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.

Cassreinos ready for last day in Guangzhou

** Adoption countdown: 1 day until Pam, Terry and Matthew return home **

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

GUANGZHOU, China (Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008, 7:40 a.m.) – These beds at the White Swan Hotel are horrible.

I just woke from a fitful sleep in our hotel room, tossing and turning all night on top of what amounts to a rock. Pam slept well, as did Matthew. But, man, this bed is hard.

I long for our Select Comfort.

Well, Pam and Matthew remain in bed asleep (shhh, don’t wake them),

As soon as they wake and we eat breakfast at the hotel restaurant, we plan to head to a local, nearby, outdoor market in Guangzhou where they sell medicinal items.

Now I’m not quite sure what that means, but I’ve been told it’s fascinating. Maybe I can find something for this sinus infection from hell that won’t go away nearly a month after I contracted it.

Then we plan to do some last-minute shopping before we eat dinner and return to the room to fit everything we got during our trip here into three huge suitcases.

In less than 24 hours, our long trip home begins at the Guangzhou airport. More than 30 hours later, Pam, Matthew and I will arrive in Jackson and begin preparing for what undoubtedly will be a memorable Christmas 2008.

Stop back by our blog later today for new posts and more photos.

E-Mail Returns: I took a chance on Monday and restored my laptop computer to the state it was in one day last week. Then, when I restarted, the e-mail files I thought had evaporated were suddenly there. I don’t get it, but I’m not going to complain. My guess is that an automatic Windows update screwed things up.

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.

Yikes! What happened to all of my e-mail?

** Adoption countdown: 5 days until Pam, Terry and Matthew return home **

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

GUANGZHOU, China (Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008, 9:10 p.m.) – I left the White Swan Hotel with Matthew for part of Saturday afternoon while Pam felt ill, returned a couple of hours later, walked into our room, logged on to my computer and found all of my e-mail vanished.

Gone. Kaput. Nowhere to be found. Or, at least, I don’t know where to actually look on my computer for the vanished files. I guess I’ll just have to wait until Pam and I get home next week before I can find someone to help me who is more knowledgeable about computers.

Since then, I am running a full system scan with McAfee. I’m not sure if I have a virus or what, but I’m about t find out at the end of the scan.

Meanwhile, I think I’m taking this pretty darn good. Actually, it gives me an excuse to shift my e-mail program from Thunderbird, which I had been using, to Microsoft Outlook, which is part of the Office 2007 suite I recently bought.

Father-son time

Matthew and I spent some father-son time together much of Saturday, walking around Shaiman Island and dining at Lucy’s – a not-good American-style restaurant that features terrible fried chicken and OK french fries.

Matthew refused to sit in a high chair and wouldn’t sit in the stroller. That meant one thing: I had to juggle Matthew in my lap while I tried to eat dinner, feed him and let him drink bottled water directly from the bottle.

Sunday is a free day for us, so Pam, Matthew and I likely will go Christmas shopping in Guangzhou. We also need to buy an inexpensive suitcase, one of those giant Polo bags they sell around here for the equivalent of $15 or less.

There is no Wal-Mart SuperCenter in Guangzhou, so it looks like Pam and I will have to settle for shopping at Lotus SuperCenter or Carrefour – both of which have stores in town.

We also hope to find a local shopping area where we can land some good deals on jewelry and other items that might make good gifts.

Or, if I’m in the mood to have some fun with relatives, I could buy them a gift certificate to a major department store in Guangzhou.

Either way, Pam and I need to get busy. We are a little more than a week away from Christmas and we haven’t done much shopping. At this rate, I might as well wait for the after-Christmas sales to start my shopping.

By the way: The photo I placed with this blog entry has absolutely nothing to do with this post. Zero. Nada. I just thought it was a nice photo I snapped from the lobby of the White Swan where we are staying through Thursday.

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

View photo gallery from Saturday with Matthew

** Adoption countdown: 5 days until Pam, Terry and Matthew return home **

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

GUANGZHOU, China (Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008, 5 p.m.) – With a traumatic visit to the doctor for his required medical exam, Matthew had a particularly taxing day in Guangzhou.

We started with a visit to a photo studio down the street from the hotel for Matthew’s U.S. visa photo, walked to the medical clinic and stopped by Starbucks.

By then, Matthew was exhausted. He fell asleep in the stroller and stayed that way for at least an hour. And then, it was like he had a new set of batteries – he was wired and energetic.

But I guess he’s simply being a boy.

At the bottom of this blog post, you’ll find the latest photo gallery from our adventures in Guangzhou. I have more photos and may place another gallery up later today.

Enjoy.

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

DIRECTIONS: Click photo to enlarge. Toggle photo captions with button in left-hand corner of photo gallery slide show.