Trip to China
All Days  |  Previous Day  |  Next Day

Sunday, August 3, 2008 Today there were no official activities to do or group tours so we arranged our own tour to a place called Lotus Hill. Lotus Hill has quite a few interesting attractions including a 40.88 meter tall golden mother buddha, a castle, several pagodas, and an ancient quarry. We went with our friends Karie and Kathy. I mentioned Kathy's daughter Liza (Lili) in an earlier post. Being an older child, Lili had been crying inconsolably for several days. She finally seems to have snapped out of it and appears to be settling in. Thank God for that, I know it was hard on Kathy and Karie. I also know that they are two saints to have endured that rough patch. They were a little bored of doing the island loop just as we were so it was time for a new adventure. The drive took about 50 minutes or so to get there. Just like on the surface streets in Guangzhou, people walk all over the freeways too. We saw a guy wheeling a suitcase across the freeway right in front us in the left lane. At least the max speed is only like 45mph. When you get there you don't realize it because of all the haze, but you are actually next to the South China Sea. From the top of the hill, you really can't even see the sea, even though it should be directly in front of you. You can't even smell the sea. It's kind of strange. Today was a lotus flower celebration. All the lotus flowers are in bloom in one section of the park. We started out by going to the Lotus Castle, which is referred to as the Great Wall of Guangzhou. It is rimmed by an ancient brick wall and has some interesting features inside, like the maze. The maze was used to further confuse the enemy when they storm through the door and give the defenders an additional advantage. Had my dad been an invader he would have had the advantage because he stood a foot taller than the maze. We then went down to see the Goddess of Mercy herself, standing 40 meters tall, welcoming seafarers to the mainland. There were hundreds of acolytes at her feet as well as the temple next to the statue. They were burning incense; the incense sometimes measuring 5 or 6 feet tall. On the way to Lotus Hill you pass through a village where a couple dozen shops all sell the exact same incense. I don't know how they compete. In the temple there were many idols strewn all throughout the place and a few monks. Inside of course were many more acolytes, some worshipping the smaller version of the goddess, the version with a "thousand" hands. There was a little chanting going on too. The boys and I couldn't help but to imagine ourselves in a scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. We took the stairs to the top of the three stories. They were like double-height stories so it seemed like we hiked up quite a ways, especially while carrying a baby on my back and the camera gear. I had slowed up pretty good by the time I got to the top. The heat was inescapable. It was well over a hundred, and the humidity was way up. We were pretty exposed in this place too but at least there were a few shade trees here and there. YaYa was on my back and the two of us were absolutely soaked. We realized by the end of our tour that you can't bring enough water with you on these things. Even though she drank lots of water, April got a pretty serious migraine - the kind where you feel sick. I hadn't yet reached my limit but everyone else was ready to be back in air conditioning. We made our way to the van. I knew we'd end up in the pool today. It's not possible to really enjoy this place on a half day tour. You just won't be able to see it all. However, it's not possible to really enjoy a full day tour in the heat. Maybe our approach of whizzing through it was the best. On the way out we stopped at the Lotus Garden and Ancient Quarry. Lotuses grow in water and their flowers are big and beautiful. They are really just giant lilly pads. There were several ponds here. In addition to the lotuses, there were some of those gigantic South American lilly pads that you can practically walk on. They actually did have some faux lilly pads that you could walk on out to the middle of the pond. I bolted right on out there skipping by some other tourists and promptly got whistled at by the lilly pad police. Apparently you must be more careful so that you don't knock people in to the pond. The water was dark too so I'm not altogether sure how deep it was. There could already be fifty former tourists in there and I wouldn't have known. After that, we walked in a little further to check out a waterfall and some more of the garden. In typical Chinese fashion, wherever many people will gather, there will be Chinese Britney Spears-like pop music playing way too loud. Some off-key guy walked by me singing it so I had it in stereo. Don't they ever listen to rock at least? I have yet to hear the Chinese version of Aerosmith. Fortunately we didn't stick around too much and made our way to the Ancient Quarry. I'm not sure of the nature of the quarry, but I am sure it was a monumental task to cut the rock. The cliffs were very tall. When you do the tour, there are pathways and staircases that weave in and out of the cliffs. The tour of the quarry itself lasts about an hour and a half. We were flat out of time so we were just able to go to the top observation deck and shoot a few frames. I kind of wish we had come to the quarry first because it proved to be one of the most interesting spots we've seen on the whole trip. That concluded the tour of Lotus Hill so we headed back to the hotel. Along the way we very much enjoyed all the motorcycles. You will not believe what Chinese people will strap to a motorcycle. Whether it's a family of five, a stack of boxes, or a refrigerator, they will do it fearlessly. Back at the hotel we got in the pool as quickly as possible. April still had her headache and was going to lay down but opted to go to the pool instead. That paid off because the headache lessened after cooling off in the water. Our trip to the pool was a lot better than the day previous. I think the boys wanted to stay in this time so they chose to behave a little better. Having stayed in for a couple hours, we were all pruny by the time we got out. YaYa would not go to anyone else but me in the pool. She has really begun to be pretty clingy with her Daddy. At first there was equal attachment between April and I. Then, she seemed to become pretty attached to Preston. We asked Preston gently to back off a little so that she could develop some more attachment to us (which he didn't like). At the most critical times, when she's really fussy, she'll come to me for consolation rather than April. The last two days we've made the mistake of being out during her naptime. If she doesn't have adequate sleep, she'll get pretty mischievous and cranky. Tomorrow we will emphasize the nap to minimize the mischievousness. You can tell when she needs sleep because she just flits around from one thing to the next at light speed. Just be careful that your head is not in the way! We've all gotten whacked a few times. Dinner was back a Lucy's. Those fish and chips sounded pretty good to everyone. YaYa was fussy so I walked her around the park for a while before dinner and then a little after dinner. We watched people doing Tai Chi and others playing chess. No half-naked cannonballers tonight. I went back to the hotel a little early to get her PJs on and start to wind her down. Wasn't going to happen, she was very wound up. We finally put her to bed with a bottle and although she's drinking the bottle just fine, she's not going to sleep to it like she had. She's probably just been overtired the last couple of nights. Once again, she had to fall asleep in my arms. I absolutely love that but I don't want it to become a crutch since I travel for my job. She needs to be able to go to sleep with Mama too, or on her own.

Web site by myadoptionwebsite.com