Mission Accomplished!

Surprisingly, the trip home yesterday went pretty smoothly! Libby and Annabel were on their best behavior and even managed to grab a few hours of sleep both on the plane and in the van on the way home after landing.

We got up at 4:45am yesterday, China time. No problems at the Guangzhou airport, in marked contrast to our flights to Hong Kong from Beijing a couple weeks ago. Our China Southern airlines experience was a significant improvement over our Air China experience, for your future reference.

We took the 8:25am flight Guangzhou to Hong Kong and just barely had enough time to make it through the multiple additional levels of security in order to switch to our Continental flight at 10:20am to Newark.

We then enjoyed each other's company for 14 hours and 45 mintues. The kids were great, everyone slept at least some. We got in a little early to the States. Immigration and Customs were smooth. We had a van pick us up in Newark and drive us back to my parents house in Lafayette Hill, PA. The Friday afternoon rush hour was not helpful, but we made it eventually.

All in all,door-to-door, it took us 25 hours of travel to get home. But we're here, everyone is happy and healthy, and Libby is now a citizen of the United States, and Meg and Timmy's newest cousin!

China Earthquake Donations

The International Red Cross / Red Crescent is accepting donations to aid earthquake relief efforts in Sichuan Province. Below is a link to their site where you can learn more about the ongoing international response to this significant tragedy. You can also donate money should you be so moved.

http://www.redcross.org/news/in/profiles/Intl_profile_ChinaEarthquake.html

Thanks to everyone who has been following our trip and for all your well-wishes. Tomorrow we head home with Libby!

Shamian Island

Guangzhou is a huge city, by anyone's able to get a firm number from anyone, it is safe to say that there are something like 7-10 million people living here, making it as large as or likely larger than New York City. In fact, there are over 200 cities in China with populations of over 1 million people. The US, in contrast, has something like maybe 10 cities - 15 maybe - that have over 1 million people.


In any case, trust me when I say that Guangzhou is big. It is also sprawling - it just seems to go on and on and on. As you drive along, huge apartment buildings slide by endlessly. Thousands upon thousands of little storefronts selling all manner of items line up at street level. It's a bewildering array of sights, sounds, and smells.

We, however, are staying at the White Swan Hotel (http://www.white-swan-hotel.com/) here on Shamian Island in Guangzhou. Shamian was formerly the sole place where Westerners could interact with the locals. At night the gates would come down, locking the Westerners onto the island until morning. Here is a shot of one of the two pools at the White Swan, replete with waterfall.

As such, the island has a distinct European feel to its architecture, and is filled with huge and beautiful Banyan trees, many of which are over 100 years old. Shamian is a true oasis of relative calm in the bustle of Guangzhou. Here are some shots from the past week around the island, including some food options and one warning sign.

Separated at Birth?

Notice any resemblance in hairstyles here?

Let's hope that's where they end...

Breakfast Series and a Temple

Well apparently there was an earthquake in China today, though we did not feel it here in Guangzhou, which is pretty far to the south-east of the country.

http://www.maplandia.com/china/guangdong/shunde/guangzhou/

Here are a series of pictures of Libby at breakfast this morning. Every day more and more of her (very strong) personality come out - it's very fun to watch.

The picture at the top of the page is from the Buddhist Temple of the Six Banyans here in Guangzhou. I climbed up to the ninth and final level - quite steep steps and very low ceilings. Beautiful though.

A Quick Pic

Here's a quick picture of Laura interacting with Libby at dinner last night at Lucy's restaurant, where we have eaten many a delicious and fun meal.

Today, off to a Temple of some sort - I believe the kids can receive blessings from a Buddhist monk.

A way around the censors? Happy Mother's Day!

As you know, I have been unable to get to the Geen Kaas! blog for many days now, thanks to the Chinese Government censors. In fact I have not been able to reach any of the blogs hosted by Google's Blogger.com and the related blogspot.com, which hosts this blog.

However, I was able this morning to log into the blog posting part of the site, though it still won't let me view the site. Biz just confirmed that she could see this post, so I guess it works.

Here is a video of Libby from the Civil Affairs office right after she was presented to Laura.

More pictures of Libby (and pandas too)!

Another post from Biz...

Laura, Annabel, Libby and Chip went to the Xiang Jiang Animal Safari Park on Saturday and saw the park's crown jewel - 5 Giant Pandas. Also, here are some more pictures of Libby -- one close up from dinner last night, one with her mom on the safari train, and one where Annabel is making her laugh.

Shut Down!

This is Biz, Chip's wife. Chip asked me to add a post to let you know that the day after his last posting, the Chinese government internet censors blocked access to all blogs on blogspot.com and blogger.com from inside the country. Apparently they have done this several times over the past couple of years - usually randomly, and then just as randomly, they unblock the sites again. Therefore, Chip is not being lazy (as far as we know), but is prevented from accessing the blog to post entries.

I'm also posting some pictures of Annabel's new sister, Libby. Her full name is Elizabeth Chun Wei Curtis Brewer (not sure of the spelling of Chun Wei) and her Chinese nickname is "Fi Fi" (prounced like hi fi). Laura and Annabel (and Chip) are enjoying her company immensely and can't wait to introduce her to family and friends in the States very soon!

Quick Siteseeing update

Well, it was a brutal day for siteseeing here in Beijing - tremendous downpours, thunder and lightning, and quite cold. Nonetheless, here are a couple of shots and some good advice. Tomorrow is the Great Wall! Time for bed...

Lunch with Hilton

On Thursday, Laura and I followed separate paths. I worked from my hotel room and went to lunch with my colleague Hilton Zhao while Laura and Annabel visited the Temple of Heaven, Tian'anmen Square, and the Forbidden City.


While I don't have Laura's pictures loaded onto my laptop yet, she said it was an amazing day. The Temple of Heaven was beautiful - here's the Wikipedia link:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altar_of_Heaven


Thursday was May Day - a National holiday to celebrate Workers and their contribution to the prosperity of the country. As such, apparently Tian'anmen Square - the largest urban square in the world - was absolutely jam-packed with people, many of them in line to visit Mao's tomb. It is said that Tian'anmen Squ. can hold up to a million people, and Laura said it felt like there was easily 500,000 people there with them yesterday. The Forbidden City was also crowded, but not quite as crazy.


Meanwhile, I had the fortune to meet Hilton Zhou, a colleague of mine based in our Beijing office. Despite the holiday, he was kind enough to come to our hotel and take me out to lunch at a beautiful restaurant built around several inner courtyards, with beautiful woodwork, painting, trellises and plants. In one room was a waterfall, coy pond, and river that flowed underneath the transparent tiling under your feet. A very cool effect, though it unfortunately did not lend itself to an interesting photograph.












I just saw Laura and Annabel off with their driver for the day to go visit the Great Wall, and I will head into our office in a little while. I will have my chance to sight-see over the weekend while they head down to Hong Kong Disneyland. On Monday I'll fly down to Hong Kong and meet up with them for a day before we take the train up to Guangzhou and picking up the new baby!

First Afternoon in Beijing

After a relatively easy 13-hour flight from Newark, we have arrived in Beijing and settled into the hotel. The picture above is the gate in from of our hotel, which is just off the Wangfujing shopping street, just to the East of Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City.


We basically flew over the North Pole to get here and approached Beijing from the Northwest, over Mongolia, hooked around south of Beijing and then North to the airport. Mongolia and the land north-west of Beijing was dry, brown desert, with breaks of sharp hills / mountains.



Once we landed, however, there were more trees and greenery around the airport than expected. Traffic was slow getting into the city but we eventually arrived, checked in, showered, and changed into more comfortable clothes - as it was around 80F and sunny.


We went out into the streets for a bit of a walk and some dinner, though our bodies felt it was morning. Beijing is exactly 12 hours ahead of the East Coast. We immediately met a couple of Beijing University students who invited us to their student exhibition up around the corner from the hotel. Here are the two artists we met with their artwork:





They then showed us to a restaurant where we had some dinner. The young waitstaff were very interested in Annabel and came over to play with her. In general, people here are very interested in children and will come right up to play with them in a way that most Westerners would find disconcerting in its forwardness. However, it's a very interesting cultural difference relating to privacy and personal space.


After dinner we wandered around the Wangfujing shopping district, went into the Beijing Olympics store where Annabel got a mascot doll, and went down a very crowded vendor / foodstall alley.





After that, it was time to go to bed and try to get onto the right schedule. More tonight, as right now Laura and Annabel are off to the Temple of Heaven, Ti'ananmen Sq. and the Forbidden City while I work from the hotel. We'll try to upload Laura's pictures tonight as well.

At the Airport in Newark

Greetings from Newark Airport! As you can see from the picture at left, everyone has arrived safely and we are sitting at the gate as I type this.

Laura is off wandering the shops here in the terminal; Annabel is engrossed with her new Nintendo DS, and I am posting.

I believe our plane is completely full, so space will be at a premium. They just made an announcement about getting our documents checked again at the gate podium, so I will be back to finish the post later.

That didn't take too long, but I find it a bit disconcerting to have people checking your paperwork all the time - as the people behind the counter ultimately has the power to prevent you from leaving - or entering - the country. It's a transaction that carries more tension that you might think, even when it goes smoothly. Nonetheless, I am always pleased when it is over.

Here are some pics of us in the terminal, and one of Laura and Annabel in from of the Gate, and you should see the "BEIJING" in lights behind them.