Guilin

The group split up yesterday with all the families taking different flights to their orphanage towns. We will meet again in 3 or 4 days in Shanghai and I think it will be so interesting for the girls to share their individual experiences. Some of the orphanages have basically gone out of business and are now old age homes and the few children they have there are probably special needs kids. Kate's orphanage has never been open and I've never been there. I picked her up in Nanning a charming town very near the Vietnam borded so this trip to her orphanage in the town of Liu Zhou will be a first.

We flew into Guilin in the souther part of China, which is known for its beautiful scenery. Every Chinese scroll seems to be painted with the mountains of Guilin. The guide explained yesterday that this area had been under water for many years and I was really reminded of the black smokers in the Hall of Planet Earth at the Museum. The mountains look like black smokers just covered with vegetation. Quite striking.

This morning which is the anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, we are going on a boat ride on the River Li and ikt turns out that all the foreigners go on one boat and all the Chinese go on boats together. I secretly just want to go to the swimming pool! And we've reached that stage in our trip where we are all a little homesick. We want to sleep in our own beds, we miss Miss Murray and me, specially, I want to eat something other than Chinese food. There seem to be no ethnic or immigrant groups that are large enough to sustain a restaurant of their own food. Even the French who only eat French food have restaurants of other cuisines. Therefore here there are no vietnamese, Thai or any other kind of restaurant. Last night we had dinner in a restaurant called McFound which looked exactly like my idea of a Wendy's but had great food. But Chinese.