After we ate breakfast and skyped with Kimmy, we went back to our room to pack. A few hours later we met Cai, our agency's liason, who arranged everything for us. I had a little shock, when she said our money will be here tomorrow. We wired the money last Wednesday, but it has been a holiday in China for the past 7 days and the banks have all been closed. She took us to the airport and sent us on our way. It was a short & easy flight from Beijing to Taiyuan...only an hour. The weather here is similar to Cleveland, but it has been overcast for the past two days.
Anna, our new guide was waiting for us at the airport. She & Mr Lee, the driver, took us to our hotel, the Wanda Vista. Anna said that Taiyuan is a very prosperous city and growing rapidly to the south. The city has 3,000,000 people and there is lots of new construction. As a result, there is dust & dirt everywhere. There is also a strong military presence here. She told us that Taiyuan means Great Plains. The second fork of the Yellow River begins at the base of the mountains. The area is surrounded by mountains on three sides and this is a very desirable area. Mongolia is just to the North and they fought with the locals 2000 years ago for the planting ground. As we flew in I saw fields of produce on the outskirts of the city. There is also a story about a young Emporer who gave a leaf to his brother while they were playing one day and promised him a state one day. Later in life, the Emporer claimed that was just a joke. But an official heard the promise and told him that he must honor it. He gave this piece of land, that is shaped like a leaf, to his brother.
Anna also told us that there are only 150-200 international adoptions from this Province. There are only a few orphanages able to adopt internationally, most are domestic from this area. The local orphanage has about 500 children, so a lot of kids are in foster care. She told us to be prepared, that Huangtao's heart will be breaking. The foster family & orphanage officials have probably told her about the upcoming adoption, but we're not sure how much she will really understand. She remembered one little girl who cried from Monday to Friday after leaving her foster family. She suggested we bring lots of treats and toys.
As we drove to our hotel we passed a Chinese WalMart that is a few blocks away and a local convenient store, like 7-11. She suggested that we stay in the hotel to eat our meals, as many don't speak English on the streets. We exchanged some more money at the hotel: $100 = 605RMB. However, the girl at the front desk gave us change for Euros instead of US dollars (which is a better rate). We walked away and then she realized her mistake. She ran after us to take back 380RMBs. Dan had a buffet dinner & I ate a grilled chicken sandwich for dinner, which cost us 375RMB. We laughed because dinner was almost on them!
Anna will be back to pick us up tomorrow at 9:30 am to take us to the Civil Affairs office, where the adoption will take place at 10:00 am. Tomorrow we need to take a few pieces of paperwork and then it is official when we go back 24 hours later. We are blocked from the blogsite here, but I hope to be able to post by a willing friend. We may not be able to post pictures...we'll see.
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