Yesterday we escaped our room! Esther was against the tour we had scheduled until literally right at the moment we were going to leave. We kinda begged her to go since both Mike and I wanted to see it so bad.
The Pavilion of Prince Teng.
This is considered one of the three most important buildings in China and was originally built in 653 A.D. by Prince Teng who wasn't interested in politics and built himself a home along the Gan River far away from his family. There he painted pictures of butterflies and wrote poetry - I'm not kidding. Sounds like a pretty sensitive guy.
It has been destroyed and rebuilt like a million times since then and has become a national landmark. We were all giddy to be leaving our room and our guide Claire did an amazing job talking up the U.S. to Esther and Pearl. It seems to have had a good effect because Esther seems a little more relaxed.
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| I know you're jealous. |
We had a great time and even sprang for the tourist trap picture. I mean, come on - when are we ever going to be in Nanchang at the pavilion again?!
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| View of Nanchang from the 4th floor of the pavilion. |
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| Watched a pretty good performance on the top floor. |
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| View of the Gan River. |
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| Mike's BFF |
After the tour we went and got some of the best Chinese food we have ever eaten. I don't know what most of it was but it was awesome. Thankfully our guide didn't order us anything too crazy - after two weeks of Chinese food I don't think we could stomach it. Most of our adventurous spirit is out. We have honestly been pining after McDonald's but just haven't made it yet. Today we fly to Guangzhou and we are all pretty excited. It's in the 80's there and there is an amazing zoo and lots to do with all of the other many adoptive families there. Every adoption in China finalizes in that city so it's got sections that are tailored to adoptive families. We can't wait.
PS - I know this is so irrelevant but I wanted to add a disclaimer to my dark and sometimes oddly colored images - I have no way to edit them here so they are straight out of the camera. I know it doesn't matter to anybody but me but being a photographer it drives me a little nuts.
You don't know me but I'm waiting to travel with my husband in hopefully August or September to Henan for our son. I'm really enjoying your blog! Thank you for sharing your daily journey.
ReplyDeleteHey, I don't know you either Amanda, but we are hoping to travel to Henan in September for our son, Jamie, too! Maybe we'll see you there! I also snagged your China adoption process flowchart to help my family and friends understand where we are in the process, so thank you! And thanks to Megan and Mike for sharing their journey! What a great family!
DeleteI am so glad you got to get out. It does the soul good to get some new air. I can't say fresh because I don't know if it exists in China. :) Hopefully you will have a better time in Guangzhou. What hotel are you at?
ReplyDeletehaha that tourist trap picture is gold.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the tourist trap picture! I am seriously jealous! I also love the ones of Mike next to the statues. I bet the girls got a kick out of those. The second one looks like he is looking down bothered that Mike is touching his foot;) I am glad you got out and look forward to Guangzhou. Enjoy because it's winding down....
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