Meeting Maggie - Part 3 - Hong Kong to Changsha
Sun., May 23, 1999 - We finished packing and had breakfast, then went back up to the room to put our bags out in the hall at 9:00 AM. After checking out, we sat in the lobby with the other single moms and their travel companions. I sure had a case of the jitters, and I think they did too!
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At 10:00 AM our group boarded the bus to go to Guangzhou. Our guide, Tommy, explained what would happen next, but he did not accompany us. After about 45 min., we came to some sort of checkpoint at the border between Hong Kong and mainland China. We had to get off the bus, get in line, and then show our passport and arrival card. Then we got back on the bus and in no time we were at another checkpoint where we had to unload all our bags and bring them inside, show our passports and arrival cards, then load the luggage again and get back on the bus. One of our group members got pulled aside to be interviewed at one of these checkpoints. We were all very worried, but it was okay.
It was an interesting three hour ride. Gradually, the scenery became more stark as we entered the mainland. From reading previous travel stories on the Internet, I was expecting pollution worse than I'd ever seen. However, maybe it was just a good day or maybe I have lived in other places that were pretty polluted. It just wasn't as bad as I'd expected. We saw a lot of new construction along the way. It was obvious which buildings were apartments, because there were clothes hanging out windows and on balconies. Sometimes the clothing hanging outside a building seemed to be mostly the same color. I wondered if those buildings housed people who worked at the same place and had to wear some type of uniform.
We got to the airport several hours before our flight was to leave for Changsha. We met our guide, Alice, and put all our bags inside the terminal where Alice and her friend watched them while we got something to eat at a restaurant. Alice helped us order. But when the food came, there was some confusion about who had ordered what and later about paying for it. For many of us, this was our first time on the mainland. I could sense the nervousness. We were nervous about the food, the toilets, etc. This was not too long after the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, so being Americans in mainland China made us nervous too. (It turned out, there was no reason to worry.)
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I had my first chance to use a Chinese style toilet. It really wasn't that bad. The bathroom seemed fairly clean. There were stalls with doors, which was nice, because nobody could watch me clumsily figure out what to do. The toilet paper was outside the stalls, so it is important to take the toilet paper before you go in the stall. The toilet was like a urinal in the floor that one squats over. Flussing is accomplished by pulling a chain that is hanging overhead. Used toilet paper goes in the waste basket behind the toilet. It is best not to examine this waste basket too closely! They were not big baskets, though, so I think that they were emptied farily frequently. (I used two other Chinese style toilets while in China, one at the Changsha airport and one at a restaurant in Changsha. Most of them operated the same way, except that the others had constantly running water in the toilets, so flushing was not necessary.)
We wandered around the airport, checking out the gift shops, food stands, etc. until 3:00 PM. We then met Alice and she collected our passports, got our tickets, boarding passes, and tax coupons for us, and checked all our bags. She then led us to the security area, but could not accompany us any further. Once we got through security, we were a little confused about where to go next, but finally my friend Cecilia asked (by pointing to her ticket and gesturing) where we should go. We were directed to go downstairs to the waiting area. The signs for each of the gates alternated between Chinese and English, so we knew when we had located the right spot. Soon our flight was called. I remember reading stories about how disorderly this process is, but I found it to be pretty organized. People did wait in line and there was not any pushing or cutting in front. We had to take a bus to the airplane, then go up stairs to board the plane. The China Southern flight was crowded and we were packed in there like sardines. Fortunately, it was only a 45 min. flight. I wondered how we would manage on the way back, with eight babies in our group!
When we arrived in Changsha it was raining and was much cooler than I expected. Our guide Daphne met us as we went through security. We piled up our luggage, which was to be loaded onto a bus to be transported to the hotel. We then got on another bus for the (approx.) 30 min. ride to the city. Daphne talked to us about what would be happening for the next few days. I don't think we were paying too much attention to the scenery, but were hanging on her every word. One big surprise for me was that Daphne told us that she found out the day before that the babies from Loudi (where Maggie is from) had been in foster care. (In our group, there were four babies from Loudi, which is southwest of Changsha, and four babies from YueYang, which is north of Changsha.) We were also told that the families with babies from YueYang would receive their babies the next morning and those of us with babies from Loudi would receive them in the afternoon. This group of tourists was about to be turned into a group of parents!
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When we arrived at the hotel, we received our keys and breakfast coupons and then went to our rooms to wait for our bags to arrive. Seeing the crib in the room put a lump in my throat. As I traveled that day, I made the transition between my old life and the one that was about to begin. By this time my jitters had subsided and I was starting to get excited. Also, I am the type of person who deals with stress by DOING something. So, now I had something to do. As soon as the bags arrived, I began to turn our hotel room into a make-shift nursery.
Cecilia and I decided to try the Chinese restaurant in the hotel that evening. I wish I had gotten a menu as a souvenir. There were things listed that I never imagined would be served in a restaurant. We both ordered steamed fish, since we were told that Hunan was known to have great fish. A few minutes later the waitress was back at the table with our uncooked fish in baggies, seeking our approval. I didn't realize the fish were alive until one of them started flopping around in the bag and I practically jumped out of my chair! The fish were then cooked and served whole. It found it difficult to eat fish with chopsticks, but I was determined to do it the Chinese way. It may not have been a wonderful eating experience, but it was a very memorable cultural experience.