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Finding Signe (Part 4): In Guangzhou, and home at last

Guanzhou is a giant city, spread out flat and wide across the southern Chinese countryside. From the highways you can see out across expanses of the city, with broad stretches of buildings that appear to be the same basic height, and jammed tightly together. It’s quite stunning, really, and looks completely unlike an American city in many respects. It’s a city of 3.9 million people, and it shows. Located about 75 miles NW of Hong Kong, it’s crowded — not just with people , but with businesses and activity and vehicles — crowded with everything.

We arrived there on Monday afternoon, tired and happy to be one step closer to home. From the airport, it took 45 minutes to reach our hotel, the White Swan, on the north side of the Pearl River. At night, Bar Street just across the river was lit up with neon, and small ferries crossed back and forth. The hotel itself was oppulent, but somehow unsatisfying. I found myself missing our room in Chongqing.

And then there are the babies — the hotel is crowded with adopting families. I heard from one person that there were more than 200 babies there. It’s insane, and a bit annoying, frankly, adding to the overall feeling that the process of adoption is, to an extent, a business — there is a LOT of money being made from it in China. Having so many children there makes everthing feel less personal, less special. The whole adoption process is immensely intimate and emotional, and having so many families there felt like an intrusion on those of us that had been in Chongqing together.

For the most part, each day in Guangzhou was about the same. We spent the morning on a tour of some sort, and the afternoon doing adoption-related work. On one day we went to the Sun Yat-Sen memorial hall, a magnificent building in the heart of the city, and in the afternoon visited the doctor for one last check before leaving the country. On another day we visited a Safari Park, basically a large zoo. It was a pretty interesting place, and I got to hold/feed a white tiger cub. Through all of this, Signe mostly slept, as if the sensory input was too much for her.

And then, at last, we left for home. For us, the flight was uneventful until Seattle. Due to some confusion at the Guanzhou check-in gate, our bags were routed to a later flight to Seattle than the one we were on. It didn’t really matter, though, as they were delivered within 12 hours of our arrival.

And home has been a delight. Signe adjusted easily to the time change, to the dogs, to the cats — hell, to everything. She’s smiling and healthy. And we’re all very very happy.

- posted 5 December 2004 in blog Favorites

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