Shopping in Nanchang

This morning we visited the Badashanren Museum which is in a Daoist temple. The paintings were all brush and ink and many were beautiful , others well let's say we aren't quite cultured enough to appreciate them. The grounds were just like what you see in the movies : picturesque gardens with small ponds and a zigzag bridge. The best part was it was so quiet - this was the first place in China we have been to that has not been crowded. It was a very peaceful place. The highlight of the trip was when our van driver drove over a little walking bridge. I don't think there was an inch on either side of us.

The most important part of the day was getting Tian's passport. We visited the museum first as one member of our travel group has a stomach bug and we were trying to give her a few hours to pull herself together - poor woman. Tian's passport took all of 5 minutes. She now has a Chinese passport - another step toward her coming home. Bringing her home has truely put meaning to the proverb: "A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step."

We were then free for the rest of the afternoon. Tian was back to her happy, playful, mischievious self so we decided to explore. She even sat in the stroller - a huge success. We found an open air mall about 5 blocks from the hotel. There were many teens there for lunch. In China there is no school lunch program - the children all go home for an hour. We strolled and found a little store that sold barrettes and Tian is every salesperson's dream - they hand her things and she won't let go so the desperate parents ( us) end up buying all kinds of junk!! She loved the barrettes in her hair until we were about 3 stores down and then she pull them out and alternately threw them or threatened to eat them. We no longer have barrettes in her hair.

It was sad to see how very westernized the stores her were. The barrett store was like Claires and the clothing imitating every store in our malls. We did go to McDonalds - I know shameful, but we had to do it once. They were prepared for us with a picture menu :o) The food tastes just the same, just less salty. The soda drinks also have less sugar. We rounded out lunch with ice cream from a small stand. My ice cream bar was covered with chocolate and sesame seeds - odd but actuslly pretty good.


My feet are killing me, but it was a fun afternoon. The weirdest thing was we are sweating outside, but each little shop had the heat on !!! That alone probably saved us a lot of money. Tian finally fell asleep in the stroller and we kept walking for fear of waking her. I was accosted by several elderly women because she was wearing shorts and it is only 77 degrees here ! The humidity is extremely high - once again by Chinese standards ( sweating is good for your helath) we are very healthy! We kept Tian covered with a light cotton blanket and that seemed to satisfy them. We saw several art studios, porcelian studios and a woman who does the most incredible needlework- her embroidery looks like a painting - they are amazing. Tom continues to be a favorite of the local beggars as he can't turn them away.

Right now Tom is having a sneezing attack and Tian thinks it is the funniest thing she has ever seen. He stops and she imitates him. The nose blowing is especially lady like.

Tomorrow we will fly to Guangzhou the final stop in our journey. All the families form the Us have to go throgh there as that is where the babies will get thier greencards and apply for citizenship. there are about 30 familes here in Nanachang and they are from all over the world - US, Spain, France and Austrailia that I know of. It has been an incredible journey and has not only made us grateful to be Americans, but ashamed of how much we have and waste, but also proved how small the world really is. We are all more alike than we would like to believe.
Tara