Here are Jade's reflections on the trip. She's done them up so artistically and beautifully that I had to upload the original documents as she had prepared them. I haven't changed a thing about them. For those of you a bit visually challenged I've put the text of each page very unartistically below it.

Reflections on my China Trip


What I liked
I liked Disneyland, Harbin Ice Festival, chair skating, ice skating, Zoo, Night Safari, My gymnastics, Terracotta Warriors, Great Wall, Summer Palace, My Birthday, Pandas, Tigers and getting my new toys!!!

2 Things I disliked about China
I didn’t like the spitting and how the toilets didn’t have toilet paper.

2 Things I liked about China
I liked the airports and Scenery.

What I am going to remember
I am going to remember the Ice Festival, the Pandas, the Tigers, Disneyland, Ice Skating and the Zoo.






What I learnt
I learnt that lots of people spit, Chinese and beds are hard.

Reflections on the trip

Since we returned from our trip I’ve been reflecting back on it and writing in my head—sometimes during the night—some of my reflections on the trip. I’ve also asked Jarrah, Jade and Paul to write some of their reflections on the trip. To help them to do this I gave them a series of questions to answer so I’d like to first give my impressions of the trip.

What did you like/enjoy about the trip?

I really liked just being in China after so many years of thinking about going, wanting to go and learning Chinese partly in preparation to go. I loved speaking Chinese and surprised myself that I didn’t worry at all about the things that hold me back from speaking in class such as not being sure of a word or how to pronounce a word. I just went ahead and expressed myself as best I could in China and for the most part I was able to make myself understood.

I enjoyed doing winter sports Chinese style—chair ice skating, bike ice skating and normal ice skating.

I enjoyed taking the trains and mixing with people in that environment. Our first train ride from Chengdu to Xian was probably the best because we were on the train overnight then in the morning as well so we got to look out the window and see rural China pass by.

As far as locations went I liked everywhere we went. Hong Kong was great because it was familiar to me from previous trips and we had a fabulous hotel overlooking Victoria Harbour. The kids were really looking forward to Hong Kong Disneyland and that didn’t disappoint.

I enjoyed our time in Nanning especially seeing the places we went during our adoption trip through fresh eyes.

Chengdu and the panda reserve were definitely a highlight. Who could resist those gorgeous pandas especially the babies?? Tianfu Square with its musical fountains was an unexpected highlight as well.

Xian was so modern it was a huge surprise. It could have been a city anywhere. The Terracotta Warriors were also a highlight as was riding our hired bikes around the city walls.

Beijing’s sights were of course highlights—the Great Wall, Summer Palace and Forbidden City. We also enjoyed visiting our friend Henry Zhang and seeing a small slice of local life by being taken out to lunch on the university campus where his parents live.

Harbin was a huge highlight with the Ice and Snow Festival. Wow I never expected that it was going to be as good as it was. Spectacular! We also loved meeting our friends John and Emma, former Monash students, who live there.

Shanghai’s Maglev train was also a highlight and probably made more so by the silly antics of the British Airways flight staff that we first rode it with.

Singapore was also fantastic because we were ready at that stage for warmth and a swimming pool.

What didn’t you like/enjoy about the trip?

That’s easy. I didn’t like the Chinese custom of spitting out phlegm everywhere. This was especially prevalent in Beijing. People spat in the streets, on footpaths and even on beautiful granite floors in subway stations and other public places. They made no attempt to disguise what they were doing or to ensure that they spat in the gutter or at the base of a tree so that other people wouldn’t walk in it. I know that this custom was also prevalent in the West probably about 70 or so years ago so I think it is just a matter of time and education before people in China come to see it as the unsanitary practice it is.

I also didn’t like the Beijing taxi drivers refusal to take us anywhere. We didn’t take taxis that much but when we did we were sent on a wild goose chase trying to find a driver who would take us. I don’t understand why they don’t want to do their jobs!

I didn’t like the train booking system—or lack of it—which made getting our pre-booked sleeper tickets to Harbin near impossible. They really have to come up with a better system for booking train tickets especially for foreign tourists on an itinerary who need to get from one city to another.

I didn’t like the people at the train station on arrival who were so aggressive in pushing either their baggage trolley service or gypsy cab service or selling things like maps. When people push you so hard to the point that they swear at you when you don’t accept their service then that is a minus for travelling in that country. These people first of all need to be less aggressive and more polite. They need to learn English if they want to appeal to foreign tourists and they need to accept that we don’t all want help.

What will you remember most about the trip?

Oh there are so many memories I will keep of the trip. One that I haven’t mentioned is how well Jade coped with all of the attention on her and with her visits to the orphanages and foster family. She took everything in her stride and wasn’t fazed by anything. She also kept exclaiming to me how people kept speaking to her in Chinese! I hope this spurs her on to working harder on her studies in the future!

What do you think about China now compared with seven years ago?

China has changed a lot in seven years. It is much more modern. There are fewer ‘old-time’ things such as pedicabs which we saw last time. There are more cars, more high rise buildings. The air is also much cleaner. I was amazed at the amount of infrastructure building that is going on. Many cities are building or expanding their subway systems. There just seems to be no limit to what or where China is building and modernising even to the extent of putting in an experimental system as the Maglev in Shanghai. What a contrast to many Western countries where aging infrastructure is failing, sometimes dramatically as with the bridge collapse in the US. Why are we not investing in the infrastructure we need? The one area where I was surprised that there hadn’t been more changes was in Shanghai. The buildings just one block away from Nanjing Rd are decrepit and boarded up and the view from the Oriental Pearl Tower still shows much of the surrounding area’s construction to be either halted or at the foundation stage. I remember it was much the same last time and don’t understand why more of the buildings there haven’t been finished.

What did you learn from the trip?

Other than the experience of being in China I learned many new Chinese words and expressions. I think I also gained the confidence to plan a much more independent trip next time.

Was there anything you didn’t see/do that you would like to see/do next time?

We did and saw a LOT of China this trip. No doubt about that. I would like to go to Tibet and possibly Yunnan next time and I’d also like to see the Yellow Mountains and water towns near Shanghai. But I feel quite happy to wait a few years for any future trips.

Return to Australia

We got back to Australia on Wednesday 28th January after an overnight flight from Singapore. Our last day in Singapore was a lazy one. We decided to hang around in our hotel room and chill out rather than go out to see anything. Even Paul, who usually has to be on the go constantly, agreed to this. I've been to Singapore a number of times now and didn't really feel the need to take a tour of the city and the kids are just happy going to the pool, watching TV and playing on the computer and DS. The cable TV we had in our rooms was outstanding in its selection. This was the first time I've watched Discovery channel and there were any number of fascinating programs--one about a guy who explores various dirty jobs like scraping barnacles off of floating buoys, another featuring a British adventurer who gets dropped into wildernesses and demonstrates survival techniques and another one about a dog-sled race in Alaska. Maybe after a while these programs get repetitious but to me they were so new and fresh that I kept watching. I know it probably sounds bad going on an overseas trip and then staying in the hotel room and watching TV but I think we were really all 'toured out'. Singapore was our 8th city on the trip and it gets harder to keep pushing yourself to go out and explore a new place each time. Paul was coughing a lot so I think that is why he agreed to a rest day.

We had a late check-out from the hotel at 6 and had a van booked to take us to the airport for our 11:30 flight. We didn't have anything else to do other than go to the airport and hang around for 4 or 5 hours. The van we had was very new and nice and the driver immediately popped a screen down from the ceiling and put on a Mr. Bean video for us to watch. As he drove he pointed out the Singapore Flyer observation wheel and asked us if we'd been on it. We were surprised to find out that it had started operating that morning. If only we'd known we would definitely have gone on it because it's the largest observation wheel in the world. I went on the London Eye in 2004 on my way to Ireland but I'm the only one in the family who has ever been on an observation wheel. Oh, well. We weren't to know.

At the airport we were fortunately able to check in early and we then went to get something to eat. We had about $S30 or so to get rid of. It gets hard to get rid of all the coins. There was a convenience store at the airport which had some lollies for less than $S1 so we were left with only 5 cents in the end. We didn't manage to get rid of all of our Chinese Yuan either when we left China and found even when we went to convert our notes in Singapore that they wouldn't take the 1Y note. The smallest note they would convert was 10Y. So we have about 4.5Y left over from China. We also have quite a few Hong Kong coins too.

Changi Airport was well air conditioned and I found I had to put a fleece jumper on to stay warm. It was then that I discovered that Jade didn't have anything to put on over her t-shirt. All of her clothes had been packed in her suitcase. She was quite cold and went to sleep all curled up on a seat in the airport. Paul gave her his winter coat but she didn't want to use it because it was so big.

Our gate didn't open until 10: 30 and the security clearance procedure took place at the gate. By then I was so over the emptying out the water bottle thing that I went through with a full water bottle which was then intercepted after my bag went through the scanner. There was nowhere to empty the water out so I told them to throw out the bottle. I refused to feel guilty about carrying water with me when the security person pointed out that I had a water bottle on my backpack. This whole water thing is such a pain when you're travelling constantly and not knowing when you have to be ready to empty the bottle and when it's OK to keep it filled.

Our flight home was an uneventful one and when we landed we were just about the only incoming international flight so our passage through customs was fairly quick. We declared our food (we had teabags, breakfast cereal from Harbin and a few other things) without saying exactly what it was but after our bags went through the scanner nobody even asked to see what we had. We then caught a van taxi home.

In my next post I'm going to discuss some of my impressions of the trip so stay tuned!

Singapore Zoo and Night Safari

We are spending our 3 days in Singapore mainly resting up but yesterday we ventured out to the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari. Through the internet--once again I can't emphasize what a lifesaver having the laptop has been--we found out about an express bus which goes directly to the zoo and back from the night safari. We headed out to the zoo about 1pm and got there just before 2. As this was the first day of the Chinese New Year the place was absolutely PACKED with people especially families with lots of little kids. In hindsight this was not a good day to go to the zoo but we didn't really have a choice as our few days here coincides with CNY. We walked around looking at the animals and by about 4pm got to the far end of the zoo where the children's water park and play area is. We remembered this from our last visit and this time had brought the kids bathing suits with us so they could play in the water park. The water park has as its central feature a stairs and multiple slide feature with a large bucket of water which continuously fills up and periodically dumps its load. This is very similar to a feature in one of the pools at Wet n Wild on the Gold Coast, Queensland except that there are warning bells as this bucket fills up so the kids all gather below it for the dump. In Qld there was no warning and the water (in April anyway) was quite cold so getting dumped on was not a pleasant experience. Here the water is warm and the kids love it when the bucket dumps on them. Other than this feature there are all manner of water fountains/squirting devices and the kids all rush from one to the other. The majority of the kids we saw yesterday were pre-school and primary school aged. I don't know where the families with older children were--probably visiting relatives.

The kids area has greatly expanded since we were last here 7 years ago. There is now a carousel, small petting farm, pony rides and other attractions we didn't fully explore. The zoo also seems bigger but I can't put my finger exactly on what changes have been made. The eating area at the entrance to the zoo certainly has expanded with more eateries & seating. There was very very little last time.

The zoo closes at 6 and at that time we walked about 3 minutes over to the Night Safari entrance to eat dinner. The Night Safari also seems to have expanded over the past 7 years and there are more eateries and gift shops there. The Night Safari is supposed to open at 7:30 for tours and by 6:30 we were dismayed to see the waiting line to get on the safari trams extending all through the eating area. We thought it would take an hour or more to clear. But then the line moved and soon everyone was gone. I'm guessing that special early trams were put on for tour busses and that everyone in the line was from booked tours. Thank goodness for that! We got in line for the safari tram just after 7 and were surprised to find that the trams were already operating. It didn't take us long to get on one. The safari trams are an easy and educational way to see the Night Safari. The route that the trams take is a long one and there is one stop where you can get off and walk along a trail to view some of the smaller animals. We saw sugar gliders, badgers, leopards including a clouded leopard, Asian lions, various sorts of deer, bats, hippos, giraffes and many other sorts of animals. There was an emphasis on SE Asian animals but there were plenty of African and South American animals as well. At the end of our tour we boarded the express bus for a quick and inexpensive trip back to our hotel.

Singapore stopover

We left Shanghai in freezing temperatures yesterday for our 5.5 hour flight to Singapore. Our plane was one of the new Boeing 777s. As this flight wasn't the one we'd originally booked onto we were seated separately in groups of two in the same row but on opposite sides of the plane. Other than by going through the kitchen half way down the plane there was no way for us to visit each other. The staff were originally a bit annoyed with Jade for cutting through the kitchen but then when I explained to them that our family was separated and this was the only way we could see each other they were fine with it.



We had a comfortable flight and landed in Singapore at 1:30 pm to find the temperature was a humid 32C. That's a huge change from what we were used to in Shanghai and a whole 50+ degrees higher than Harbin! We are not prepared for these temperatures as we have only one or two t-shirts and no other summer clothes. I'm hopeful though that the heat will help us get rid of our coughs. Mine is still the worst, Jarrah's seems to have gone now and Jade is only coughing slightly.



On our way to the hotel we passed the Singapore flyer, Singapore's new observation wheel and the world's largest, to see that it is not operating. According to the taxi driver it has some mechanical problem which has closed it. That's a shame as we had hoped to ride in it.

Shanghai shopping and pandaphone probs

A cold front moved across China over the night and brought freezing temperatures with it to Shanghai today. The wind outside is icy although there is no rain or snow. We took the maglev train and subway again into the city to do some shopping--mainly gifts for people who have been looking after our home for us. Of course we wanted to buy traditional Chinese crafts as gifts. I'd seen an incredible selection of these types of things in Beijing on Wangfujing Street and presumed that Nanjing Rd would have a similar selection. Boy were we disappointed! There was almost nothing traditionally Chinese available to be found. We came across one store called Pearl City which had a variety of Chinese goods. But nothing like the selection of Beijing. The store was even partly boarded up--ie sections of some of the floors weren't being used. I don't know where the Chinese goods are in Shanghai but they're not on Nanjing Rd and we didn't have the time or inclination to go looking all over the place for them. We did make a couple of purchases which fit the bill, however, but I was disappointed in not being able to choose from a wide selection.

After this we had lunch then walked around some of the nearby streets. Even one block away from Nanjing Rd. the buildings are all pretty run down. Some are so derelict they are boarded up. I think with all the publicity about its glittering skyscrapers the fact that Shanghai still has a massive job ahead of itself to fully modernise gets a bit hidden. I know there are parts of New York City that are also pretty decrepit. I had thought, however, that Shanghai had come farther than it has in the past 7 years in its massive task of renovation and renewal. The view we had from the Oriental Pearl Tower was one looking out on a massive bomb-like site/building site. It's hard to tell which.

So Shanghai is still a mixed bag of new buildings and old. Beijing on the other hand seems to be much farther ahead in its modernisation. In Shanghai though people don't hawk and spit on the streets like they do in Beijing and many other Chinese cities.

So this is our last day in China. We will be in Singapore, hopefully recovering from our colds/flu for three days. I expect that whatever hotel we end up there will charge us for internet usage. In China free hotel/hostel broadband internet access has been a given (except for the Majestic Hotel in Nanning).

Now, what of our pandaphones? They were delivered to us at the Majestic in Nanning and the original arrangement was that we were going to leave them at the hostel where we were going to stay in Shanghai. When we cancelled our booking there and booked in at the hotel at the airport I thought it would be easy to just notify pandaphone that we were leaving our phones here. But then--a problem! The hotel won't let us leave the phones with them for pickup! They just don't want to take responsibility for them. In fact one of the hotel staff suggested that I just keep the phones! He obviously has no concept that their value would be charged to my credit card! So there have been a number of calls to and from pandaphone today and chats with the hotel people but all to no avail. It seems ridiculous that pandaphone's office is in Shanghai, we are in Shanghai but there is no way for us to leave the phones here! So we have to take them with us back to Australia and then mail them to the United States. We can't even mail them back to China from Singapore as the Chinese postal system doesn't allow phones to be mailed. Maybe pandaphone should think of opening up an office in Australia?

Shanghai--Nanjing Rd, the Bund & the Oriental Pearl Tower

Today was the first of our two full days in Shanghai. I didn't say in my last post that we'd given up on making our way to the hostel we'd booked. I was just too tired to go all that way with our bags. So we opted to stay at the airport hotel. There are actually two hotels here at Pudong Airport--the Motel 168 and the Ease Hotel. The two hotels are located half way in between Terminals 1 and 2. We compared prices and booked into the Motel. Then to our surprise we were taken across the circular driveway between the two hotels and given rooms in the Ease Hotel at the same discount price as the motel. We're up on the 8th floor which is non-smoking. The hotel is absolutely lovely, very modern in style and surprisingly we can't hear any airport noise! From our window I look out onto Terminal 2. If it wasn't so foggy I'd see more take-offs and landings than I do. Oh, I've just looked for both of these hotels and they don't seem to be on any websites that I could find anyway. So I'm presuming they are not ones that you can pre-book. But it's nice to know they're there.

Anyway, in the morning we went down to breakfast which we had to pay 20Y for (very cheap!). We soon discovered why it was so cheap. There really wasn't much to it--a few slices of bread--but a toaster which Harbin hadn't had--congee, fried rice, fried noodles, a spicy sweet and sour chicken--not exactly breakfast fare. After breakfast we took the maglev train (a high speed monorail) in towards Shanghai city. We had a thrilling ride and had as our fellow travellers a group of flight attendants from British Airways who were into joking and laughing. It was their first time too on the maglev and they carried on about it. The train reached a top speed of 430 kms and it tilted during its run. When another maglev train passed it there was a woosh and a bang which made me jump as it was on my side of the train.

The Maglev Train

After we got off the maglev we farewelled the Brits who were taking taxis and we took the ordinary subway into the People's Park. We visited the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall which contains the world's largest city model and which we visited last time. The exhibition has, of course, been updated and now devotes at least one floor to the upcoming Shanghai Expo in 2010. The buildings proposed for this expo look fantastic.

The Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall

City Model of Shanghai

From the expo hall we wandered through a maze of underground boutique-type shops. Nearly all of the shops are aimed at young women in their teens and 20s and they sell clothing, jewellery, accessories, wigs, skin care products, fashionable shoes, etc etc. There is surely an oversupply in China of these types of shops. We looked for somewhere to eat and ended up in a Japanese noodle restaurant! From there we wandered down Nanjing Rd to the Bund and then took the pod like train through the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. That was an unusual experience! No, you don't see any water or what is above you. Rather they have lined the tunnel with different sorts of lights to make you feel that you are on a journey through space or through volcanic magma. Once on the other side of the river we bought tickets for the Oriental Pearl Tower and went up to the second pod of the tower for a look out over Shanghai.

The Oriental Pearl Tower from the Bund

That done we took the subway then the maglev back to the airport where we had dinner. Oh I'll leave you with this bit of puzzling Chinglish.