Where We Will Travel

Currently, our time of travel is uncertain. Our agency tells us we will leave for China in four to seven weeks. However, there is some certainty of where we will be going. After a quick stop at the San Francisco airport, we'll hop on a 15 hour flight to either Beijing or, more likely, Hong Kong. After a day or two to reset out clocks, we'll fly to Chongqing, the municipality that is home to Eliza's orphanage. Day three of the trip is also known as Gotcha Day. That's when Eliza comes into our arms and becomes a physical part of our family. The next five days or so will be spent in Chongqing filling out paperwork, making a doctor's appointment, and hopefully visiting giant pandas at the zoo. Roughly translated, Chongqing means second celebration. The city itself is known for several things: as starting point for the three gorges area of the Yangzi River, as China's new gateway to westward economic expansion, a huge population, and dense and ever present air pollution. The urban center is home to 12.4 million people. That's 1.5 times more than New York City. The municipality itself contains 32 million people and is about 8 times smaller than Texas--very crowded. Eliza lives in the city of Yunyang. You can spot it in the north east corner of the Chongqing map.

Then we three fly to Guangzhou (pronounced 'gwaung-joe'), the capital city of the Guangdong province. Guangzhou was formerly known as Canton and a couple centuries ago was the only regulated Chinese port to trade with the westerners. Most importantly for us though, it houses the U.S. consulate. This is where we complete more paperwork, entertain more interviews with officials, and gain a Chinese passport for Eliza. All of these are required for our travel back to the States. We'll stay in the famous White Swan Hotel, the final stopover for most adopting families from around the world. The hotel is located on Shamian Island, a former western enclave. The area is relatively peaceful with open parks and many examples of western colonial architecture. Did I mention babies? There will be gobs of them. After about a week of plowing through red tape and getting to know Eliza, it will be time for the long trip home. And then I suppose, the real journey begins.


Here are a few more interesting facts about China:

• China has almost exactly the same land area as the U.S. (They have an extra Wyoming).
• China has a population of 1.3 billion. That's about 4.4 times the number of people here in the states.
• About 900 million Chinese (about 14% of the world's population) are rural peasants working primarily in agriculture or as unskilled labor.
• Eliza was probably born to a family in this demographic.