Here is the"food selection area". This is a common site in Chinese restaurants. In the buckets are snakes, water bugs, crabs, etc., while the tanks have all kinds of fish and seafood, including shrimp. You select what you want, they "prepare" it and serve it to you; it doesn't get much fresher than this!
There is a travel office in the lobby area near these tanks and we stopped in to get Elizabeth's China Southern ticket from Guangzhou to Shanghai - we were leaving in 2 days!!
Guangzhou Neighborhood
This was off of Shamian Island, just across the major road that runs in front of The Victory Hotel. We ventured off to do some shopping and enjoy the scenery. It was a treat to see the Chinese on an average day. There are privately owned shops and the owners live above the shops in apartments.
Crossing intersections in China is always tricky! There are motorcycles, buses, cars, pedestrians - you have to move quickly!
There are Papa Don and I (Elizabeth in the carrier) crossing with Donnie staying behind to snap a photo.
Our next stop was an American consulate official, she had red hair, was very nice and spoke fluent Chinese. She asked us to verify that Elizabeth was the child we were referred and asked us to get Elizabeth immunized soonafter arriving back home. That's it!! We were done!!!
There was very tight security at the consulate. As we entered, we moved through a sea of Chinese waiting for an appointment to obtain a Visa to the US. The adoptive families are given priority and moved ahead first. We had to go through a metal detector and had all of our bags checked - throughly! Then, before we entered, we went through one more metal detector. Everyone was very nice.
This photo was taken as we left our Consulate Appointment, it went well, no problems at all!! What a huge relief it was to have this over with! The appointment was quite basic. We sat for a bit in a small waiting area. Then, we were called to the desk area of the consulate officials. There were many families and hardly any chair space left.
The first desk was a Chinese employee who looked over our paperwork to make sure it was filled out properly. I admitto being a tad bit nervous when she asked for each document. She knew exactly what she was looking for as she quickly looked everything over. All of the workers were very thorough and friendly.
