The Yu Garden

This is a lovely garden to tour on a hot day. The water features and the green landscaping helped us feel cooler. It is surrounded by blocks of shops where you can barter to your hearts content. There is a tea house nearby though we did not visit it.

Shanghai Museum

We enjoyed seeing the Shanghai museum which has a variety of interesting exhibits. Just above is an example of early Jade carving. Above that is one of the earliest paintings.

Yangtze River Cruise

We saw the Yangtze River on the East King which was a very comfortable ship.
The food was delicious, the staff was courteous, and we had a great time. Each
day we had an onshore excursion: first was a visit to Fengdu - The Ghost City,
which was known for a beautiful Daoist Temple that focused on displaying what
believers feel happens following a person's death. The belief is that each person
account for his/her life and be judged by several gods. There was a colorful display
of what might happen to a person who had been evil during his life. It looked like a
torture chamber and was quite gory. We got to and from the hilltop location on a
ski lift, but could have walked it. In the heat and humidity we opted for the ride.
The grounds were beautiful with many statues and structures to admire. Our guide
had us walk over a bridge which could bring us good luck if we covered the distance in
nine steps. On the way back we had a choice to walk the Longevity bridge or the Wealth
bridge. If one walked the Longevity bridge you should take many tiny steps to guarantee
a long life. One woman later told me that she had her husband walk the Wealth bridge
while she opted for a long life, saying she could spend his money after she outlived him!

The second excursion was to ride on boats up a stream that flows through a small
gorge and into the Yangtze. The water here was green and became clear when we
got to a point far enough from the Yangtze. Monkeys live there but were not visible
during the midday due to the high heat. We had a crew of about five men who rowed, then jumped out and pulled the boat when we got to shallow water. They are known as trackers and belong to a ethnic group that lives on the Yangtze river. Our female guide was from the same tribe and told us about her culture and the positive effect the 3 Gorges Dam project had on her
people. She said that everybody who had been displaced was pleased with their new
modern housing and their new jobs. We saw the large apartment buildings that had been
built, usually on the opposite side of the river than the original village. While in Jiangxi
province, we saw the same buildings for families who had been displaced due to the project.

On the third day we saw the 3 Gorges Dam and were lucky enough to witness the solar
eclipse there. It took our ship all night to go through the 5 locks at the dam. Now they
are beginning work on another dam somewhere else on the river, which will be even bigger.

Nanchang Social Welfare Institute

The group home apartments on the orphanage grounds.

Alana with her foster parents.

The families with the foster parents.

The deputy director on the left and the two ladies were teachers.
They recognized Alana right away.

Besides Alana (in brown shirt), one was from Virginia, Canada, and Wales,
and three were from Holland.

These girls were very interested in seeing Alana again. They were really sweet.

Front of the main facility. The stairs lead up to her school, but we were not allowed to go inside.

This is the place Alana called home, though she lived with foster families some of the time. As we pulled up in our tour bus, firecrackers were set off and a small crowd of staff had formed. Each girl had their own welcome home banner. Some fosterparents were there but none of Alana's. A girl her age spotted her and pretty soon there were more. She did not seem to remember them. The older girl who had acted like a big sister to Alana had already left the facility that day, so apparently she lives elsewhere now, but they did say she attends High school. So we asked them to let her know Alana said "Hi". She was disappointed about not seeing her.

This was a long and full day for us. We toured the newborn nursery (so many babies), the toddler and preschool classes, the Family Group homes, visited a room for disabled adults who knit sweaters, make quilts, and handicrafts, had a flag raising ceremony and tried to sing the Chinese national anthem, listened to some speeches, played with the girls Alana's age, watched the girls make dumplings (potstickers), and met fosterparents. One pair of Alana's came and were happy to see her again. They gave her a huge stuffed Snoopy which, unfortunately, we had to leave behind, but she thought it was pretty cool. They also gave her a bag of snacks which they remembered that she liked. She was impressed by their thoughtfulness. At one point in the day, the girls were asked to go to the front and introduce themselves. Alana volunteered first and talked about taking Chinese dance class and described some of the dances.

After the dinner, we took the tour bus across the Gan River to the what is referred to as the "New City''. It has been developed over the past five years and includes skyscraper office buildings and apartments. We watched a very nice water and light show that had a huge crowd. Then, we were driven to a beach on the river. The girls were given a candle inside an artificial lotus flower and were asked to make a wish while placing the lotus in the river. This is a local tradition. Then, it was time for lots of sparklers, firecrackers and fireworks. We were all reminded of the saying: They don't do anything small in China! By now it was close to 10 PM, so we wearily piled back into the bus for the ride back to our hotel.

Grapefruit trees grow in Nanchang as it has a mild climate.

Alana celebrated her birthday on our last day in Nanchang.

In the afternoon we were taken to her finding location. We saw the street where Alana was found but the building numbers had changed so we did not have an exact location. But we visited the police station where she was first taken and spoke with an officer who recalled the finding. He said the officer who dealt with her was now was at a different location but would pass on our message of thanks to him.

Tengwang Pavilion in Nanchang

Looking down from the top of the Pavilion on a fishing sampan in the Gan River as they were placing their nets.
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Looking down at the gardens below the Pavilion.

Outside all important buildings in China are often two lions, one a male and the other is a female. This is the female as under her paw is a small cub. The male always has his paw on a ball.

Inside the Tengwang Pavilion are several floors. There are pictures, statues, famous local poems, and vendors selling good quality souvenirs. Also, there are scheduled performances of dance and music, using the traditional chinese instruments. We enjoyed it alot.

A shopping mall in X'ian.

Show performers