I love this island. We stayed here last year and it was in the midst of a MAJOR renovation. The streets were torn up and only a portion of the landscaping was being put in. But, the island was still beautiful. This year, all those renovations are done and the island IS amazing. I could spend a week here just taking pictures.
For those of you that don’t know the history of Shamian Island, I will give it to you briefly. Guangzhou was a major point of trade due to the its presence on a large waterway. The British and the French wanted to do business with the Chinese, but the Chinese didn’t want them influencing their culture, so they made them establish a community on an small island which was somewhat desolate. True to form, they transformed the island into a beautiful place to live with great architecture. While rather expensive, it is a great place to pass the time while in Guangzhou.
We are staying in the Victory Hotel as we did last year. However, it has gone through some renovations, also, and the rooms are quite nice. The entryway to the West Building is much prettier than before.
The entry way to our room is very nice also.
The bathroom, while pretty, is somewhat impractical for five people since it doesn’t offer much in the way of privacy! And four girls NEED a little privacy!
Ali shows off the beds in the room.
This morning took off to the clinic for Ali to have her medical appointment. Brittany took a shower so that she looked her very best!
The medical exam is, for the most part, kind of a cattle call. Americans from all over the area have to come her to do the required medical exams and it is bedlam.
This is Grace, our guide for most of our time here.
The children have to go through various testing including hearing, vision, a basic physical, and catch up on any vaccinations that are needed. Ali had to have four vaccinations plus a TB test. Poor thing.
After spending two hours getting this all done, we walked back to the hotel.
After a quick stop to go over paperwork, we headed out to lunch with another family that is here adopting their second child and Diana Bramble, who is the director of our adoption agency and is also adopting a little boy, Chase.
We got a large table at the Thi restaurant that Kelly loves that is right by our hotel.
After a very good lunch (thank you Madison), we started on our first afternoon of shopping on the island!
One of the shops that Diana likes has beads that you can buy to build your own necklace.
Kelly, Brittany, and Ali found some bracelets that they liked and we negotiated a fair deal! Well, somewhat fair. I would always be happy to pay less!
As I posted last year, the Island is a place where a LOT of fashion and wedding photography is done and this afternoon was NO exception. There were buses and people and wardrobes EVERYWHERE!
The next shop we went into was Jenny’s Place. We found this place last year and fell in love with it. Well, we fell in love with the owners. Jenny and her husband are Christians and it is one of the few places on the island that you can find English/Chinese Bibles and plaques with Bible Verses on them. She has a good racket because I don’t negotiate on price in her store. So, I tried to keep the girls moving as quickly as possible through her store!
Here Ali looks at the English/Chinese Bible that we bought for her here. It is a privilege to be able to buy her the first Bible she has ever owned!
Here is a quick shot of Ali, Kelly, and Jenny.
Shamian Island used to be the home of the Soviet Consulate. There building is a very pretty piece of architecture along the main walkway.
There girls take a few minutes to show their sister-love in front of some of the flower beds!
One of the interesting things about the island, and something I haven’t asked about yet, are the large old trees. There are mainly that have 10 – 12 feel of their root system exposed, as if this part of the island used to be higher at some point and something caused the earth to be moved away and the root system of these large trees to be exposed. I’m not sure what the story is, but they are very interesting.
Since we were her last year, they added a fountain in the middle of the main walk.
Late in the afternoon Diana brought Chase to our room and the girls had a good time playing with him. He is a CUTE kid!
It started getting late and we decided to go grab dinner. We ate a Luci’s, which is about the only place on the island to get “American” food, and I am saying that loosely. It isn’t my favorite place here and it is relatively expensive, but we couldn’t really thin of any place else to eat.
Ali started to fix her bangs and we were all concerned what the final outcome was going to be!
Luckily, it turned out presentable.
When then took an evening stroll around the island. We found several groups of students practicing their martial arts…
The girls posed for a picture along the river…
And I, again, enjoyed all the buildings!
It really was a great afternoon and evening. Every day Ali’s personality comes out more and more. Tonight was so much fun as she just had fun with us being her goofy self and enjoying life. She spend much of dinner trying to teach us various words in Chinese. She would praise us when we were correct and, like your fifth grade English teacher, scowl when we were wrong saying, “no, no, no!” And she isn’t lenient, either! It was exactly correct or we did not get credit.
Then on the walk around the island she laughed and ran ahead, played on the kids jungle gym for a few minutes (hurting her ankle in the process. Remember what I said. Uncoordinated!), scared us multiple times when we thought she was going to back up into the river, and enjoyed walking arm-in-arm or with her arms around the necks of her mom, sister, and cousin. It really was a beautiful thing to watch the four of them laughing and enjoying each other so much. It’s nice to have another female in the house.
It truly is a blessing to see how well Ali has done over the last week. It is hard to believe we haven’t even had her a week because she feels like such a part of our family. All the prayers that we made and that everyone else has man on our behalf and her behalf have been heard. I’m sure there will be times of challenge for her as she adjusts to the changes, but she seems to take everything she does at face value and jumps in with both feet, albiet sometimes wobbling just a little bit.
We also told Brittany tonight how this whole process was made easier because of her help and her accepting spirit. There are many things that happen in a day that Brittany could be jealous of or irritated with during this process, especially since they are almost exactly the same age. But Britt just continues to be a rock and is so very patient with Ali and loves on her night and day. She is a huge blessing and I can’t imagine what we would do without her.
Tomorrow we got back to the zoo where Brittany held a baby tiger last year. I have NO idea what tomorrow holds, but I know that it will be fun!
Cameron