March 13, 2019- Last Day in Guangzhou, visit to Shamian Island

March 14, 2019- Leave Guangzhou, travel to Beijing

Today was our last full day in Guangzhou.  With nothing to do but wait for our finalized visa for Bin, we were free to see the sights.  Our guide Simon took the families to Shamian Island for a relaxing day.  Shamian Island is a small island on the Pearl River in Guanzhou that had been developed by the British during colonial times.  The buildings were quaint, European style buildings with beautiful landscaped flower beds, trees, and bronze sculptures around the island.  Our first stop was a public park that was full of mostly retired people doing everything under the sun including singing, dancing, Tai Chi, and even playing hacky sack.

Dance group using tennis racket looking things to balance a ball on while waving their arms around. Pretty impressive!

We joined a hacky sack circle where I joined in and made a fool of myself with some really good people.  Their hacky sacks were completely different from those in the US.  They were home-made contraptions that look like darts but at the tip there was a stack of plastic discs that keep it bottom weighted.  It worked pretty much like the American versions even though it looked totally different.  I had so much fun with them that I bought one from one of the people who had just made one. 

This is a Chinese hacky sack!

From there we made our way around the park in a leisurely stroll, watching the different groups do their thing.  The kids had fun playing on a playground, and Rhonda made friends with a little brown poodle.  

Rhonda’s new friend

One of the playgrounds was questionably situated under a massive Jackfruit tree, which seemed a little hazardous to me.  Letting your kids play underneath a tree full of dangling 8-10 lb spiked head splitting bombs didn’t seem like the best decision, but hey… when in Rome, right?

This is a stock photo of a Jackfruit. The ones at the park were about half this size, but still! Am I right?

As we continued strolling around the island we stopped here and there to take pictures of the kids playing on and around the bronze statues and sculptures that dotted the public spaces around the island.  

The kids loved the sculptures

The next stop was the White Swan Hotel, which was located next to the old US Consulate building.  Adoptive families used to all stay at this hotel before the consulate moved due to the convenience. 

That's a lot of jade

Still a tradition today, there is a red couch in the hotel where newly adopted kiddos have to stop and get their photo taken before leaving China with their new families.  We managed to get all kids from our group, including Abigail, on the couch for a group photo. 

Obligatory red couch photo at the Swan Hotel- You can click on the photo of the placard to enlarge it and read more about the red couch. The best part is the reference to "Newly baked" parents 😅

After the hotel we stopped by a couple of souvenir shops before heading to a café called Lucy’s for lunch. 

This is how you celebrate your last day in Guangzhou!

Thursday we slept in and had a leisurely breakfast before packing up and heading to the airport to leave Guangzhou.  At this point we were free to head back to the United States whenever we wanted to, but we had opted to travel to Beijing for a few days to see some of the most iconic sights in China before we left.  Before saying goodbye to our guide Simon at the airport, we actually managed to finally get a photo of him with Abigail and Bin. 

Simon says “Say Cheese!”

Goodbye Guangzhou, hello Beijing!