Raise a glass to Stephanie...

Today was a very special day. We were off to visit Stephanie's birth city, Taizhou, and her orphanage, the Taizhou Social Welfare Centre (TSWC). After crossing the Yangtze River bridge in Nanjing, we drove 2 1/2 hours to reach our destination. Taizhou (known as "peaceful perfecture") is 2,100 years old with a population of 5 million, and is recognized as a historical and cultural city.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by a thoughtful welcoming banner and the gracious staff of the orphanage, including the Director Mr. Liu.
We were taken into the orphanage for some snacks (the girls loved the little candies) and some delicious oranges and bananas. The locally-grown bananas were so fresh and tasty, nothing like the much-travelled, bland ones we get back home. After asking the staff several questions prepared by Stephanie, the Director presented Stephanie with a beautiful little ornament to express his thanks (on behalf of the entire Centre) for the care and love we have provided Stephanie. Stephanie was rather shy and a bit overwhelmed by it all, but we think she enjoyed the experience.

We then visited a room of (primarily) babies, some doubled up in cribs, some with special needs, but all very beautiful (sorry, but we weren't allowed to take photos). Three older children (4-6 years old) kept us amused throughout our visit. The oldest (and most mischievious) will be joining her forever family from the USA next Monday. Steve would have taken her home in a heartbeat. The TSWC is very small (currently 24 children, 10 when we visited in 2003). A new complex is being built and will be ready this fall to house all orphaned children in the city. For our other Taizhou mates from 2003, the Taizhou Social Welfare Institute is now solely a home for local seniors.

After the orphange ceremonies and presentation of the donations purchased in Nanjing, it was off to a large, fancy restaurant for lunch with the Director and the orphanage staff. The food was unique and very tasty. Steve even chowed down on some eel. "Slimy yet satisfying"! During lunch, we learned that in China, the host must ensure that the guests have a good time. Mindful of the blog-reading children, let's just say Steve, 48% "wine", beer and glass-emptying toasts = good time :). Other than a full bladder, Steve departed relatively unscathed, looking forward to Mr. Liu's "hospitality" the next time we visit. Get ready Rick!!

We left the orphanage and city of Taizhou, with a peaceful sense that we had closed a kind of loop with our return. We will certainly be back and will plan to spend much more time in Taizhou.

Cheers.

All Aboard!!

On Sunday we sadly departed the wonderful city of Shanghai. It was an experience, though brief, that we will not soon forget. The people, the energy, the sharp contrast between old and modern, has not been matched on any of our previous travels to China.

The day started off with our departure from the Shanghai train station, as we headed towards Nanjing in Jiangsu province. To say that our experience was "memorable" was an understatement (Shauna can attest to this). When Steve thought it would be great to ride a train in China and offered this to the travel service as part of our itinerary, little did he know that typical passengers do not haul 11 pieces of luggage (and DUVETS!) let alone 2 bags, through an extremely busy train station (and we mean busy - though not Guangdong busy). Through some "secret" tipping, we managed to board the train for our 2nd leg of the journey.

The ride from Shanghai to Nanjing was very pleasant and quick (the "D" train was express and reached a maximum speed of 200km/hr during the 2 hour ride). When we landed at the Nanjing train station, we were dropped at the furthest point of the patform away from the exit. All of us including the girls and Fontana (our guide) did what we could to haul our gear to the other end of the platform (there are no trolleys). We were then greated by a large set of stairs. Before we all broke our backs, 2 men jumped in and offered to help. The gesture was very noble, and helped us to get the bags to the waiting van, though our generous tip (in our eyes) was next greeted with a very "boisterous" negotiating session, as the 2 men, our new driver and Fontana worked things out. We threw them a few more Yuan and headed off to our Hotel. If truth be known, we would have paid any amount of money to get assistance.

Once in Nanjing, the girls had a rest in our hotel, the Ramada Plaza Nanjing - well they were supposed to. As we are only here 2 nights, we told them not to empty out their entire suitcases, but they decided to have a fashion show and it looked like the proverbial bomb had hit!!! Oh well, they had fun with their cousin while Steve and I explored the city we'd stayed in when we received Stephanie almost 5 years ago. Later, we all took a very crowded subway (new since our last visit to Nanjing) and visited the central square that was under construction in 2003. The square was beautiful and busy with weekend shoppers. We proceeded to greet Ronald at McDonalds for a much-needed "McD" fix. Even Jennifer looked forward to having a burger there!!

Nanjing ("Nan" for South, and "jing" for "capital") lies on the south bank of the Yangtze River (longest river in Asia and the 3rd largest river in the World) and is the capital of Jiangsu Province. It is known as the capital city of 6 - 10 Dynasties in China's history and has a brilliant cultural heritage. It has a population of 5 million people.

To all the Taizhou families, we wanted to let you know that we had a great time shopping last night (Sunday evening). Our guide, Jennifer and I (Jane) went to Walmart (yup, Walmart in Nanjing) and had a ball buying all kinds of things for Taizhou Centre and Institute. We found out they both needed baby clothes, diapers and formula. We had two carts overflowing and the poor check-out clerk just looked at us with these huge disbelieving eyes. 40 minutes after we lined up, one of the Walmart greeters helped us to a cab across the street!! We had such fun and got tons of clothes, as well as diapers and formula. Fontana took a picture of us in the store with our goods so we will post as soon as she sends it to us. What fun and all for a great cause - thank you to everyone who donated!

Shanghai Delight!!

Blog junkies rejoice….we have updates!!

Our busy Saturday in Shanghai began with a visit to the Silk Factory. It was fascinating to learn about the production of silk, and Jane was especially thrilled to learn about silk duvets :). In the tour, they covered everything from the life cycle of a silk worm to single and double cocoons and how the double cocoons are stretched again and again and again to get to the desired size of a duvet. We all had a chance to pull the silk to the duvet size and realized it takes real arm strength to do it!! Hannah has lots of pictures about the life cycle to share with Mrs. L's class on her return as well as a couple of the silk worms' cocoons!

Our next stop was lunch in the bustling Temple area of Shanghai. While the previous day opened a window into a Shanghai work day, Saturday offered a view into a day off, with masses of people enjoying delicious food and fun-filled shopping. Hundreds lined up to to sink their teeth into mouth-watering dumplings. While we would have liked to try some, we avoided the long waits (long queues of at least 30 minutes!!) and had a nice meal in a quieter restaurant overlooking the busy courtyard. The girls are really enjoying the frequency with which they get noodles on this trip (even as part of the breakfast buffet!!), and Steve is just enjoying the great variety of authentic Chinese food.


After lunch, we had a quiet stroll through the beautiful Yuyuan Garden, mere steps beyond the crowds. The Yuyuan Garden was completed in 1577 by a government officer of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Yu in Chinese means pleasing and satisfying. The garden was primarily built for the officer's parents as a place to enjoy a tranquil and happy time in their old age. While at the Garden, Jennifer, Hannah & Stephanie were needing a visit to the local toilet. While this is not something overly noteworthy for this blog, it became noteworthy when Jennifer returned saying "That is not an experience I'll soon forget" - nor would Hannah or Stephanie who came back laughing hysterically. Not wanting to miss out on anything, I (Jane) decided I too had to go, and yes, you guessed it, they were the infamous squats!! Carolyn & Ann - if you are reading this, you can tell Janiecke that our "intense pose" in fusion class was great training for the squats. Apparently, us Westerners do not generally have the ankle muscles (developed since the age of 3 years old in China) to use these toilets, but yoga certainly does help in this matter. What more can I say?? Enjoy the pic!!

Our need for speed took us next to the Maglev Train which travels from the Shanghai Financial District to the Shanghai Airport (a distance of 30km) in only 6 minutes, at a speed of 431 km/hr. What a ride!! For those that are not familiar with this mode of transport, this transrapid system is the fastest commercial transport system in the world. It is designed to travel as high as 500km/h, but has a regular "cruising" speed of 430. A Maglev defined is: "an advanced technology in which magnetic forces lift, propel, and guide a vehicle". It was kind of like being on a roller coaster without the loops. We just went to the airport and back for the ride.

To cap off a great day, we witnessed an exhilarating acrobat show (similar to Cirque de Soleil). The girls really enjoyed the show - half the show anyways, after dozing off just before the intermission. They missed an amazing motorcycle stunt where 8 motorcycles simultaneously sped their way around a caged steel ball.

We arrived home at 9:30pm and got to bed in preparation for the 2nd leg of our journey. Stay tuned...

"Sleepless in Shanghai"

Today was a glorious day of sunshine and 14 degrees - sorry Toronto :( .

We had a very relaxing day strolling through Shanghai, a vast and vibrant city, depicting "old" and "new" in both the people and the structures. Shanghai has a population of approx. 18 million, the largest and most dense in China.

We started off the morning with a great buffet breakfast in the hotel and then headed off to the Shanghai Museum. The Museum is a fantastic place to experience the beauty of ancient Chinese art through a collection of 120,000 artifacts. From sculptures to calligraphy to pottery to currencies and to paintings, the exhibit was a refreshing view into the past of our children's birthplace.

After our museum visit, we traversed through the streets - crowded, action-packed, and bursting with life like no other city we've witnessed. The character of the people is etched on their faces. We arrived at the Tai Sheng Yuan Restaurant for lunch with very sleepy kids in tow. Their early morning rise (2am to be exact!) posed some eating challenges for Jane and Steve, who discovered new ways to fetch and eat their food, with slumped bodies draped across their laps. The food was yummy :).

After lunch, we headed down to the Bund, Shanghai's famous waterfront situated on the Huangpu river, which divides Shanghai into 2 parts. From the Bund, you can witness the beauty of modern skyscrapers and buildings of varying architectural styles.



It was after 3pm when we completed our walk of the Bund, so we decided to call it a day and head back to our hotel for a swim in the pool. We will plan to do some further re-tooling of the girls' clocks in hopes that they can get the most out of a busy day tomorrow. Sweet dreams everyone - zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Hi there! Jane here. Everyone is sound asleep and I thought I'd add a couple of things from Friday. While the weather here is beautiful by our chilly North American standards, for the Chinese, it is still only "early" spring and winter coats are still the norm, thus our travel guide, Fontana, in one of the pics, is in a winter coat. The girls today went out with lightweight down vests, but bare arms, much to the dismay of many people. In the museum, we had a couple of people stop and point to the girls' arms, and some even touched them to see if they were warm enough. We had tried to convince our "very determined" daughters earlier in the day to cover up the arms, but without success. I had forgotten about our beloved "clothing police" here in China and all were good natured when we insisted (with Fontana's translation assistance) that they were in fact warm enough. Later on the Bund, Steve had someone come up to him and say something about summer. Not quite understanding what the person was saying, he just decided to greet him with "Nihao" (hello), and only later realized the gentleman was wondering if he thought it was summer out with his short-sleeved t-shirt. Fontana told us that many Chinese people think North Americans are crazy going out running in shorts when it's cold out - those crazy runners!!! Here's hoping for more t-shirt weather tomorrow!!

The Ottmans Are In China!

We arrived in Shanghai safely to beautiful sunny weather and about 12C. The flights were both smooth, although Stephanie suffered when we landed in Vancouver because of her ears. The girls were awesome on the flight and slept a lot of the way. We met our travel guide, Fontana (no relation to Hannah Montana), and our Shanghai driver, Shu, and headed to the Baolong Hotel (Grand Mercure).

On our drive to the hotel, our lives flashed before our eyes at least 4 times in the first 20 minutes. We forgot how wild the drivers in China are - weaving in and out, missing hitting others by millimeters!! We escaped with only a few damaged nerves. All of this "smash-up derby" driving is making Jane a tad nervous for our visit to the Lushan Mountains :). Hannah wanted to let everyone know that she is buckle-free in China (to us that's no buckle, white knuckle).

We're thrilled to be back in China, and I now know what friends meant when they said their daughters were excited to be in their birth country as Hannah lit up with a huge grin on her face the moment we landed. When asked how they felt about being back in China, Hannah responded "It's gonna be awesome", and Stephanie gave us the Scooby Doo cheer!

Before...

We're off - bright and early at 4:30am on Wednesday morning. We'll post an "After..." when we get back from our adventure. We suspect we'll look a bit less energetic with 3 weeks of travel and a 3 year old boy in tow. See you in China!!

Well - this is it!!!

This is our last post from "home base" as we begin our third journey of a lifetime. I can't believe it is finally here!! Our bags are all packed (and re-packed to get the weight down!!) and waiting at the door for our 4:30am shuttle to the airport.

Our niece Jennifer arrived today safe and sound (and on time even in the snow storm) after having her flight get cancelled on Monday. She ended up having a nice hotel stay right by LAX and arrived all excited for her journey. The girls were thrilled to see their cousin again but managed to get to bed at a reasonable hour. Hannah is a little nervous about what to expect so woke up about 10pm to talk about it and to call Grandma. Apparently, she likes the familiar and would have preferred that all relatives and friends accompany us;-) She is excited about her Jiujiang visit and nervous all at the same time - quite understandable for our very sensitive 8 year old. Stephanie is just looking forward to whatever this adventure brings her way.

To all those friends that have called or sent us emails in the past few days - thank you for your thoughts and best wishes. To our Jiujiang gang - we wish you were with us but will have lots to talk about at our May reunion. To our Taizhou group - we look forward to catching up with some of you when we get back (and Grandma Gail too!!) and the rest during our camping adventure in July. We look forward to sharing our adventures with all of you, so come along for the ride and enjoy!!

Chat with you in Shanghai!