Yongzhou trip

We traveled by bus from Guilin/Yangshuo area (which turned out to be a lot longer bus ride than you might think from looking at a map -- over 5 hours for under 200 kilometers-- because we stopped in every small town and there was a traffic tie up (typical of bus travel in China, by the way).

We stayed at the Great Wall Hotel, which was fine, and met up with our guide, Oscar. The guide turned out to be just fine, very good English and good with the kids, although he didn't know much about the city, being from Changsha.

Here we are arriving at the orphanage.

There is a new director (new to me at least -- I think she has been on the job for 1-2 years). She is called Director Qiao. She has worked there for a long time in different capacities and was there when Helen was a baby (although not involved in baby care then). There are now very few of the old staff left, and in fact very few staff at Lengshuitan at all because there are now only 15 children there. The numbers of babies peaked in 2003 and has been falling, and now more of the infants are in foster care. We were a little disappointed not to meet any of Helen's ayis, or the nurse who accompanied her to Changsha for the adoption because the nurse is on maternity leave. We had brought a scrapbook made by one of our travel group families (Kathrin -- thanks!) and some other photos sent along from other group members. The business office staff and driver came in too to look at all the photos. They were especially interested in the ones of Helen in Xiamen, at school, the Forbidden City, Chinese New Year, etc. The director served fruit and showed us her office where lots of photos sent by adoptive parents were displayed under glass on her desk .



I am choosing not to post the photos from the inside of the orphanage, to honor the agreement we signed, but it was very interesting. We only saw a few rooms, but they included a play room , a baby room, and the room where Helen was cared for as a baby.

The staff told the baby, "here is your Jie Jie (older sister)"

The children's laundry..

The director and some staff accompanied us on a tour of the Lengshuitan district of Yongzhou. Above is the municipal building.

Some older style housing..

An apartment building..

They took us to the finding site described in Helen's paperwork. The Fenghuayuan Central Flowerbed turns out to be a monument to commemorate the area becoming an economic development zone under Deng Xiaoping. It was a busy area, with lots of people about, which I ws glad about.

Afterwards we took them to lunch. We ate some local dishes including Dong'An chicken, with a strong vinegar and ginger taste,

And Helen's favorite -- Wu gu feng deng : made from corn and duck egg yolk deep fried, topped with nuts -- delicious!



After lunch the restaurant presented Helen and Sophia with presents -- giant stuffed rats..pink ones!



We took the staff shopping to buy something to give the orphanage and picked a washing machine for the babies laundry.

Helen saying goodbye to Director Qiao.

The visit was smooth, everyone friendly and interested in the kids, Helen spoke a little Chinese, which pleased them and us. But I could hardly wait to get back to the hotel room to lock myself in the bathroom and have a good cry. Hard to explain. I think it was relief and also coming to grips with reality that there is so much we will not know about Helen's early life. I asked the director about whether she thinks the girls usually come from the country side or not. Helen's finding site is close to the railway station, which prompted me to ask. The director answered that maybe the babies born in the hospital and left behind might be from the city, but the rural preference for boys is much stronger now days than in the cities. So although we walked around Yongzhou for the rest of the afternoon, calling it Helen's hometown -- its probably not.

We spent most of our time at a playground on the river. There was a little carnival with a few rides and games, such as fishing for eels (!) So we did the 6 year old tour -- Helen liked this place so much we didn't leave until dinner time.


This is the Xiang River which runs through Yongzhou.

And here is the playground! A 6 year old's tour of the city would be incomplete without it!






Helen catching eels...

And the catch!

Thomas roller skating at the park...

We also spent time hanging around while Oscar went to get the bus tickets and once the locals figured out I spoke a little Chinese they had lots of questions. It pleased me to tell them that Helen was from this area and we had come back for a visit. It felt like an act of positive publicity for international adoption. Who knows...maybe some birth parent will hear by word of mouth about us and feel a little better about the decision they had to make.
.

The next day we left early in the morning . On the bus ride on the way back to Guilin, it was a beautiful day, and we marveled at the beauty of the countryside of southern Hunan -- the rice fields are so green in the spring time that even though the mountains are not as impressive as Guangxi province to the south, it was a treat to drive through, although I could have done without stopping every few minutes to try and lure passengers onto the half empty bus-- negotiating the price at every stop!






It was a powerful but tiring weekend and we are glad to be back in Xiamen and back to regular life. No more traveling until we leave, I think!