We Made it Home!

Hope you enjoyed your tour through China with us. Here are a select few of our more than 2,000 pictures that capture the essence of our visit and the Chinese culture. It was an amazing experience, wow. Leah, Nancy and Tom

Yuyuan Gardens in Shanghai, our last stop

Sights in Shanghai

Shanghai Skyline at Night

Hefei and our visit to the Hefei Children's Welfare Institute

Panda Bears in Chengdu

Out and About in Chendu

Terra Cotta Warriors in Xian

The Olympic Village in Beijing and the Birds Nest

More from the Great Wall

At Tiananmen Square, Beijing

Bobbi our Videographer!

The "Girls"

Lian and mom betty

Annalise and her Mom Peggy

Ming Vase. Would not fit under Tom's shirt. :(

We arrived in Shanghai earlier today after having spent the past two days in Hefei where we visited the Hefei Children's Welfare Institute that Leah is from. It was a wonderful experience...there was some uncertainty around this visit for the past few weeks. The orphanage was in the process of moving to a new location, we've been hearing the move was about to happen for the past year and it was delayed and delayed. Until this week! We ended up being the first visitors to the new location. They moved in two days before we got there. It is really beautiful and huge, 10 times the size of the old location. It just so happened that the Director who ran the place in 1997 and is now retired and running a foundation stopped by to visit and we got to spend some time with her. We had pictures with us of her holding Leah as a baby and she was thrilled. Leah had pics of all the Shen's in her album and she wanted to know each ones name. She commented on how beautiful they all are! She was very excited to see us. After visiting 6 different toddler and preschool rooms we had a dumpling lunch with the former and current director and of course a photo shoot! Hefei has the least western influence of all the places we visited. No internet access and we really stood out and got lots of stares. It was very hot and dirty like our last visit 15 years ago, but the amount of construction that is going on is mind boggling. At 11 million, it is the smallest city we've been to. They have not completely escaped western influence, like every city in China, there are plenty of KFCs, McDonalds and Starbucks. We just returned from a beautiful evening cruise through the city of Shanghai. Wow. One more day here and then we head home...

Bottom pic is Tom and some locals at the buffet.

We are in our third city, Chengdu Which is located in the Sichuan Provence known for its extremely hot and spicy foods. I can tell you that it's nothing like we get at home. But we're all trying our best to experience all that they have to offer in food, entertainment and culture. We all have our limits when it comes to some of the foods. Fried Rabbit Head and Pig Tails was the limit for most of us. Chengdu is also the home of the Giant Panda Research and Breeding Base which is dedicated to saving these incredibly cute animals from extinction. Both Nancy and Leah were able to hold one on their laps! Check out the site if you want at: http://www.panda.org.cn/english/ The population of the city is around 15 million and there's probably another 2 million Chinese tourist here enjoying the sights. It's incredible that we've been in 3 cities with a total of about 45 million people. Tomorrow we're off to Leah's home town of Hefei. I'll say one thing for China, capitalism is alive and well. We are having a great time with our new travel buddies, two other families are on the tour with us. Liann is actually a Shen who was adopted from the same Hefei orphanage as Leah one month after Leah! And they live on Medford MA! She is here with her Mom Betty and Auntie Bobbi. For the Shens....Bobbi is our resident Kathy, video camera and all. We also have Analise and her Mom Peggy, they live in Portland OR. Tom and all the women.... A special shout out to Liann's Uncle Willie who somehow found our blog!!! Enjoy some new pics!

We are in our second city, Xian. Much older yet much more like a modern city. We saw the Terra Cotta Warriors yesterday, wow. If you have not heard of them yet, you will. Tourism here has exploded since the discovery of the warriors in the mid '70s and there is new construction everywhere... Food has really been delicious and interesting. Tom and Leah are loving it. As for me, i'm sooo ready for a chicken caesar salad! Traffic here in Xian is not as heavy as Beijing but it is just as chaotic and scary. It is amazing that between the bikes, electric scooters, buses, cars and tons of people that haphazardly make their way through every intersection that there seem to be no accidents! Also surprising that everyone is driving newish Hondas buicks nissans and even jags. Here are a few more shots of our adventures. Tonight we head to Cheng Du to meet the pandas, this is what Leah has been looking forward to most.

Our favorite Chinese food so far!

We spent another jam filled not stop wonderful day in and around Beijing. Made it to the Great Wall today, check us out. It is quite the journey to get there and quite the climb!!! Just as crowded on the wall as it is in the city streets, wow. Driving through Beijing makes NYC driving look like a Sunday drive through the country! Got in some good shopping between tours today too. Tomorrow it is the summer palace and then off to the airport to travel to Xian...

here is a pic of leah and the two girls in our group, Annalise ans Leann. 

July 3, 2012

Hey everyone.  Happy fourth of July!  We have seen lots of historic sites, lots and lots of people and lots and lots and lots of traffic in Beijing for the past two days and are off to the great wall to celebrate the fourth.  No freedom to blog here, all are blocked so emails to Howard that he will post are the best we can do for now.  No pictures for now either.

Weather is just like home, brutally hot.  I'm told we are lucky that it has been sunny and clear as it is usually very smoggy.

Our travel group is great and our guide is amazing.  She has the connections that make us feel like VIPs wherever we go.  And boy do we go.  Days are very full but evenings relaxing and early.

We'll catch you up again once we get to Xian.  Maybe blogs will work there!

Special thanks to Howard our Number 1 cousin, Tom's best friend and a wonderful person for helping us stay connected.

Welcome

Hi Everyone,  Welcome to the Carol Family China Trip Blog!  We are traveling back to China on a Homeland Adoption Tour, to see and learn about Leah's heritage.  We hope to share some pictures and posts along the way, but no promises.  We don't really know what we're doing to begin with and are not certain what our tech options will be in Beijing, Xian, Chengdu, Hefei and Shanghai.  But stay tuned and check in once in a while.  We'll be there from July 1st to the 14th.

Then and Now