Day 16: Last day in China!

Today, our guides picked up Xiao Yu's entry visa to the U.S. at the American Consulate.  So now we can go home!  This was the last step that needed to happen.

We spent the day doing some touring and packing our bags some more.

Emily took Eliana and Karina to a Safari Park just outside of Guangzhou.  It was a HUGE place, with a train to ride on through the wild animal grounds, where they animals roam free.

A zebra came right up to the train, and Karina jumped into Emily's lap so fast you would have thought a tiger was coming!

The big attraction at the Safari Park, other than the thirty minute train ride (which has a TON of animals -- giraffes, tigers, white tigers, bears of all kinds, zebras, all kinds of birds, elephants, etc) is the panda exhibit.

They have over a dozen pandas, and the really big deal is, one of the panda mommy's had triplets recently.  This is a hugely rare event, and they safari park is making the most of it!  They were very cute, and fun to see.

Other than that, there were miles of paths to see birds and snakes and kangaroos and koalas and on and on and on.  We only made it through about one-third of the park, in the four hours that we had!

Elvin, Erica, and the boys stuck around the hotel so that the boys could take a nap.  We went to a park across the street from the hotel and hung around.

Preparations for the upcoming Chinese New Year on Feb. 19 were in full swing.  There were giant colorful decorations everywhere being put together.

While Elvin was carrying Gabriel around, they were accosted a few times by older Chinese ladies saying, "It's cold!  Put more clothes on him."  This is common in China--that older ladies will make "helpful" and unsolicited comments about how someone else should keep their child warm.  Elvin responded: "He's from America.  It's cold there, he's fine!"  And they would laugh.

We also checked out the koi in the pond.  They were huge.

One interesting thing was there was an older man writing calligraphy on the ground, using a giant sized paintbrush on the end of a broomstick.  His handwriting was great.  It was art.

Today the boys got along better.  Xiao Yu is getting to know our family better and also the boundaries of what he is and is not supposed to do.  And Gabriel is giving Xiao Yu more space, although at times he decides to instigate things. 

The girls came back in the late afternoon with stories about how they saw baby pandas, white tigers, and even fed a giraffe.  Karina showed Elvin a little backpack she got.

She stuffed it full of Starbursts (one of her favorite candies) and put in on her doll, also purchased in China.

After dinner, we passed by a shop and also purchased a pair of shoes for Karina.

And also for Eliana.

Except for toiletries and other knick knacks we are now mostly packed.  All the kids are in bed and we are as prepared as we can for the flight home.  

We will be taking a flight tomorrow back to Beijing at 11am.  After a 4-hour layover there, we then fly to Seattle on a 11-hour flight.  After going through customs and immigration, and a five hour wait, we then take a short flight back to Portland, OR.

All in all, it will be a 26 plus hour journey, this time with our little Xiao Yu.  Hopefully he won't go too stir crazy on the plane.  Emily still has a cold, so we hope that this won't bother her on the way home too much.  We have decongestants and whatnot for her to take, so hopefully they will work.  We are all looking forward for our trip to be over so we can get be home, sleep in our own beds, and not have to eat at a restaurant every meal.  Karina is most looking forward to eating macaroni and cheese when we get home!  Ah, the comforts of home!

Thank you for faithfully following us on our adventure through China.  Thanks for posting your comments and for your thoughts and prayers!