We are in Nanning

Today we travelled from Hong Kong to Nanning in Guangxi province. We flew on Hong Kong Airlines on the only flight scheduled from Hong Kong to Nanning--at least for today. Our plane was about half full with only one other Westerner on it. Since it wasn't an airline we'd ever heard of we didn't know what to expect. We were pleased to discover that the plane was very new and nice and we were served drinks and a lovely individually wrapped slice of pound cake. The flight to Nanning was supposed to take one hour and 15 minutes but ended up taking a bit longer because we didn't land on the first try but climbed suddenly and went around again. The pilot never explained to us why we had to do that. Unfortunately, the maneuver made me sick.

Nanning Airport is pretty small and basic. There were only two immigration officials working and when we tried to go to the desk as a family the official asked us to come one at a time. When it was Jade's turn one official said to the other 'adopted' in Chinese. I then told him in Chinese that she was from Guangxi and that this was her first time back. He smiled and was very friendly as was the other official who was then checking my passport and then he asked how long we were going to be in China. I told him a month and told him the places we were going to see. He said 'Guilin, very pretty' in English and I told him next time we'd go there. We picked up our bags and then went through the green 'Nothing to Declare' line and were met by our OCDF guide Allen Wang. Allen is a great guy. (I'll have to take his photo tomorrow.) We had a good chat on the way into Nanning. I asked about some signs I saw and he said that Guangxi province was celebrating 50 years of being an Autonomous Region. Allen's English is excellent. It seems he has several jobs--tutoring English, working as a traditional Chinese medicine practioner as well as guiding.

Allen helped us to book into the hotel and then came up to our rooms to go over what our program with him will be for our visit. It is real deja vu for us being here at the Majestic Hotel. We're on the 9th floor again--the only non-smoking floor of the hotel--but it seems a bit deserted. I don't know if there are any adoption groups here. We certainly haven't seen any. We showed Jade which room was ours last time and which room she was handed over to us in. I wonder how she feels about all of this? She seems to take it all matter-of-factly.

Since it is Christmas the hotel is hosting a huge dinner celebration in the foyer which is full of tables. We can barely get to the front desk. There is a beautiful blue Christmas tree lit up outside the hotel which I just took a photo of.

We just had dinner in the inexpensive restaurant to the right of the hotel as you look at it and then came back to the room. I discovered in trying to write this blog that my access was blocked so I had to google how to get around the Great Firewall of China. Thankfully it wasn't too difficult! Oh, and internet access using my laptop costs only 5 RMB per day! What a bargain!

It's going to be great to be able to see Nanning at our own pace this time around. The last time we were guided everywhere and we also spent so much time in the hotel that we didn't get to really get a feel for the city. Allen says Nanning has about 2 million people now--about 500,000 more than 7 years ago.