Touring Nanning and Bonding Time

Last night Ruth woke up screaming. I leaned down into the pack and play to comfort her but it was dark and it terrified her. Trent flicked on the light so she could see me. As soon as she could see me and I picked her up so stopped crying. She woke again at 6 am and I just tucked her into bed with us.

 

We both fell back to sleep, thankfully. 

Today, Thursday, May 18, 2017, was listed as a free day with optional sightseeing. We were excited to see more of Nanning and learn about the place Ruth was born. 

 

After a leisurely breakfast and a playtime in the hotel's play place (in the same space as we eat), we sun screened up and headed out for the day! 

The weather in Guangxi is more of a tropical climate. It's humid, but I wouldn't say it's unbearable this time of year. It's about 85 degrees. Parts of each day it often sprinkles. Today was a little more cloudy than it has been all week. 

We went to the Qingxiu (I think it's pronounced Ching-Shoe) Mountain, also known as the green mountain. 

 

It was a highly manicured park-like setting. For my Lancaster friends, I would say it's comparable to a tropical Longwood Gardens. 

 

We actually took a little train through the park since it was so large. 

 

There are many many rivers, streams, and lakes in Guangxi. 

 

Koi pond filled with a disturbing amount of fish. 

 

Ruth did great in the carrier.

 

There were many beautiful flowers in the park that I especially enjoyed. I'm missing my gardens back home. 

 

This was a Pagoda in the middle of the park. It is historic but was rebuilt. I believe it was called the 72 bell Pagoda- there are supposedly 72 bells around each level of the Pagoda. We didn't see that many, though. 

 

It provided a great view of Nanning. 

 

This is the Yongjiang River. 

 

You can see all the cranes in the skyline. I love how both sides of the river have beautiful green parkways before jutting into the city. 

 

This was looking away from the city. It's really mountainous and like a jungle. We are close to the Vietnam border. 

 

It cleared up later in the day which you can see in some later photos. 

 

Ruth isn't smiling but she really did like it!

 

There was some massive bamboo. 

 

Complete with Chinese graffiti. I, obviously, have no idea what it says but it looks neat. Just as many Chinese cannot read English writing and so have some hilarious things written on t-shirts. 

 

 

Koi pond. 

 

There was a beautiful orchid garden as well. At first we thought these orchids were blooming from the trees, only to get up close to find they were carefully potted all around the trees. 

 

Ruth was getting sleepy here. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The amount of manual labor required to maintain the park is extraordinary. These women were using gas weed eaters to mow the hillside. Other women were collecting the grass clippings and putting them in bags. 

 

 

The roots of these plants were handing down from the arbor. 

 

They were a rubbery texture and very unique. 

 

That is one of our guides, Vickey. She has worked with our agency for 1 year. Her English is a little hard to understand but I think it's mainly because she isn't super confident in the language yet and she has a softer, quiet voice. 

 

I love this picture! It's a pretty accurate representation of Nanning. On the far right you can see a woman standing in a paddle boat. 

 

 

Ruthie was wiped out by the time we were done. 

 

We then went to the Guangxi Museum. It was very interesting to learn how people live life in the more rural parts of the province and the history. Much of their arts and crafts and traditional dress had very similar to Native American patterns in them. 

 

The largest ethnic minority is the Zhuang people group. Our guide, Vickey, was proud that she is 100% Zhuang. While we don't know for sure if Ruth is Zhuang or not, we felt like it was important to note it down for her future reference. 

After that busy morning we took a nice nap. There are four families in this province who are adopting. We are from all over the US (PA, VA, MO, HI). Our common bond of adopting from Guangxi and spending this week together has formed some lovely friendships. We met together as a group and went to a restaurant in the mall. We had this private room and enjoyed all sorts of unique foods such as goose, goat (amazing!), spicy noodles (amazing), okra that you dip in a chili sauce (amazing) and more. All the food is put on a lazy Susan in the middle of the table and you turn it to get what you want. I'm pretty sure I need one in my house. 

 

Overall it was a great day. Tomorrow we get Ruth's passport and in the evening we will fly to Guangzhou where we will spend another week. 

So far the trip has been amazing. Obviously it's great because we are gaining a lovely daughter, but it has been really special to see her birth country. If she ever wants to come back I hope she'll let me come with her!