Nanchang

On Monday, July 13, we visited the Teng Wang Pavilion in Nanchang. (We had also been here when we adopted Rachel ten years ago.) It was hot. I probably don't have to keep repeating that. I can just say it was very hot every day we were in China.

Every level of the Teng Wang Pavilion has shopping. So we were able to pick up some small things. It seemed a little different from 1999. I remember in '99 there was a man painting names on scrolls and we had gotten one for Rachel. Every letter of her name was a different object, like a palm tree or a butterfly. The one from '99 faded, so I was hoping to get her another one. Oh well. I did manage to buy a very overpriced fan for myself. Just a fold-up hand fan, and I paid 40 yuan for it, or about $6. The girl had originally asked about 80 yuan for it, and I was hot and just wanted a fan, so I didn't really care that I spent too much.

There are only six girls in this picture because one of our families had two orphanages to visit, so they didn't meet back up with us until Monday night.

View from the top of the tower. There are gardens on the grounds as well.

The girls walking across a stone foot bridge in the garden. After leaving here, we walked to a nice restaurant and were seated in a private room. Our local guide ordered for us, and once again everything was very good. Walking to the restaurant, I saw something at a stand that I really wanted to buy, but we had to keep up with the guide. I thought we'd be stopping back by that way when we left the restaurant, but we didn't. Lesson learned; when you see something you want in China, buy it!

Our hotel in Nanchang was very nice. It was the Galactic Peace International Hotel. This is the bathroom. There is a glass wall between the tub and the toilet, but the shower area near the window is completely open, and it had one of those big shower heads in the ceiling, too. We kept saying we wouldn't mind having a bathroom like this at home; however, I'd want a lip of some kind near the shower area, because every time we took a shower, the water came the whole way to the glass door near the toilet.

At some of the airports we flew into and out of in China we would ride a bus from the terminal to the plane and walk up the steps to the plane. It reminded me of flying to Orlando one time when I was 15 or so and I was on crutches and had to hop down the steps of the plane on one foot. This is Rachel and our guide, Bing, in front of our plane in Nanchang. We flew from Nanchang to Shanghai.