Trip Report
China!
Beijing, Xi’an, Chengdu
My
husband and I took our adopted daughter, Abby, to see her birth country.
We flew into Beijing and stayed at the Great Wall Sheraton, a 5 star, luxurious hotel. All western amenities, but quite pricey. We toured the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square and the Great Wall. We worked through the hotel concierge to hire a private car, driver and tour guide. Because my husband is 6’7”, taxis are not really a great option for us.
Be advised that you’ll experience a roller coaster of a driving system while there—traffic lights and lanes are guidelines and suggestions rather than standards of practice. It was not unusual for 5 cars to be crowded into 2 lanes, all jockeying for position by honking horns and cutting each other off. On one occasion, we paid the drive extra yuan to slow down!
Then we flew to Xi’an, where we stayed at the Sheraton, which was lovely.
Xi’an is the home of the Terra Cotta Warriors. These are life-sized replicas
of an emperor’s army that lived over 5,000 years ago. Seems this fellow wanted
to take his army with him to the afterlife, so he had individual replicas
made out of terra cotta of each person, weapon, animal and wagon and had them
(over 8,000 recovered so far) buried at a hidden location. A farmer in 1974
rediscovered this treasure while digging a well on his farm. While he did
not reap any financial benefit from this find, he does sit in the visitor
center and you can take his picture if you like
We went to Chengdu for our next stop, and again stayed at the Sheraton. It was another wonderful hotel and included breakfast. Chengdu has one of the world’s only panda preserves and they do have the world’s most successful panda breeding program. Go see the Panda Preserve known as Base Camp
.
For a VERY large fee ($125) your child can dress up in surgical gear and sit
with a baby panda for a minute. Opportunities to do this are quite limited,
because they don’t want to overexpose the panda to humans. You can also pet
the adult panda for a minute ($50). Staff members distract it with bamboo
while you pet it from behind. Abby’s favorite was petting the Red Panda ($12.50).
She got to be inside with 2 of them and they were quite friendly and climbed
on her.
While we loved the panda preserve, our favorite part of Chengdu was going to the Chinese Opera. It is in an outdoor pavilion and Americans would call it a variety show. There were comedy skits (in Chinese, of course, but you get the gist of it!), shadow puppets (fabulous!), jugglers, acrobats, dancers in opera masks, singers, and more. There are ladies who come through the audience with hot tea and do shoulder massages for a small fee. I loved these ladies and begged them to return to America with me. Much laughter from them.
Our journey continued to Hefei, where we stayed in the Sofitel, a European chain that is quite nice but not as nice as the Sheratons. (While there, go to the hotel spa for a foot massage to ease tired tourist feet!) This is the city where we first met our daughter, Abby, twelve years ago. We hired a car and traveled to Wuhu, Abby’s birth city (about a 2 hour drive), and found/toured the orphanage, a rather sobering experience.
If you are an adoptive parent, you might find that twelve isn’t quite old enough to capture the magnitude of such an experience. I expected birth parent questions and got none. See further notes below. That said, I still think it was a terrific and worthwhile trip for all of us! And it remains to be seen what Abby will yield from having this perspective, understanding and experience under her belt.
Adoption is very different in China than in the US, because it is against the law to relinquish a child for adoption—parents simply leave their children in a public place and walk away. The orphanage directors assign names and birthdates and enter them into the registry. Over 5000 children are adopted internationally a year, mostly girls, due to cultural bias. But while Abby is Chinese by birth, she is truly an American. We celebrate her heritage and take great pride in her culture. We are quite involved in local groups and attend a heritage camp each September where people travel from all over the US to Winter Park, CO. God has given us our daughter and we thank Him daily for His gift.
My
husband and I took our adopted daughter, Abby, to see her birth country. We flew into Beijing and stayed at the Great Wall Sheraton, a 5 star, luxurious hotel. All western amenities, but quite pricey. We toured the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square and the Great Wall. We worked through the hotel concierge to hire a private car, driver and tour guide. Because my husband is 6’7”, taxis are not really a great option for us.
Be advised that you’ll experience a roller coaster of a driving system while there—traffic lights and lanes are guidelines and suggestions rather than standards of practice. It was not unusual for 5 cars to be crowded into 2 lanes, all jockeying for position by honking horns and cutting each other off. On one occasion, we paid the drive extra yuan to slow down!
| TIP: We enjoyed a private tour, and it was well worth the money because we could stay or go whenever we wanted. In Xi’an, also be sure to see the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. |
We went to Chengdu for our next stop, and again stayed at the Sheraton. It was another wonderful hotel and included breakfast. Chengdu has one of the world’s only panda preserves and they do have the world’s most successful panda breeding program. Go see the Panda Preserve known as Base Camp
.
For a VERY large fee ($125) your child can dress up in surgical gear and sit
with a baby panda for a minute. Opportunities to do this are quite limited,
because they don’t want to overexpose the panda to humans. You can also pet
the adult panda for a minute ($50). Staff members distract it with bamboo
while you pet it from behind. Abby’s favorite was petting the Red Panda ($12.50).
She got to be inside with 2 of them and they were quite friendly and climbed
on her.While we loved the panda preserve, our favorite part of Chengdu was going to the Chinese Opera. It is in an outdoor pavilion and Americans would call it a variety show. There were comedy skits (in Chinese, of course, but you get the gist of it!), shadow puppets (fabulous!), jugglers, acrobats, dancers in opera masks, singers, and more. There are ladies who come through the audience with hot tea and do shoulder massages for a small fee. I loved these ladies and begged them to return to America with me. Much laughter from them.
Our journey continued to Hefei, where we stayed in the Sofitel, a European chain that is quite nice but not as nice as the Sheratons. (While there, go to the hotel spa for a foot massage to ease tired tourist feet!) This is the city where we first met our daughter, Abby, twelve years ago. We hired a car and traveled to Wuhu, Abby’s birth city (about a 2 hour drive), and found/toured the orphanage, a rather sobering experience.
If you are an adoptive parent, you might find that twelve isn’t quite old enough to capture the magnitude of such an experience. I expected birth parent questions and got none. See further notes below. That said, I still think it was a terrific and worthwhile trip for all of us! And it remains to be seen what Abby will yield from having this perspective, understanding and experience under her belt.
Adoption is very different in China than in the US, because it is against the law to relinquish a child for adoption—parents simply leave their children in a public place and walk away. The orphanage directors assign names and birthdates and enter them into the registry. Over 5000 children are adopted internationally a year, mostly girls, due to cultural bias. But while Abby is Chinese by birth, she is truly an American. We celebrate her heritage and take great pride in her culture. We are quite involved in local groups and attend a heritage camp each September where people travel from all over the US to Winter Park, CO. God has given us our daughter and we thank Him daily for His gift.
For another
family’s tips on traveling to China with children, visit www.china-family-adventure.com
Take a virtual tour with their many pictures and videos and learn a bit
about Chinese Culture before your trip. |
Don't Miss:
• The Chinese opera