. We left the hotel at 8:00 a.m. this morning. The four of us sat in the very back of the bus so we could talk. Had a nice conversation with them as we made our way to the jade store. The guide at the jade store showed us how to tell the difference between real and manmade jade; how the fish carving is placed in certain rooms when using feng shui; and how the jade carvings were made. We learned how the Chinese wear jade bracelets on their left wrists to help their hearts. Jade is really expensive - way out of our price range - and this was supposed to be reasonably priced. We ended up buying a little globe that had a dragon painted in it. Since Sophia was born in the Year of the Dragon, this has special meaning. Then there was an artist who painted the globes who wrote her American and Chinese names in the inside of the globe. Went to the Great Wall next. It is about an hour northwest of the hotel we're staying at in Beijing (or about 70 km). The original wall was begun during the Qin dynasty (221-207 BC). Separate walls, constructed by independent kingdoms to keep out nomads, were linked up. The project required hundreds of thousands of workers, many of them political prisoners. We saw the Badaling section. It was restored in 1957 with guard rails. We really needed them as we walked up and down the wall. In some places, we were walking at odd vertical angles (leaning forward or leaning backward depending on how steep the walk was). I knew the Great Wall would be touristy, but I didn't expect to be attacked practically by peddlers trying to sell hats and gloves right when we got off the bus. Nor did I expect that an entire two BLOCKS would be devoted to stands of retail booths and women yelling, "Hello, hello!" followed by what they were selling. The sheer size and length of the part of the wall we saw was amazing. To think that people constructed this without equipment is impressive. We were also amazed at how windy and cold it was on the wall. There was snow in sections of the mountains and ice on the street. The wind was so strong it blew us a few times a bit off our feet. We went to lunch after the Great Wall and met two more families. Again, really nice people. Lunch was great - lots of choices. The Friendship Store was connected to the restaurant. There were parts of it that had some pretty things. Other parts had overpriced items. We found a hand painted rattle for Sophia - colorful and textured with gold paint. There were also some beautiful hand painted ornaments. Some of these will be gifts for Sophia when she's older. The next stop was the Summer Palace. We were going to go, but then they kept talking about the high crime rate, gangs of people who target tourists and cut open their bags with knives, and fill water bottles with tap water (which is NOT drinkable - you'd get really sick if you drank it) and sell them to tourists. We decided to go back with about half of the families to the hotel to relax and pack before leaving at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow to go to Changzhou and Nanjing to do paperwork at the former city (where Sophia is living) and onto Nanjing (where we will be staying until Friday). We're going to have a nice dinner tonight at the Chinese restaurant, and enjoy some quiet time together before a life-changing and hectic week begins tomorrow. Some of the families are debating about whether or not they will complete their adoptions. Apparently some of them are questioning the information that was provided about their daughters. This is a very difficult decision for some families because they are either first-time parents or are adding a child to their family. We will know on Friday if some people decide not to go forward with their adoptions. I'm sure it will be a sad choice for them to make that decision, but one that is right for their families. Equally difficult will be seeing the full group again - the majority with children. We
have both really enjoyed this trip. We've seen a lot, learned a
lot about another culture, have had great meals, and have met very
nice couples from all over the United States.
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