Xuzhou - Nanjing - Guangzhou

Our guide Lily picked us up from our hotel at 7am (ouch!) and we reluctantly said goodbye to Xuzhou.

(pardon the hair... I told you it was early!)

The train back to Nanjing was uneventful (I am really digging high speed rail!) and we had about 7 hours to kill before our flight to Guangzhou. We drove though downtown Nanjing (I love this city!) to the government office to check the adoption paperwork and get Johnathan's Chinese passport. It's a good thing we double checked because both of our birthdates were wrong. They subtracted 3 years from mine which I thought was incredibly rude... if you are going to subtract then why not take off 10 or so?

We needed to stop and buy a stroller for Johnathan... he is SO heavy that we just cannot go on. Our arms have been crying out! We went to the Carrefour (I am probably spelling that wrong), found a cheapy stroller, saw this interesting sign (not sure what qualifies as an emergency), and let Jack peruse the grocery area which he found highly entertaining.

We had a lunch-about, walk-about, and shop-about in Nanjing before we returned to the government offices to retrieve our corrected paperwork. Jack had been too scared to try the red balls on a stick but Lily assured him that they were not bugs (he reads too much!) so we got one for him and Johnathan. They are actually little sour fruits with a red candy coating (like candy apples) and both boys woofed them down. Jack was very disappointed that he had not "discovered" them earlier in the trip.

We had just enough time to fulfil one of Jay's wishes and we visited the gates to the city wall on our way to the airport. It is actually pretty incredible. The wall itself is the largest preserved city wall in the world and the gate is a series of tunnels and courtyards that the enemy had to break through if they had any hopes of getting into the city. Many tried over the centuries but no one suceeded until the Japanese did in World War II (and, even then, they needed an air assault to do it). Many say that the reason the Japanese were so brutal to the people of Nanjing was because it was so difficult for them to get in.

We made it to the airport with no problems and Johnathan enjoyed his first plane flight. By enjoyed I mean slept through it :) The biggest excitement was when the flight attendant handed me my pepsi and I proceeded to spill it ALL over myself. It ran into the seat and my pants and underwear were soaked for the entire journey. I then had to do the walk of shame when we arrived at Guangzhou Airport. Thankfully our new guide Helen gave me a few minutes to change clothes before we got in the van for the hotel.

(again, pardon the hair... this is not the best picture!)

We are now in our hotel in Guangzhou (it was another LONG day!) and we are anticipating and early morning tomorrow. We have to do Johnathan's medical exam which is always fun :)