Beijing Observations and Communicating

This is Maureen and my forth visit to Beijing, and much has changed. Affluence is everywhere, and pre Olympics at least, it is an exceptionally clean and well decorated city, with flowerbeds everywhere. Of course, the air pollution is even worse. But perhaps the biggest surprise was the two things that have entirely disappeared from the streets of Beijing – beggars and those ubiquitous hawkers selling cheesy souvenirs at inflated prices. The disappearance of the later is a welcome change. The absence of the former has a more sinister feel to it.

A helpful tip for others on homeland visits

As one would expect, two tall Caucasians, wandering around China with two oriental daughters, draw a large number of intently staring eyes and much chatter. Before leaving, an oriental friend had arranged to translate an introduction and explanation from us. We had this printed and laminated so that we could hand it to inquisitive observers. The statement reads essentially as follows:

Hello,

We are a family from Canada who adopted two orphaned baby
girls in China in 1996 and 1999. The older girl, Luoying, is from Nanchang
in Jiangxi province. The younger girl, Ting, is from Lu’an, outside of
Hefei in Anhui province.

Both girls are healthy, happy
and are living in a loving family. They are very content with their life
in Canada. But they also want to learn about their homeland. We have
returned to China for a visit so that the girls may better understand their
personal history, as well as the culture and history of the great country they
were born in.

We would like to express our deepest
appreciation to the people of China for allowing us to form our family.

The card has invariably produces broad smiles and thumbs up whenever we have used it. Indeed, it also appears to have got us past the supposedly stringent airport luggage restrictions. So far (fingers crossed), we have had no issue with our 5 checked bags, two of which are over the weight limit. (I can see several eyebrows rising over the prospect of two adults and 2 children needing 5 bags. 3 of the 5 contain donations and presents for the orphanages, so soon enough we’ll be traveling much lighter – to the delight of Dad’s back)

(Subsequent Edit added a week later in the trip: The card has continued to work wonders. It has consistently replaced this quizical stares we expereince everywherre with big smiles and thumbs up. One of our taxi drivers in Xi'an was so excited by the whole idea that he tried to refuse payment for our ride. After a rather comical exchange, I ultimately got him to agree to let me pay him - but it wasn't easy.)