Reflections, clarifications on traveling in China

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

MADISON, Miss. (Monday, Dec. 29, 2008, 6:35 p.m.) – After receiving some feedback on an earlier post about my thoughts and experiences on our China adoption trip, I thought I’d share a few more observations.

These may serve to amplify or clarify my earlier thoughts.

China safety: For the most part, China is a relatively safe country. Pam and I felt safe enough to walk freely to different areas of Beijing, Zhengzhou and Guangzhou during our adoption trip this month; we did the same during our adoption trip in March and April 2006.

The people of China are proud, welcoming folks who genuinely love to visit with Americans. They love to practice their broken English as much as I enjoyed trying the little Mandarin I knew and could speak like a native.

In every city we visited, Pam and I felt comfortable enough to take a taxi just about anywhere. And we freely ate at Chinese restaurants, ordering from the menu despite our inability to speak fluent Mandarin.

Travel unease: This year’s trip fell days after the terrorist attacks in India, which led to a lot of unease on my part. I wasn’t comfortable traveling by air as long as we did (23 hours to China, 33 hours back to the United States).

To be honest, I would have felt the same way regardless of the terrorist attacks. I just don’t like to fly for any reason. Period. Exclamation point.

Once in China, Pam and I were by ourselves for the bulk of our trip. In 206, we were part of a larger group of adoptive parents (30 total, including 10 who traveled with us to Jiangxi province). So whatever we did this time around we did it by ourselves.

That didn’t necessarily mean the trip was horrible. I just would have preferred to be part of a larger group of adoptive parents who could have shared experiences.

Chinese culture: Pam and I made a conscious decision this trip to attempt to immerse ourselves more in Chinese daily culture than we did last time. In 2006, we took a few more organized tours.

This time, we took a tour to the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and the Peking Acrobats. Beyond that, we explored Beijing, Zhengzhou and Guangzhou on our own, seeing what its like to live day-to-day in the cities.

We visited large shopping districts, neighborhood markets, city parks and restaurants where no one spoke English and we were challenged to order food we liked. It was an adventure to say the least.

Hotel lodging: The Novotel Peace Hotel in Beijing was nice, centrally located, had a good breakfast buffet (included with our room), but an overpriced and not very good dinner buffet. The price was about $150 a night.

The Crowne Plaza in Zhengzhou was spectacular: A beautifully decorated hotel with nice rooms and a comfortable bed. The breakfast buffet (included with the room price) and the dinner buffet ( Brazilian barbecue) was excellent at about $30 a person. The price was about $150 a night.

The White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou was also very good, even though the bed felt like a rock. The breakfast buffet (included with the room price) was good, but the dinner buffet was awful and severely overpriced at more than $50 a person. The price was about $150 a night.

Trip expense: If you’re wondering about the cost for travel to China, here is a quick rundown – about $3,000 to $3,500 for round-trip air fare from the United States to China; about $5,000 for hotel and in-country airfare in China; about $50 a day in expenses per person.

I think Pam and I got by with less than $50 total per day. We usually ate a nice breakfast at the hotel and then ate a nice dinner at a local restaurant, where two could eat good for less than $20 total. Hotel meals will cost significantly more.

I hope this helps give you a better idea about our trip. Like Holt International Children’s Services told us, every adoption trip is different: The children are different, the circumstances are different, the situation is different.

Pam and I traveled to China with sinus infections that worsened rather than improved. And we were in Beijing and Zhengzhou during bitterly cold, miserable winter weather. I’m sure that contributed to the overall feel of our trip.

Don’t let that change your mind.

Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.

Experimenting with Shanghai food and other miscellaneous observations

** Adoption countdown: 2 days until Pam, Terry and Matthew return home **

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

GUANGZHOU, China (Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008, 11 a.m.) – I thought Shanghai food was supposed to be sweet.

Well, one dish Pam and I ordered at a restaurant that specialized in Shanghai food was very spicy. Good, but spicy despite what I thought was the waitress’ assurance it was mild.

The joy and challenge of communicating with people using broken, minimal, elementary Chinese; seemingly goofy sign language; and smiles. Sometimes it works, more often it doesn’t.

On Monday night, it worked to a degree.

Even though the shredded pork dish was spicy, it was very good – As was the chicken won ton soup (a huge bowl that would work as meal in itself), the fried rice and the fried dumplings.

Matthew, however, didn’t much care for it.

Instead, he was interested in throwing things to the floor – first his chop sticks, then my chop sticks, then Pam’s chop sticks, then a few crackers, then his sippy cup filled with watermelon juice and then some fried rice.

Smoking remains popular

Everyone smokes here – or it seems that way.

No matter where you go or eat, everyone smokes. And they don’t smoke a single cigarette now and then; many Chinese and foreign visitors chain smoke cigarette after cigarette after cigarette.

In Beijing, for example, one American family we met told us they could smell the heavy smokers who were staying in the room on the floor just below them. Smoke from cigarettes in the room below leaked into theirs.

On our final night at the same hotel, the Novotel Peace Hotel, I could have sworn I smelled cigarette smoke entering our room even though it was clearly designated a non-smoking room.

International and in-country flights are about the only place you won’t find smokers.

Chinese apartment buildings

One of the more interesting things you notice as you travel along the elevated roadways in Guangzhou is how close apartment buildings are to the street.

They are so close it looks like you could touch them from the window of your car. And the high-rise apartment buildings are all over the place – probably more popular than traditional homes in the United States.

Consulate appointment

We head to the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou for a swearing-in ceremony with Matthew. We will meet at the tour desk in the White Swan at 2:45 p.m. for a quick bus trip to the consulate.

After that, the next step is returning home.

We hoped to return Wednesday, Dec. 17. But our travel agent couldn’t get us a flight home until Thursday, Dec. 18 – probably because we pulled this trip together at the last minute.

Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.

Severe case of jet lag sets in quickly

By TERRY R.CASSREINO

BEIJING, China (Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008, 6:30 a.m.) – A dreaded and expected case of severe jet lag took its toll on Pam and me this morning.

Unable to sleep, we both took showers and headed down to the lobby of the Novotel Peace Hotel to surf the Internet, check e-mail, read the latest news and get a cup of coffee.

While I’m at it, I thought I’d share a few observations after arriving here in China at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday night and at the hotel at about 11:30 p.m.

Northwest flight to Beijing: Despite severely cramped seating, Pam and I were lucky to board a flight that had personal video machines embedded in the head rest of the passenger in front. We were able to choose movies and television shows in between eating more in-flight meals. Sadly, nothing remarkable was available to watch.

Beijing skyline: The skyline, lit up with street lights and bumper-to-bumper traffic at 9 p.m., looked beautiful as we approached a landing at the Beijing airport. The traffic didn’t surprise us; with more than 14 million people that’s to be expected.

Beijing airport: Just like when we arrived here in March 2006 for Camryn’s adoption, the airport seemed a bit spooky. It looked like our flight was the only one that arrived Wednesday night; most businesses were closed.

Christmas season: Our guide from Lotus Travel met us at the airport and took us to the Novotel Peace Hotel, in the heart of Beijing and within walking distance of the Forbidden City. She told us we can expect to see many Christmas decorations throughout Beijing because the younger residents celebrate the season (although it isn’t a holiday). We’ll see Santas and hear “Jingle Bells” and other seasonal songs. In fact, our hotel has a huge, beautifully decorated Christmas tree, a picture of which I have included with this post.

Novotel Peace Hotel: The Novotel is a very nice hotel. The rooms are spacious, the beds are comfortable and we get several American cable stations on our TV (HBO, Cinemax, ESPN to name three). Our first room was a bit noisy and the air conditioner/heating system seemed broken, so we changed shortly after midnight with no problem.

Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.