Huazhou to Guangzhou

by brianwalch · Published June 22, 2016 · Updated November 12, 2017

Before leaving Huazhou, we had an interesting experience as we went to breakfast in the large dining room downstairs of our hotel. As I mentioned, they do not see a lot of westerners in this area of China. The server escorted us to our table and in typical fashion, I waited at the table while everyone else went to browse the buffet line. I got up and poured myself a cup of coffee right as the girls were returning with a plate of fruit. They started to sit at our table and a middle age Chinese man started talking to them (in Chinese) and motioning for them to follow him. I thought maybe we were in his spot, so both the girls and I were giving him confused looks. He kept talking, motioning for the girls to follow him, and indicating I should sit down at my table. A server came over and joined the Chinese discussion; now everyone was confused. About that time Amanda joined in and she pretty quickly communicated that she was their mom and I was their dad, which seemed to be the point of confusion. He started apologizing profusely, as did the server. He had assumed that they were a couple Chinese resident girls and he had been trying to tell them they were sitting at our table. I suspect their confused looks were interpreted as “I’m not going to listen to you” as opposed to “I’m not understanding you.” We all laughed a bit and moved on.

After a leisurely morning, we piled back in the van with our wonderful driver, Mr. Yuen, and our guide Sarah and headed to Guangzhou. I have been to Guangzhou twice when adopting our daughters, once for 2 weeks and once for a week. Amanda has been here three times, as she came with Pam to adopt Kiera. Most heritage tours only spend a night in Guangzhou, but we knew we wanted an extra day there and were excited to return to a place we know and love and have a few days without an agenda. We also had confirmation that a family from our tour group was going to be with us in Guangzhou for the day. We were all thrilled, but especially the girls as they got to see their friends again.

On the way back we stopped at a rest stop and as I walked out of the restroom I spied a knife shop; well, really a cleaver shop. Of course, I went in… where else would one find a store with over 20 different cleavers to browse but a rest stop in China?!? Sarah explained that we were in an area famous for their knives. I found a nice heavy cleaver that was well balanced and had a cool handle and bought it, as well as a round cutting board. It was exactly what I needed for the kitchen, but for some reason, Amanda didn’t congratulate me on my lucky find.

We pulled in to the Garden Hotel, our home for the next three nights. Sarah had told us it was impressive, and it did not disappoint. It is a huge hotel with a gorgeous entrance of tall ceilings, large engraved murals, and a very large and beautiful arrangement of fresh flowers. I actually will be doing a separate post with a recommendation of the hotel for Sun Travel to use, if they want. After getting settled in to our rooms, the first order of business was food. We had a long ride and it was late in the afternoon. We hadn’t eaten much for lunch, so everyone was hungry. We wandered around the streets surrounding the hotel for a bit. Walking up one street, we came across another small chicken pen with a couple chickens in it and a man pulling one out. After we walked by, I glanced back and saw him twist his hands, breaking the chicken’s neck. We walked to the top of the block and decided we didn’t want to continue, so we turned around to head back. As we walk passed the man, he was bleeding out the chicken, catching the blood in a cup, likely to use and make coagulated blood dumplings. He had to shake the chicken a bit as we walked by and I was praying he didn’t splatter any of the blood on one of us! I realize some of this may sound unappealing, but to be honest, I find it refreshing. I think if we eat meat we should have a connection with where it comes from and the process it goes through to get to our table. Not necessarily every meal, but we should not be so far removed that we completely forget an animal must be killed before any meat gets on our plate. Okay, enough with the personal philosophy. We wondered around a bit and finally made our way to an Irish Pub which was perfect for our mood. We were all ready for a western dinner and to relax in a cool dark tavern with a drink and rugby on the television. We ended up having our most expensive meal yet, but it was still the same price as an average meal for 6 in Alaska.

Upon arriving back to the hotel, we went for a tour around the facility. On the 5^th floor there is a bunch of banquet rooms and seating areas. In the main foyer there is a fountain that was turned off for the evening, with a shallow pool and some small moats connecting the different pools. As we came up to the floor and saw the pools, Amanda turned to me and said, “don’t fall in.” What does she think I am, a klutz or something?!? We walked around the floor for a bit and at the other end of the floor there was a set of windows overlooking the large manmade waterfall, which is beautiful. The family had gone ahead of me and were admiring the waterfall. I started to walk right up to the window to get a better view of the majestic waterfall and take a picture for all of you. Amanda turned to me to say something and right then, the floor disappeared. Splash! I had walked right down into one of those pools and was standing in 10 inches of water. Worse, I had done it in dramatic fashion and in addition to my family getting a good laugh, a large group of Chinese across the way saw the whole thing and were pointing and laughing. Of course, my family laughed with them, which made everyone think it was funnier, and so they laughed some more while I rung out my socks. I mean, who puts a pool of water right in front of a picture window??

After a bit more touring, we caught up with the other family from our group and started comparing notes. Since last seeing them, they had visited both orphanages of their daughters and we had visited Jenna’s, so there was a lot to catch up on. I think it was really special that the girls could each talk about their experiences visiting their orphanages and excitedly share with everyone what happened. Each one had different things happen and it seemed like each of them felt proud and happy that they had gone back. The evening of sharing made me very grateful that we were able to take this trip together as a family.

We weren’t set to meet up with our guide again until 2pm the next day. After a leisurely morning and breakfast, the kids went for a swim and I sat under a shady umbrella enjoying the weather. We then walked down to Walmart to do some candy shopping, which is a fun experience. This Walmart had a much smaller bulk candy section, but it still provided some good bounty.

For the afternoon activity, we went to tour Shamian Island, which is where the White Swan is located. That was our home in Guangzhou for all of our previous visits to Guangzhou (Amanda 3x, me twice). We had wanted to stay there, but the price was too high and the Garden was highly recommended (and I’m glad we listened to that recommendation). The office where we had done physicals was closed; the consulate has moved; gone were all the street vendors that catered to adoptive families; and, some of the shops we remembered were closed. Regardless, much of the rest was the same and walking around the island was highly nostalgic. The White Swan has been renovated, so there are no red couches anymore, but the waterfall is still there as is the breakfast area and the small shops. The deli is still in operation selling ice cream. In the tradition of my dad and in honor of Father’s Day, we all got ice cream there. We walked through the streets, passed by Lucy’s (still there), and looked out over the Pearl River, watching men swim out across the river and dodge boats.

After that we went to a wholesale market, one that we had been to before. It is a 5 story building filled with small shops selling all sorts of things and is a place I actually enjoy shopping. There is a huge variety of shops, fun things to browse through, and not too much pressure to buy anything. Many of the stores will sell single items, but they are most interested in wholesale orders and so don’t pay us a lot of attention to us. We all went out to a noodle house for dinner and then back to the hotel. The girls spent some more time with Ana and Lia while we said our second (and final) round of goodbyes and went to bed.

The next morning we met Sophie and Mr. Yuen for another day of adventures. One of the things on our to-do list was go to White Cloud Mountain; this was one of our favorite places to visit in Guangzhou. It would be considered a large hill in Alaska, but it is a fairly high point in Guangzhou. We rode the tram up, which took us up above the tree tops and gave us some pretty views of Guangzhou. At the top, there is a large bird area enclosed with a net. We walked through that and had a bunch of peacocks follow us and spotted many other beautiful birds hanging out in the trees. From there, we proceeded to walk down the mountain to meet our driver.

One of the cool attractions this park has is foot massage paths. These are paths that have raised rock paths with signs extolling the virtues of foot massage and encouraging visitors to take their shoes off and walk down the path. Amanda and the kids all took their shoes off and started walking down the stairs. I stopped to take a bunch of pictures, and then proceeded to do the same. Boy, do I have wimpy feet; those rocks hurt! I made it down about 5 stairs and then decided to switch over to the regular smooth stairs. As I approached the bottom, trailing the kids (who were still walking down the rocks) by about 100’, an old man who was walking on the rocks started yelling at me, motioning that I should be on the rocks. I’m sure he was saying something like, “look, ya wimp, your kids are doing it, why aren’t you?!?” He made me get on the rocks and finish off the path to where the kids and Amanda were putting their shoes back on. The old man was about 50 yards up the path from where we were and he started yelling at me again, laughing, and motioning that I needed to do it again. He wasn’t going to relent, so I obliged, and did the path again. The kids, Amanda, and Sophie all were laughing at me, along with the guy, as I gingerly made my way up and down the path. It is painful, but when you’re done, it does feel good and your feet are happy.

Next was true Chinese massages at Sophie’s favorite massage parlor. We opted for the 2 hour massage, which included feet and body. They asked us if we wanted soft, medium, or hard. Thinking that medium might not be enough, I selected hard for the boys and I; that turned out to be a big mistake. Three guys came in to our room, with the oldest taking on Connor. They worked our feet for 45 minutes… each foot! At one point I pointed at my other foot and said, “hey, I’ve got another foot you can start working on!” He didn’t understand me. They brutalized our feet and multiple times we did deep breathing exercises or just said “okay, okay, I give!” Connor’s guy had a ending ceremony for each of his feet that involved straddling Connor’s leg and beating the bottom of his foot harder and harder until Connor finally couldn’t take it. My guy ran his knuckles up and down the bottom of my feet over 150 times. I literally could barely walk on my feet because they were so tenderized. Anyway, overall I’m sure there were some benefits, but it was a torture-fest for us. The girls fared a little better, but had some of their own war stories to share.

After dinner we went back to the hotel. The boys and I swam and played in the pool while the girls did a workout. We then retired to our hotel room to pack and plan our itinerary in Hong Kong. It has been a wonderful trip and I found myself very emotional to see the main part of it come to an end. It has gone as well as it could and even better than I hoped. The kids have travelled well and I think (hope) all of them will have good memories from this trip. It is so good for the boys to see some of China and its people and to understand their sister’s birthplace. We weren’t sure what to expect with the girls and their reactions, but they both have said and genuinely seem to enjoy being here and experiencing China. I love it here – the randomness, the differences, the abruptness and gentleness all mixed in to one. I’ll miss China and I think am a bit sad because I’m not sure the next time I’ll get back; but, I am so thankful I was able to experience it with my entire family and so that now, when we talk about it, it is a shared conversation. Up next, Hong Kong. While I realize that is part of China, it will be a very different experience because of the city and the fact that we are completely on our own… no guide and staying in a small Airbnb apartment. Stay tuned!