A Chinese-American Story of Love (Part VI - section 1)

By Douglas Wagganer

Our flight from Changsha, China to Guangzhou, China took a little over an hour to complete. As we sat on the plane heading eastbound toward our final stop in China, we all knew that our long journey was almost to an end. All twenty families in our adoption group had a beautiful baby girl on their laps that afternoon. Those twenty babies were our new daughters and we were all very proud to show that fact off to everyone onboard that airplane.

Arrival in Guangzhou, China was uneventful. The airport was large, and the baggage claim area was nearly empty when we collected our luggage. The crowds of people that you might have expected in most large city airports were simply not present. The building ran in an organized logical order. The working manner of most large business and governmental agencies in China seemed to operate in that same way. The task of creating a maximized function and a streamlined process was an apparent common functioning goal in China

Outside the airport we stacked all our bags of luggage in huge mound. The Hotel baggage delivery person had to be shocked at what he had before him. I still wonder how that thin young man managed to manhandle those heavy bulky cases. When I tipped him for our group later, I added in a few extra Yuan, because he sure earned it that afternoon. The Hotel's tour bus took us to the White Swan Hotel, as "Simmon" our Guangzhou Tour Guide gave us a brief history of the City. The modern name for the City is now Guangzhou, but in bygone days of that old ancient town, it was once known as "Canton". The City was modern, had nice roads, and thousands of neon light signs on the sides of the buildings. It is a place of over nine million people, with the extremely heavy traffic to prove it. Guangzhou is a major trade center for China. It had a different feel or beat to it from Changsha, China. You could feel the differences in the sights, sounds and smells. How the local citizens were going about daily life was notably different also. This was a place that had Western connections and ties. This was a place that regularly had American Tourist and Business People, so our group was nothing new or unusual, just another group of people riding in a Tour bus to the White Swan Hotel.

Now the White Swan Hotel is located along the Pearl River. It is a Five Star Hotel of the topmost quality. This is a must stay at Hotel if you are visiting Guangzhou. The beauty of the building, the fine service and the atmosphere is great. It is surrounded by an area of serene parks and shops. The American, as well as several other nationalities had their Consulates scattered in the surrounding neighborhoods. This Hotel could rival any American Hotel, and was the best place I had ever stayed in.

Well, friends who had made prior trips like were now doing had long since given Jane and I the run down on all the local shopping hot spots. After feeding and changing the baby, we were off shopping. Two small shops by the names of "Jennifer's" and "Sheri's" got a pair of crazy buyers that evening. We bought clothes of all sizes for Maribeth, we bought several "Chops", we bought Art Works, and we bought tourist souvenirs. Both Jane and I tried to get a little something of just about anything we saw. We wanted to cover all the bases for our daughter. Yes; we knew that there were many fine Chinese stores back in the United States, but we wanted to some day tell her we brought these things back with us because we felt they were items important to her and meaningful to our understanding of the culture she comes from. I enjoyed the shopping. I enjoyed the bargaining process. Most of all I enjoyed the quest to find something special for my daughter to cherish in the future.