Sights from Nanchang

We are so glad that we had a chance to see Nanchang although we were ready to move on within 2-3 days. We spent 7 whole days and nights in Nanchang and it was more than enough for us. It has been the one city that we have been in that we think embodies the most accurate idea of Chinese life. It is a very busy city with a lot of industry, poverty and beautiful sights. This is the largest city in Lily's province, although it is still 2 1/2 hours from her orphanage. Our guide said that Nanchang is actually a medium sized China city with 14.6 million people. To give that a little perspective, the entire Birmingham-Hoover metropolitan area has 1.2 million people and the state of Alabama has a population of 4.7 million. So Nanchang has more than 3 times the people as the entire state of Alabama and it is still not considered a large city in China. Incredible. It is evident in the horrific traffic. We had to cross a couple of streets around our hotel to get to the supermarket and we really were taking our lives in to our hands every time. It was INSANE. I had to carry Lily in the Ergo just to protect her with my body in case a car slammed in to us. And I'm not joking.

We went to the walking street one night and there were people EVERYWHERE. It was an area filled with shops and people with kids playing and entertaining each other. We saw tons of beautiful children...

including this little boy who was on a rocking chair with wheels. If we could stuff one in our bag, Jeff would have gotten one of these for Lily.

This little 3 month old baby was about the same size as Lily and had split pants on. You could see his little bum just hanging out. I don't know what happens if the child has to go potty. Surely they can't have any bowel or bladder control at this age.

You can see a little in this picture that there was a group of women in a section of the walking street doing a dance routine. Our guide told us that people come to these areas after work and at night when it is cooler out and exercise, celebrate and enjoy each other. It's awesome.

We had dinner at what they considered a "Western restaurant". It was really a French restaurant and we had pasta, pizza and Jeff had some sort of beef. It was really ok. The only problem was that they brought my soda with ice and I was mortified at the thought of drinking it and risking stomach problems. I sucked it up when our guide said it was ok and I didn't get sick...whew!

Karen and sweet Sophie

Dad with Lily

When it all boils down to it, this is why we are here...our sweet Lily. Nanchang will always hold a very special place in our hearts because it is where we received the most amazing gift of our lifetimes.