When I was still in Chengdu, I had a dilemma. I had reached the end of my definite itinerary. I knew that I wanted to go to Hainan (island in the South China Sea) at some point, but my time until then was unaccounted for. I wanted to do the horse trek to Songpan, but it was pouring rain and I'm not thrilled by the idea of riding a horse in the rain. Chafing. I thought about taking a 3 Gorges cruise. However, my experience on the train from Moscow to Beijing showed me that I am not temperamentally well suited to sitting in place for days on end watching beautiful scenery go past. Maybe it'd be fun with a friend, but by myself, I foresaw much boredom and gnashing of teeth. I could hop over to Shanghai for a few days, but it was all the way across the country, and thus not a very efficient route from Chengdu to Hainan.
I sat up poring over Lonely Planet, looking for anything that sounded interesting. That's when I read about Guangzhou; Canton, as it was called for hundreds of years of British domination. Founding site of a wonderful culinary tradition, and location of infamous market in puppies and kitties for the pot. It sounded perfect! Nice colonial background to provide some interesting architecture. Some good temples, and the infamous Qingping market. I decided to spend 3 nights there and was curious as to why no other backpackers seemed to be mentioning Guangzhou in their itineraries.
Let me tell you something about Lonely Planet. The number one backpacker complaint about LP is that they are enthusiastic about everything. They will never come out and say, "the place is a dud, skip it." The dustiest small town will be described with only a fraction less enthusiasm than the Great Wall of China. I fell victim to this phenomena despite being on the watch for it.
Guangzhou is a city. It's a fairly standard city with no major tourist sites. It does have Shamian Island, granted as a permanent foreigner enclave/trading post following the First Opium War. The island is full of beautiful European style buildings that are decaying in a visually appealing way. It is also the number one location for American couples adopting Chinese babies, due to the presence of a US Consulate specializing in adoption. That was not mentioned in LP.
When I arrived and found out just what Guangzhou has to offer, I was a little doubtful as to the wisdom of my choice of destination. However, after a little thought, I realized that I was all touristed out, and wouldn't mind some downtime. Also, I'm an urban dweller. I actually like cities. I like watching people in cities. I like to wander around and find out how things work. Guangzhou might be more of a transit hub than a tourist destination, but it worked for me.
I spent most of my time on Shamian Island. My hostel was on Baietan Bar Street right across the Pearl River from Shamian. There was a ferry practically right outside my door that for 50 mao (1/2 a yuan), would drop me off on the corner of the island. I went over in the morning for coffee and a muffin and would stay for a few hours or all day, depending on my whim. Shamian Island is also home to the world's only atmospheric Starbucks. Occupying a colonial building with a large courtyard garden, the interior has 2 large rooms, one with a fireplace, and huge windows. It is absolutely lovely. Amazing. I thought that it was a branding requirement that all Starbucks be ugly.
After coffee, I would use the free internet over at Blenz coffee house, and wander the streets watching the people and looking for photo ops. The entire island has 3 east-west streets and 4 north-south roads. It is tiny. It consists of large hotels with their population of American families, old buildings subdivided into numerous tiny studio apartments, and the odd restaurant, shops selling tourist crap geared to appeal to new parents eager to spend money, and number of people who've come to the island for photo shoots, whether professional fashion shoots or private wedding pictures. The bridal photo thing seems to have caught on here.
I really enjoyed watching the adoptive parents. They all seemed to be American. Most were older, and seemed a little unsure of how to handle their new child. I saw a lot of awkward moments that were very sweet. I also saw one lesbian couple with a new daughter. That was surprising because I was under the impression that China wouldn't allow gay couples to adopt. This preconception was probably formed by a Simpsons episode though.
I'm torn on the whole Chinese adoption subject. Of course, my opinion of the process is entirely beside the point and meaningless to any of the principals involved. It just seems horrific on the one hand that China is selling its daughters to Americans, yet it makes everyone involved so happy that it's hard to argue against the practice. Seeing those chortling little girls with new adoring parents, knowing that they will have good lives makes it difficult to think that it's an abhorrent policy. I can argue both sides, without being able to commit fully to either position. I did see one couple that had gotten a baby boy. This was astonishing until I learned that in addition to his visible cleft palate, he also had a number of other ailments that had kept him hospitalized for all of the previous year - he was 2. The new parents weren't told of his health issues until after the papers were signed. They said, and I believed them, that they would have taken him regardless, but it would've been nice to have been told in advance. Question: should there be lemon laws for adoption agencies?
There was so much to see and ponder on the island that I spent a day and a half there without feeling any urge to leave. Just the prevalence of old shade trees made it one of my favorite spots in China. For a people so obsessed with white skin, it hasn't seemed to occur to the Chinese that shade trees might be of assistance. I did get a massage on Day 2 at a Chinese medical health center. The foot massage was absolutely incredible. It included a shoulder massage and foot bath as well as a chiropractic spinal adjustment. Fabulous. I felt invigorated and ready for almost anything. Then, I got the body massage. OUCH. If you have a very high pain threshold, you might enjoy that massage. If you enjoy having someone stick his fingers in your ears and rub his sweaty hands all over your face, you will love it! I did not particularly enjoy it and will stick to foot massage from here on.
After a couple of days luxuriating in real coffee (I am truly sick of drinking Nescafe), and beauty, I did finally get a bite from the tourist bug and wandered over to see the Chen Family Ancestral Confucian Academy. It's being used as a folk art museum and it well worth a look. Gorgeous building and some nice art pieces on display. Then, I went over to the Five Celestials Shrine. This is a Taoist Shrine dedicated to the 5 "fairies" who rode down from heaven on goats with ears of rice in their mouths during the reign of King Yi of the Zhou Dynasty - I have no clue what that works out to on the Gregorian calendar. They gave rice to the local people who were in the midst of a rather severe famine, and blessed all of their future crops. The immortals then rose into the sky and their goats turned into statues. Guangzhou was founded on the spot of their landfall and was called Yangcheng (City of Goats) and Suicheng (City of Rice Ears). The shrine was a bit lacklustre as a site, but anecdotally is a must-do. They rode goats!!!
Just to hit Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist sites all in one day, I continued on to the Temple of the 6 Banyan Trees. This temple contains the Flowery Pagoda which has 17 levels, as well as quite a few trees and a few different shrines. The representations of the Buddha seemed slightly more influenced by India than others that I've seen in China. It was originally built in 537 and has had a variety of names during that time span. It finally settled into the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees during the Song Dynasty (960-1279 CE) when a visiting author was invited to rename it. He said that he had come to the temple suffering from depression, but while he was there, there were 6 particular banyan trees that had made him feel so happy to perceive that his depression had lifted. Thus, the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees.
Honestly, the temple was nice, but what sticks out about my visit there is what happened outside of the temple. I had stepped aside out of the way of a monk leading a group of pilgrims, and was trying to decide if I had enough chutzpa to take a couple photos of them (I didn't), when I was surrounded by a group of beggers. They all were missing hands. I don't know how many there were. One second, I was looking at my camera, the next, my field of vision was filled with wrist stumps being waved in my face. There were between 4 and 6 of them, I think. A couple were double amputees, and the rest were only missing one hand each. They were all smiling broadly. I'm ashamed to say that I didn't give any of them any money. When they appeared, I just wanted to get away and so I entered the temple complex. While inside, I decided to give each person 20 yuan when I left. However, they were gone by the time that I exited the temple. The whole thing was unsettling. I asked a couple of people (hostel workers, locals on Shamian) if there was a reason why there were so many amputees around the temple, but the people I asked either didn't know or wouldn't say. I have since learned that Guangzhou is one of the locations where Falun Gong is most harshly suppressed. There is a "rehab center" in the city that serves as a reeducation center. I have no idea if their allegations of severe torture are true, but I can say from personal experience that there are a lot of people missing limbs in Guangzhou.
I also tried to visit the Qingping market, fully prepared to be horrified and sickened by the sight of dogs and cats being sold as meat. Foiled! I don't know where people go now to buy their nice haunch of golden retriever, but there was nary a puppy to be found at Qingping. I saw snakes, lizards, sea horses, beetles and roaches - all for human consumption. I didn't see any edible housepets. I felt a little cheated, and a little relieved. Only a little relieved because I doubt that Cantonese cuisine no longer serves fried cat, just the market location seems to have shifted.
I had a lovely, relaxing time in Guangzhou. The city was a relief after Yangshuo; the Pearl River was lovely, especially at night by boat - though the river meant mosquitos; Shamian Island is fantastic; and the number one best thing about Guangzhou is the emphasis on fitness. I love it. I got up early two days in a row to go out and watch the people exercising on the riverfront. It was amazing. My favorite was an old man who was a tai chi master. He was teaching a student and I watched them practice for almost half an hour. During the entire time, the master never lost his balance or focus. It was amazing. Not huge bursts of effort, rather a sustained intensity of small, slow movement.
My time in Guangzhou drew to a close. Next up was the island of Hainan and some lounging at the beach in Sanya. Yay!
You can see my pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/Guangzhou
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Adoption ... I do not know how the system of international adoptions is organized in the USA, but my experiences do not involve trading. I and my wife adopted 8 years ago a Chinese baby girl in Haikou, Hainan sheng. In Finland the system is handled by semipublic and strictly regulated non-profit private organizations. The salaries of the workers are paid by kind of public money (from the profits of a state owned company with monopoly for organizing lotteries; all profits have then to be distributed to culture, sport and similar useful organizations), while customers like we pay the running costs of all the processing of applications, such as translations and legalizations of documents, travelling costs of the personnel etc. Adoption pregnancy lasts 1.5-2 years, during which time the prospective parents are wisited repeatedly by social workers; their character, child raising abilities and experiences, cleanliness of the house, criminal records, drinking habits and everything is repeatedly scrutinized. Only after that a report of approval is sent from Finland to China, and a child is chosen by Chinese authorities from a state run orphanage.
They are almost all baby girls, often either the first child of a poor city family, or the fifth daughter of a poor farm family, abandoned to their faith soon after birth. For instance in a dark night in a basket at the stairs of the Ministry of Agriculture of Hainan Sheng, like our daughter.
In China we paid a bill presented by the orphanage, including the costs of all the vaccinations and medical treatments given to her, the estimated costs of feeding and raising her during the two years of her life, and again of course all costs of the paper work of the orphanage when preparing her for adoption. It was a substantial sum of money, but not really very much.
In addition, the day after getting our daughter, we paid for a banquet in a good restaurant for some of the administrative staff and our daughter's favourite nurse, they watching sharply that we handled the baby well (my wife did, and as our daughter was no more willing to return to the arms of her favourite nurse, the staff was satisfied. I had to be very ashamed in the same table, because our daughter hated me. She did not yet know the difference between men and crocodiles, and continued to hate me for the next two weeks).
There was not a single real commercial transaction during the whole process, and everything was very strict and legal both on the Finnish and the Chinese side.
I do not think that the conceptual nation-state framework is necessarily appropriate in these situations. Here is a baby that needs parents, and there are parents that need a baby. Then you organize the adoption in a legal way, respecting the rights, obligations and feelings of all parties, and all are happy.
The poor baby is the only one who may be seriously unhappy at a specific moment of the process, sometimes for a second, sometimes for an hour, sometimes for a day, and I have heard about a week with very inexperienced and clumsy parents. But that cannot be helped. Our daughter fought like an enraged tiger for an hour, and I was very happy and proud of her.
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