« Originally posted on Monday, November 14, 2005 | HomePage | Originally posted on Saturday, November 19, 2005 »
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Originally posted on Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Tuesday, November 15, 2005 9:36 AM CST
Subject: Shopping in Guangzhou
Today, after breakfast, we headed for the shops surrounding the White Swan Hotel to do some major shopping. Although we did do a little shopping in Beijing, we saved most of our shopping for Guangzhou where prices are much better. The list of items we have acquired is too long for us to list at this time, but we did get some great deals.
Then at 11:30 am we met with Stacy Dexter and had lunch with him. Many of our fellow CWA friends reading these posts may remember Pat and Stacy Dexter. They adopted their yougest daughter Hope from China in 2002 through CWA and they are currently missisonaries here in Guangzhou, where they have been for nearly 3 years now. This is the first time we have gotten to meet Stacy and we had a wonderful visit with him. We regret that we missed meeting his wife Pat, as she is currently visiting family in the United States.
After lunch, Lisa took Xue Zheng back to the room for a nap, while Steve went with Stacy to a local fish and reptile market. The market was located on about a 20 square acre plot and it was the most interesting/disgusting thing Steve had ever seen. Steve said the cages, crates and barrels held all types of fish, frogs, turtles, and snakes. All awaiting a buyer to take them to one of the local restaurants to become someones dinner.
At 3:00 pm we met with our group and our guide took us all to a local Buddhist Temple called the 6 Banyon Tree Temple. It was a very pretty area and was very intersting to see. We were offered the opportunity to take our children to the main building to have a Buddhist Monk bless them, which was about a 10 minutes ceremony. Needless to say, not being Buddhist, we chose not to participate in this ceramony.
From the Buddhist Temple, we were then taken to a Jade Store that is government run, but bargaining was still allowed. We were able to find a couple small pieces of jewelry that we were able to bargain and get for a decent price.
We then went to dinner at ... you guessed it.... another Chinese restaurant. The food was pretty good, but we are all getting pretty tired of Chinese food.
After dinner, we came back to the hotel, where we all went our separate ways. Most of us hit the shops again to do a little more shopping. We made a couple more purchases this evening, then we went in search of a suitcase to use to get our purchases home.
Zheng Zheng continues to do well, however, she seems to have picked up a bit of a cold, as she has a runny and stuffy nose and a bit of a rattly cough. We have given her a couple doses of a decongestant and some cough medicine and hope she doesn't get any worse until we can get her home. Please keep this in your prayers.
We would also like to once again request your prayers for our safety in light of the fact that we found out today, that there has once again been a terror alert issued. This time the terror alert is specifically for Guangzhou (where we are currently located) and specifically against government buildings, hotels, restaurants, etc. where Americans tend to meet or congregate. This makes us a bit nervous since we are in a hotel that is frequented by thousands of Americans every year, including past U.S. Presidents, etc. As well as the fact that we have our appointment at the U.S. Consulate tomorrow, which is also a possible target. Please pray that the three of us, along with the rest of our group, remain safe and healthy for our return home on Thursday (Wednesday night your time).
Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day for us, as our guide has planned a few activities for us tomorrow. And we also have to get everything packed up and ready to fly home. So this will likely be our last post from China. We will try to make another post once we get home to fill you in our last day here and the flight home.
Emilie, mommy and daddy love you very much and we will see you in 2 days.
Love in Christ,
Steve, Lisa and Xue Zheng
19:20 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: China Adoption