Amazing Day in Guilin

Karin writing as I did yesterday.

Each day's agenda is a special little concoction I either came up with at home or developed here. Last night I worked with one of the young ladies who works in our Inn to help me with the ideas for the day. I had read about her and how warm and helpful she is when I found our Inn on TripAdvisor.com. I also loved the serendipitous fact that her name is Lulu just like our soon to be daughter.

So, we hired a van driven by a nice man named Lee and spent an entire day exploring the area. Yao Mountain is the tallest mountain in Guilin. It gives a phenomenal view of the entire region from the top. But of course, first you have to get there. We started the day by driving through Guilin and into the countryside. It was a warm, rainy day and the karst mountains were shrouded in mist. On the way there, we past fields of lotus blooms, stone mausoleums cut into the hillsides and small to medium sized brick shacks, simple houses, and apartment buildings.

We took a cable car up to the top of the mountain and on our way were greeted by almost every person who was coming down. "Hello" or "Nimen hao" were the most common exchanges but we even got to have a tiny exchange in Korean. Guilin is a huge tourist attraction in China with over 300,000 tourists per year but most are mainland Chinese. I wish I could show you what I saw now but the pictures will come later. I can say that looking over this incredibly luscious verdant landscape, I couldn't help but think that Minlan was somewhere out there and that because I could see everything, I must be seeing her.

After Yao Mount, we had a very educational visit to the Guilin Tea Research Institute wher we learned about the differences between all teas, the varieties and qualities and then were treated to a traditional Chinese tea ceremony. The adults loved the teas. I have never tasted tea so delicious and we tried 5 very different but equally special kinds. Dec even tried them. Quin preferred to photograph the event. The highlight for the kids, after learning to pick tea and tea seeds, was to watch as a little clay figure spouted water from a hole in his privates after he was soaked in water and then hot water was poured on him. The tea teacher let them see it twice it was such a hit.

Next was a fabulous lunch at the restaurant where guide Lulu had celebrated her college graduation the year before. Phenomenal duck, noodles, special seasonal veggies, pork with battered corn, and steamed bread filled with what tasted like cake batter. Yum.

The next stop was Seven Star Park where we saw the karst formation that looks Iike a giant camel, gorgeous foliage, a waterfall, lots of friendly people, and 8 red pandas and 3 giant pandas.

At the very end of the day, we went to find Minlan's finding place. We knew it was Wayao Market so we tried Wayao Wholesale Market. Our guide Lulu was very brave and asked the market policemen for us about whether they knew about a baby being found there in Feb of 2007. The first one said he had only been there a few months but the older man suggested that it might have been the Wayao food market rather than goods. I remembered that one of the translations of little Lulu's documents listed Wayao grocery as her finding place. We purchased a few regional souvenirs from the minority population goods stand (the textiles are beautiful) and asked Lee to make one more stop. He agreed.

Wayao Grocery is basically a side street with an archway multiple tiny one room shops open to the air, and people on small bicycles or mini-trucks with baskets or pallets full of fruits or veggies or creatures to sell. The street was packed with people who all stared open-mouthed or smiling at us as we walked through to get a feel for the place. It was a place where one feels the poverty and shows us how grateful we should be for the prosperity in our region. It really broke my heart to be there and think of Lulu's birth mother needing to leave her baby at this exact place for whatever reason. How amazing to be her forever mother and to be here now, standing amongst the crowd, knowing that someone could be here that helped my little girl. I am grateful that someone cared enough to call for help and to get her to the authorities so she could come to know how much she is loved and to learn how much goodness is ahead of her.




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