Final day in Changsha

Our final day was spent inside the hotel since it was raining buckets!  We had really wanted to go to Martyrs Park, but the weather would not cooperate.  So we packed and had a leisurely morning and early afternoon. We checked out at 2 pm, and left shortly there after to head to the civil affairs office.  Right before we left though, an adoptive family on a heritage tour came up and talked to us.  They were so sweet.  I had seen them at breakfast, and told Jeremy there is another American family here!  I'm so glad that we got to meet them.  They adopted their 10 year old daughter when she was an infant, and brought her back to visit where she was born.  They were excited to met Ava, and hear a little bit about her story.  They were also heading to the Hunan Civil Affairs office for a welcome back ceremony.

Hanging out in our room;
Ava loves to play with the tops of water bottles.

A sign inside the lobby hallway;
wanted a picture showing our Hotel name and Chinese characters

Large chandelier by the main entrance

There were several water features in the lobby.
This koi pond with bridge was on the left side of the lobby
and near the elevators that took us up to our room.

After we got Ava's passport at 3 pm, we then went directly to the train station.  Today we had Amy as our guide, and it was fun to talk to her. I'm so glad that I thought to ask her about Ava's Chinese name.  All along we've been told that it means dragon & phoenix.  Amy said that the dragon character actually has an additional marking in that means cute.  So Ava's name means cute phoenix.  I think it suits her very well!

Large Changsha apartment complexes

It took us forever to get to the train station.  It had finally stopped raining, but traffic was terrible!  Once we finally got to the train station, the drop off area was full of cars.  Cars were parked three deep from off the curb!  We quickly unloaded, and Amy helped us inside.  I'm so glad that we had purchased our tickets early because it was so busy.  Amy got us settled and we said goodbye.  We got some supper at KFC, and it was so WONDERFUL to eat something that was crunchy!  Hunan province is known for its spicy food, so it was no surprise that their regular chicken sandwich was spicy.  We were so hungry and ready for something different, we didn't care.  Ava loved it too!

Ava and I with Amy outside the Changsha train station

The waiting area inside the train station

Ava's first fast food!  She loved KFC.  She ate
a whole piece off of Jeremy's double chicken sandwich!

We boarded our train at 5:10 and left Changsha.  I was a little sad we were leaving Ava's home province, but happy to be moving on.  The train ride was about 2 hours and 40 minutes.  Ava did pretty well on the train.  We tried to keep her occupied, but she wasn't too excited to be confined to a lap.  We did a lot of standing.  We also visited the potty a lot to change several poopy diapers!

Ava and Daddy on the train

Leaving Changsha

Here are some pictures of the China country side.  They aren't the greatest as the weather was still very overcast.  We did go through a very heavy rain storm, and were so glad that we had been allowed to take the train.  We later talked to another family who had also been in Hunan with us (although staying at another hotel), and they had horrible flights to Guangzhou.  The China landscape is very beautiful.  Mountainous and very green.  It was hard to capture it out the train window when were traveling at 200 mph.

rice fields

About 20 minutes before we arrived in Guangzhou (GZ), we loaded Ava up in the baby carrier and moved to the back of our train coach.  Your larger luggage pieces get stowed behind the last row of seats in each coach.  During the trip, there were several children (probably at least 5 years old or older) who had been wild and running around the whole time. We don't know what happened, but one girl started crying about 45 minutes out from GZ.  We got to the point where we couldn't stand listening to her, and decided to move to the back of the train near our luggage.  What was strange about the whole thing is that she and the other two children plus the man they were traveling with were sitting on little plastic stools at the front of the car near the bathrooms the whole trip.  She basically decided to throw a temper tantrum, crying and laying on the floor. The man was doing nothing about it.  I have read that the Chinese culture gives children much latitude, and I think this might have been a demonstration of this cultural practice.

We were very happy to pull into the GZ train station!  It was very warm and balmy when we arrived in Guangzhou.  We met one of our agency guides, Miko, and she took us to our van.  The drive into GZ was pretty because it was dark. We could see the whole city all lit up.  I knew the hotel we would be staying at next was amazing, but I don't think Jeremy had any idea how nice it would be!  We had made it to the "promised land."