Our Stay in Nanchang

On Saturday we had a half day of touring Nanchang in JiangXi Province where we have been staying the past week. As we bustled out of the hotel, we noticed that everything was covered in ice -- the bus windows, the sidewalks, everything! This is the worst winter weather that they've had in 20 years. It's similar to our ice storms back home.

Our first tour was of a Buddhist Temple. The most impressive to me was the wall of carvings depicting reincarnation. We then went to a Pagoda. We had to virtually "ice skate" our way to the entrance. Jay and the other men climbed the 8 levels for a nice view of the city. JiangXi Province is the "capital" province for porcelain, so we went to a porcelain shop that had absolutely beautiful pieces, from chopsticks, to tea pots, to plates and vases. I would have liked one of everything but it's a little difficult to transport across the world. We purchased a tea set painted with white cranes as a gift for Elyza one day. During winter, in Poyang, the area that she was born, white cranes and other varieties of birds fly here to a bird sanctuary. We thought the tea set would be a lovely reminder of her home province.

For lunch we ate at Pizza Hut. My Personal Pan pizza tasted liked the real deal. We had a really nice dinner in the hotel on the top floor. We enjoy chatting with the other families in our group. Most of them are from the South, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and one couple from California. Meeting other families is one of the extra benefits of adoption. They become like an extended family.

It's now Monday, and we are waiting to hear if the airport has reopened so that we can fly to Guangzhou for our next series of appointments. The train stations are packed as well as the airport due to the flight cancellations yesterday. We hope to fly out at 6 p.m. Guangzhou is 20 degrees warmer which will be a welcomed change. There is also lots of great shopping there! So that should be fun!