Day 8-- Sunday sightseeing in Guangzhou

"Don't let my sweet face fool you-- I specialize in running Mommy and Daddy ragged!" :) Sarah is by far the most active child in our group. We are thankful for this-- it shows that she has been given lots of love and attention and is not scared of new things.

At the gardens at the Chen museum.

Beautiful flowers in front of the Chen museum. I'm not sure what kind of animal the bush is supposed to be.

Pronouncing a blessing on an adoptive family at the Buddhist temple.

Very tall pagoda at the Buddhist temple. We were going to climb the stairs to the top but it was closed for renovation.

View from the balcony of the restaurant where we had lunch. Food was Cantonese style and was GREAT! There was a small amusement park on the hillside.

There were lots of aquariums right outside the restaurant where you could pick out your dinner--fish, prawns, and snakes-- all alive!

The huge mall of pearl and other jewelry wholesalers.

The shops look like this-- bags and bags of pearls behind the counters. Many stores had workers stringing pearls on the countertops.

Sunday morning we got up and got ready for a day of sightseeing. First we went to an old academy that was built by the Chen family around 600 years ago. It is now a museum and has beautiful gardens around it.

Then we went to a Buddhist temple. Because it was Sunday we were able to watch some Chinese light incense and bow to the different buddhas. It was very interesting. We learned there are several different buddhas that represent different aspects of life. For example, there is a buddha that one prays to for career assistance, a buddha that helps with family, etc.
Some members of our group has a Chinese monk pronounce a blessing on their new child. It was all very interesting.

After that we had lunch at a very nice restaurant that overlooked a beautiful lake and park. The food was very good and very familiar. The restaurant served Cantonese food, which we found to be a lot more like the Chinese food we are familiar with in the U.S. Apparently Jiangxi province (where Sarah was born) is known for its very spicy food. We can attest to that! :) So the Cantonese food was a nice change.

We had some great noodles (not spicy), sweet and sour pork, a green bean dish, kung pao chicken, ham fried rice, Chinese steamed buns, mushrooms, and duck. I tried everything but the duck. It was all very good. Dave tried the duck and liked it.

After lunch we went to this huge mall that was filled with wholesale pearl vendors and other jewelry vendors. It was amazing. Shop after shop after shop of pearls and other jewelry. We were so overwhelmed by the whole thing we couldn't decide what we should buy and how much to bargain down. So we ended up just walking around, which was also pretty entertaining.

When it was time to get back on the bus to come back to the hotel, we went outside into this big open area to wait for the bus. I have never seen so many people, so close together in my entire life. It made most of us feel a little anxious, I think. Not for our safety, but just because there were SO MANY people there. There are about 20 of us from our agency all together, and we attracted a lot of attention as we worked our way through the crowd. One of the dads from our group held up a baby wipe box above his head so we could see where to follow to get to the bus. Then we had to wait around for about 10 minutes for the bus to pull up (the traffic was very bad), so we stood around and watched people staring at us. It was like being monkeys on the wrong side of the cage! :)

We are now with a large group of families, which has been nice in a lot of ways. Everyone is very friendly and kind. Most of the families are from Colorado, but one is from Georgia and another from Wisconsin. So it's been fun getting to know them and share our experiences. Several of the families in our group have been to China before to adopt. One of the families is completing their third adoption!