Thursday, March 03, 2005
Adoptionland
This will be the last update from China. It's 11.30pm. The bags are packed and ready for a 5am pickup. The alarms are set for 4.30am to give us time to wake Chloë and get the three of us ready for departure from the hotel at 6am sharp. We fly first from Guangzhou to Hongkong, then from HK to San Francisco, and finally on to Chicago. It's a 26-hour marathon that should get us home between 6 and 7pm on Friday.
Some highlights from the last couple of days:
Today we went to the US Consulate to swear that all the forms we have completed are accurate. This is a formality, but a necessary step. All Americans adopting in China must process their children's immigration paperwork at the Adopted Children Immigrant Visa Unit at the Guangzhou consulate, no matter which province the child comes from, so everyone ends up here eventually (hence the reunion of our group). The official told us they processed 7000 adoptees last year. In the afternoon we had our final meeting with Bob where he handed out our travel documents, including the widely coveted immigrant visas in our girls' Chinese passports. They will travel on their Chinese passports, and will become US citizens when the plane touches down on US soil. Actually I hope we touch down on concrete, otherwise something bad will have happened.
Yesterday's highlight for Stacy was a visit to a local elementary school. Our translator was kind enough to arrange for her to be the guest of an English teacher there for a couple of hours. She enjoyed it very much and was fascinated by the differences between the American and Chinese school systems.
Yesterday's highlight for me was the same foot massage that Stacy had enjoyed on Monday. I cajoled and persuaded four of my brothers-in-adoption to join me, some with reservations, but we all enjoyed the treatment, which includes a foot-soak in water hotter than I thought I could bear, and massage of the neck, shoulders, arms and back before they finally stopped poaching my feet and worked on those. Further details are sealed under the "what happens at the foot massage stays at the foot massage" protocol.
Yesterday evening we dined as a group at the fabled White Swan Hotel. This is a 5-star property and was the first "joint venture" hotel development between the government and western business interests in the 1980s. They have a lavish Western buffet there which is certainly high-quality and tasty, but which hardly qualifies as an authentic Chinese experience. It's also hellishly expensive, as are the hotel rooms, which are more than 3 times the cost of the perfectly serviceable Victory. The White Swan is only 2 minutes walk from the Victory, so we get to take advantage of the shops, restaurants and other facilities without having to pay their room prices. Both hotels are on Shamian Island, which is a small man-made island in the Pearl River in the centre of Guangzhou. The island is the home of many restaurants and hotels, as well as the American Consulate and other diplomatic missions. It has a colonial history and a faded British Empire feel about it.
The hotels on the island are filled mostly by adopting American families. Everything on the island is geared around this large and constantly churning population of American adoptive parents. This lends a somewhat artificial air to the place. It finally hit me yesterday: it feels like we're visiting an adoption theme park.
Here in Adoptionland we have all the usual features of major US theme parks. There are restaurants to cater specifically to the adopting visitor. There are shops selling baby supplies, souvenirs and services such as laundry and internet access. There is also, as at Disney, an "official" park hotel, the White Swan.
As with most theme parks, it is somewhat detached from the real world. Many Americans come to Guangzhou at the end of their trips and disappear into the Swan, not emerging until their bus leaves for the airport. They never even leave the island. This is a shame as they miss out on the real China. This came home to me when I took a short walk across one of the bridges to the mainland and instantly found myself in the middle of the traditional Chinese medicine market, selling piles of exotic mushrooms, buckets of live scorpions, dried snakes, entire antlers and all other manner of strange things. What amazed me was the sheer quantity and variety of some of these obscure substances that was available. You want dried snakes? What size? How many sacks?
So my final thought from China is to urge you to come here and experience all of its fascinating diversity. I have enjoyed my visit more than I thought possible. (Of course, adopting such a special daughter doesn't distort my perception at all). Whether you come to adopt or simply to see the sights, please don't miss out on the true China by holing up in your westernised hotel room. The benefits of learning about a different culture far outweigh the risks of running into something you're uncomfortable with. Plunge in and enjoy it.
Next update from home, probably not until Saturday.
