Day 10 and 11
In Guangzhou we stayed at the Victory Hotel on Shamian Island.  It is really just a sand bar on the Pearl River, with just a canal separating it from the main land.  In the 1800's it became a British and French colony, so all of the buildings are European, with beautiful tree lined streets.  It is very small and only covers 900 m from east to west, and 300 m from north to south. 

The Guangdong Victory Hotel



Beautiful Shamian Park



Island European Architecture



Nice Streets



Map of Shaman Island

We spent our tenth day getting Gracie's health check for the consolate appointment.  It was rather crazy standing in one line after another fot the different doctors to check her out all over.  There were many families with children all doing the same thing, so it was rather chaotic.  We also had her picture taken for her US immigrant visa.  The rest of the day and the next we were able to do what we wanted.

We spent some time exploring the island and found a little park that Gracie really enjoyed.

Gracie wanted to do the slide over and over.  She was not happy when we finally decided it was time to move on.  We had one of our first glimpses at her strong will and determination (temper tantrum). LOL!

We ended the day with a yummy dinner at a Chinese restaurant.  They aren't the same as in the US for sure, but we found plenty of yummy things to eat.  Gracie always tried to use her chop sticks.

On day 11 we had a group trip with the other families from our agency.  There was a big group and we had a lot of fun visiting the Chimelong Xiangjiang Safari Park with our new friends.  The first part was a ride in a safari truck, looking at many different animals.

The Asian Elephants

The Brown bears were putting on a show.

One of many tigers at the park.

Always fun to see the giraffes.

Here we are enjoying our time together.



Gracie with the baby chimp.



 There were so many tigers at the park.  These young ones were lounging around.

These tiny white tigers were wrestling with a baby leopard.  Very cute, but they had an unfair advantage.



This tiger was very close through the glass.



It was so fun getting to feed this baby white tiger with Gracie.  That guy had some claws too.

There were some beautiful pandas at the park.  They were eating bamboo and lying about.  The one in the tree was sound asleep in such a crazy position.



At the entrance to the panda home.

A Cute Red Panda!

It was a nice day, and we had so much fun. 

Day 7, 8, and 9
Day 7 was a long day.  We were required to travel all the way to Gracie's orphanage city, Datong, to apply for her passport.  It was a 4 hour drive in a minivan to get there, then about an hour in the Datong police station taking care of paper work, to then turn around and head back to Taiyuan. 

We were a bit frustrated, because we really wanted to visit Gracie's orphanage while we were there.  Our driver and coordinator were in a big hurry to get back, so they didn't set it up.  We didn't even get to stop to take pictures in Datong.  It is a very ancient and interesting city. 

Datong is located in Northern China, just west of Beijing.  Its location near the Great Wall pass to Inner Mongolia made it a very influential place throughout Chinese history.  The town was founded in 200 BC and was first named Pingcheng.  It was renamed Datong in 1048 AD. 
Datong is an old fashioned coal mining city in China, and still sits on significant reserves of this commodity. Consequently it has developed a reputation as one of China’s most polluted cities. The Datong Coal Mining Group is based here and is China’s third largest such enterprise.

The Nine Dragon Wall is situated in Datong city, Shanxi province. It was a wall in a prince's luxurious mansion from the Ming dynasty. The mansion was destroyed during a war in 1644.  

The Yungang Grottoes, or Cloud Ridge Caves (云冈石窟 Yúngāng Shíkū) are a collection of shallow caves located 16 km west of Datong. There are over 50,000 carved images and statues of Buddhas and bodhisattvas within these grottoes, ranging from 4 centimeters to 7 meters tall. Most of these icons are around 1000 years old.

Further afield is the Hanging Temple (悬空寺 Xuán Kōng Sì) built into a cliff face near Mount Heng. Most of the historical sites in this region date to the Tang and Ming dynasties, but the Hanging Temple dates to the Northern Wei dynasty (386-534).

Day 8 we were just waiting for Gracie's Chinese passport.  We were able to visit the Shanxi Museum to help pass the time. 

The Shanxi Museum is located in a modern four-storey building situated at a prime location along the Fen River in central Taiyuan and features a very impressive collection of artifacts from this history-heavy province. Chinese civilization first began to develop in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces along the banks of the Yellow River, and this handsome provincial museum features some of the best of the historical artifacts from around the province. The museum has on display thousands of objects in a series of well laid out exhibition halls. Permanent exhibits include those devoted to relics from the Paleolithic and Neolithic ages, ancient Chinese porcelain, painting and calligraphy, jades, bronzes, Chinese currency, historical architecture, Buddhist stone sculptures, and Shanxi merchants. 

Gracie would only stay in the stroller for so long, and she is heavy to stay in the sling.  She is very active and wants to be walking around.  That meant Tom and our guide looked at every display very slowly, while I chased Gracie around the large museum.  She especially loves stairs, and she wanted to go up and down over and over. 

Gracie is in the middle of an ancient

Chinese battle.

 

This shows how Datong is situated near the Great Wall and the pass into Inner Mongolia.  It has many rivers nearby as well.

Day 9 was spent checking out of our hotel, getting Gracie's passport, and the long flight down south to Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.  Here is Gracie getting ready to head out of our hotel, into the cold for the last time.  Luckily the weather in Guangzhou is more like the weather in Florida in the winter, warm.

Day 4, 5, and 6 Day 4 wasn't much, but got us a bit closer to Gracie.  We flew from Beijing to Taiyuan and checked into our new hotel, the Shanxi Grand. 

Taiyuan is the capital of Shanxi Province.  It is the largest city in the province.  This was a pretty clear day, but much of the time it was hard to breath outside.  They have a large coal burning electrical plant that contributes to the nasty air.  The people were all very friendly, and always shocked when Tom would speak to them in Chinese.  This was our view across the street.

The best day yet came on December 12th.  We called it Gotcha Day, because it is the day we finally got our Gracie.  We headed to the Civil Affairs office around 2:30 pm.  We arrived before the children.  There were several couches around the room and we camped out on one.  We were getting our paper work in order (there was a lot of it) and then we heard that the children had arrived from their long trip from Datong.  That is the city where Gracie was born and where she had lived in the Datong Social Welfare Institute since birth.  

She came walking in with her green and yellow Hello Kitty jacket and the funniest ski cap with yarn braids attached to the sides.  This is our China coordinator Lisa, introducing us.

  It was obvious that Gracie was very scared.  We tried to make her feel more comfortable and gave her some snacks.  We soon learned that food is a great distraction for her.  Gracie loves to eat.

We stayed in this room for a while, waiting for our turn to do the paperwork with the officials.  Then we had her picture taken next door and were able to head back to the hotel.  She was a tired little girl, and we were still jet lagged, so we went to bed early.  Gracie did not want to sleep in the crib.  She was only happy if I was right next to her, so we used the crib as a bed side, to keep her from falling off the tiny twin sized bed, and we squished in.  It was odd that both in Taiyuan and Guangzhou we ended up with two twins instead of one larger bed.  It must be because we wanted the cheapest rooms.  She fit right into Daniel's old PJ's.  She didn't seem to mind wearing boy jamies.

Day 6 was pretty low key.  The big event was going back to the Civil Affairs office and signing the final paperwork to make the adoption official.  December 13, 2011 Gracie officially became our daughter.  Here we are with the orphanage workers who brought her from Datong and our adoption decree.

The rest of the day we spent wandering around the neighborhood.  Tom can't sit still for long, and the room was so small.  Too bad it was about 20 degrees outside.  We bundled up and checked out the deserted parks, that must be very busy in warmer weather.

We found a noodle shop to go in and warm up.  Gracie ate a bunch of noodles, meat, and her favorite and mine were the boudza, steamed dough balls filled with pork and cabbage.  Yum.  I wish I had taken a picture of her gobbling one up, and they were huge.  It was a good day.