My First Visit to Gaoyou - April 2005

Introduction

In April 2005 I had the incredible opportunity to travel to China to help the Half the Sky foundation set up their programs in two orphanages in China. Even better, one of them was the Gaoyou CWI. Hear is my diary from that trip.

Saturday 4/1 - Fly in to Shanghai

The flight went well. Once again I had a empty seat next to me which made the flight a lot more bearable. Getting through customs went very smooth with no delay.

I caught a “taxi” from the airport that an airport employee set me up with. The airport guy told me the trip would be 600y ($73) which was a bit of a shock so I got $330 changed to RMB and he pointed me to the taxi.

I’m not sure of the status of the taxi since there wasn’t any meter, but he only charged me 500y ($61) which now seemed like a bargain, On the drive to the hotel the driver tried to teach me some more Chinese but as usual, it didn’t stick too well. He got me to the hotel safe and sound and I was in my room by 10. I had planned to go out but the neighborhood doesn’t look super great to explore so I just called home and got a good night sleep.

Sunday 4/2 - Ride to Gaoyou

I had a fairly good nights sleep, considering. I was up a few times then got up for good at five. After repacking the bags I went out for a very short walking tour of Shanghai. There wasn’t a whole lot new and interesting so I headed back and got some breakfast at the hotel buffet. I meet everyone in the lobby at 8:30 and we got on the bus and hit the road at around 9,

Driving out of Shanghai to the East the size of the city was amazing. Like Beijing, tall apartment bocks, densely packed for as far as the eye could see.

It took about 4 hours to get to Gaoyou. After we got out of the densely populated areas of Shanghai the housing density stayed pretty constant at about 50% of the land covered by homes and every other bit of open space was covered by small farming plots. We never got to what I would call a rural area although It got pretty thin around Gaoyou.

We arrived at Gaoyou at about 1:00 and SWI director meet us at the off ramp to introduce himself. First impressions of Gaoyou are that it is a smaller version of all the other cities we’ve seen in China. There isn’t much for high-rise buildings but we passed several very large residential/industrial projects going up. Our Hotel is brand new. It’s only been open 2 months and is a very modern design.

After we got all checked in, and had lunch, HTS arranged for a van from the SWI to drive us around to the finding sites. All of the sites turned out to be not an unreasonable walking distance from the hotel.

Our first stop was the Traditional Medicine Hospital where Reilly was found. It is located on a major intersection in downtown Gaoyou. The 2nd stop was the South Gate of the Peoples Park where Elena was found. It opened up to a dead end street about a block off a major street. The 3rd stop was the North gate of the park that someone in Vera’s travel group wanted pictures of. This place was interesting as there were several street vendors set up and there was a fair amount of activity going on.

The last finding site we went to was the Shikou Vegetable Market where Sarah and Isabella were found. It is on a secondary street, Zhongshang Lu, about 2 blocks north of a major avenue, Tonghu Lu. It wasn’t at all what I expected. I had envisioned a large public market but it was a consisted of two large covered areas, one at the street, one in the rear, with tables set up for vendors. Apparently the market is only open in the morning and was now empty. The neighborhood down the street to the north is an older neighborhood although a couple large new buildings are going up nearby. I was caught off guard by what it was like and not sure how to feel. I’ll definitely have to come back to spend more time.

The last stop on this trip was the SWI. We couldn’t go in but I took a bunch of pictures from the outside. The new addition that we will be working on looks great! The SWI portion is well kept up and the location is in a fairly clean neighborhood.

At that point it was about 5:00 and the driver took us back to the hotel. We tried to get the internet in the rooms working but didn’t have any luck. With the hotel being so new apparently they hadn’t bothered to train the staff on how to work it. The same turned out to be true later when I couldn’t get anyone to tell me how to get an outside line on the phone so that I could phone home. Frustrating.

I went out and wandered around some shops kitty-corner from the hotel before dinner. I didn’t find much of note except a ceramics store. The clerk new some English but couldn’t understand that I was looking for Cloisonné. I guess there must be another word for it in Chinese.

After diner I was pretty well shot. I took a couple of pictures of the city at night and went to bed. I was asleep by 9:30. 

Monday 4/3

After waking up a couple of times I got up at 4:20 because I couldn’t sleep any more. After updating Sunday’s notes I took a hike west to the Grand Canal.

It was a very nice morning and almost no one is on the street at that hour. It didn’t take long and people started coming out. I walked to the west edge of downtown due west of the hotel where a set of stairs led up to the top of the dike that borders the Grand Canal.

The canal was very busy with boats loaded down heavy with what looked like sand (for concrete?) going south. They floated a whole lot higher going north.

The boats seemed to be something like self powered barges. While some of the boats went down the river under their own power, many were secured together about 10 long and towed with a tug. There were also large freighters going between the barges, driving in and out of the traffic the same way they do on the street.

At 9:00 we loaded up on the bus and went to go to the SWI. At this point I first let Carol and Jenny know about my fundraising and intensions. Their first response was that I donate it directly to HTS but I explained that that was not what I had promised the donors. The they agreed that I could pay for the bicycles that they were already planning on buying and a plaque could be place in front of the SWI expressing thanks to FBC and other donors. This seemed like as good as I could do so I accepted.

 The first thing we did after official greetings at the SWI was to tour the infant center. They showed us three rooms (out of seven) with about 12 babies each, two to a crib. The rooms were about 8’ x 15’ so there wasn’t a whole lot of extra room between the rows of cribs on each wall. We got to spend about 15 minutes going from room to room and visiting the babies and nannies. It was really hard not to gather them all up and take them home.  The babies did all appear to be well tended to by caring nannies, but I’m sure every one was on there best behavior because of our visit. Everything was clean and well taken care of. The rooms were a little crowded but that was understandable because the main pay area (where Sarah’s referral picture must have been taken) was being redone as part of our project.

Even though the temperature outside must have been in the low 60’s all the babies were all bundled up very heavily to the point where they couldn’t hardly move. The infants looked like pillows with stubby arms and legs protruding. It would be comical if I didn’t know what it was doing to them.

There were four other rooms for the babies that we didn’t get to visit. Later in the week I got a glance in one that had several babies hooked up to IV’s.

Across a courtyard in back of the building there is a second, somewhat newer, three story building that houses older children and some elderly. The interior was immaculate. We were shown a room that housed two girls and it looked very nice. There is a third building that houses special needs children long term and has a factory so they can build things (I don’t know what) “to give back to the community”. We didn’t get to tour the third building.

The new wing that we are working on is nice even by our standards. We are working on finishing 8 apartments for foster families that will each be committed to raising four children to adulthood. The apartments are 2 bedroom units with a decent kitchen/dining room and a living room. I would guess that they are at least 800 sq ft.

There are also common areas, library, and activity rooms.

We spent the first day assembling 12 Ikea table and chair sets (12 tables 48 chairs). Then we had to paint them. All in all the day went well and everyone is getting along ok.

We left the SWI at 5 and returned to the hotel. There was a banquet with the mayor of Gaoyou at 6:30 so I didn’t do much besides get cleaned up and update my notes.

The banquet was kind of what I expected with some long winded speeches that were even longer due to translation. After the banquet I continued my efforts to phone home or get the internet working. A technician came to my room and got it working but it was super slow. It took forever to get to the right page then I couldn’t send it. I was pretty frustrated and had to turn in at about 10:00.

Tuesday 4/4

Up at 5 I meet Mike in the lobby to go on a morning walk. We went west to the canal again, then south to a market marked by a three story Pagoda. On the way we noticed a large old pagoda on an island in the canal that would be interesting to know more about.

From the Market we went east then north through a large park with lots more people doing Ti Chi. Then back to the hotel by 8:00.

At the build we continued to paint. First I finished the chairs then spent the rest of the day painting bookcases.

After work I skipped the group meal (as did a lot of others) and hit the market. It turns out there is a lot more stores in Gaoyou than I thought. I spent about 2 ½ hrs wandering around looking for something I wanted but only found some shoes for Sarah (3 pr for 75 yuan). For dinner I had a chicken sandwich, fries and a drink at KFC for 18 yuan.

I returned to the room at about 7:30, planning on phoning home at 10:00 to talk to Leslie and Sarah. After doing my S’s I updated the diary and lay down to read for a while. It soon became obvious that I wasn’t going to be able to stay awake until 10, so I set the alarm and went to sleep.

At 10 the alarm went off and I managed to pull myself to a somewhat conscious state to phone home. It was great to hear Leslie and Sarah’s voice. Sarah said “Hi Daddy) and “I Love You as clear as I’ve ever heard her say it. Way cool. 

Wednesday 4/5

Up at 5 again I was going to meet Mike for a morning walk, but he slept in, so I went out solo to the northwest of the Hotel. I came across a large indoor vegetable and meat market that was very interesting. I would have loved to take a million pictures, but I was feeling really self conscious so I settled for a fair amount of video.

From there I went back to Sarah’s Market for some more pictures and video. I filmed a fair amount of video again although I felt really uncomfortable. Oh well, I’m sure I won’t regret it. I tried hard to find a way to capture the feeling of the neighborhood. I left the Market and walked to the SWI to see how far it was away (6 min) then through the park south to north and back to the hotel. In between the SWI and the Park I passed a large school with tons of kids pouring into it. The kids here really enjoy saying “hello” and go into fits of giggles when I smile and respond with a “Hello”. What fun!

At the SWI I sanded and painted shelf units, painted a balance beam and helped paint a room on the Orphanage side. The bikes arrived today from Nanjing where Jenny and ZZ went to pick them up. We were kind of disappointed that they were already assembled as putting them together would have been a welcome break from painting.

I skipped diner again to go walking. First stop is a kiosk about ½ ways to downtown to buy Gaoyou maps and postcards for everyone (35y for 7 of ea). Then I met up with the rest of the gang at jewelry store at the north gate of the park. There I bought 3 red jade rings for 9 y ea. 

It wasn’t too far from the store to the canal so I walked over to the canal to capture the sunset. Unfortunately the sun disappears into the smog well before the horizon. I walked over the bridge and took some pictures and video of what little of Gaoyou Lake I could see. After that I headed back to the hotel.

I stopped at the market on the way back to the hotel to pick up Dinner and munchies. I bought a large cup of noodles (2.5 y), a bag of tomato ketchup flavored potato sticks (3.3 y), and 2 rolls of cookies (2.5 y ea.) for a total of 11.2 y or $1.36. The cup of noodles was really very good and came with a real nifty folding plastic fork.

Thursday 4/6

I got up at 5:00, and was out walking w/Mike at 6:00. We went looking for the postal Museum but couldn’t find it. We started by going south on the Strip about a mile. After a while we figured we had missed it so we backtracked north. We did see one large, old pagoda but there wasn’t any museum there.

We ended up heading west to “Old Town” to look for Laura’s finding spot. On the way we found a man with a small booth selling all kinds of used stuff. I ended up getting a Jade bracelet (100 y) and a cloisonné ring (50 y). From there we headed north and found the Hospital where Laura was found. It was neat that it had a sign out front saying “Child Friendly Hospital”.

After we got back to Main Street we caught a bicycle rickshaw and headed back to the hotel. At the hotel I got the instructions to connect to the internet via dial-up, got it working and sent out a couple of e-mails. It’s about time.

At the build I helped with the painting of the nurture center which was really miserable work. It was getting hot and the paint was really hard to work with. At about 3:00 the local workers took over and I stayed busy doing odd jobs and wrap up stuff. In the afternoon a crew from CNN and Newsweek came through to do a story. I know they got some footage of me but who knows if it will go anywhere.

While at the built I talked to Carol again about my donation. She told me not to worry, It wasn’t forgotten. She also got the information from me on what to place on the plaque. I am getting a little frustrated about how this donation thing is going.

I joined the crew for dinner at a nearby restaurant. The news crews joined us so it was a very enjoyable dinner with good conversation. The food was also very good. Up till then I hadn’t really enjoyed the meals.

After dinner it was too late to do much else so updated the Diary, phoned home and went to bed.

Friday 4/7

I was up at 4:45 and did my morning chores and was out with Mike again at 6:00. There is some kind of temple on a hill north of the hotel so we walked up to see it. Unfortunately it was closed and the smog was so thick you could barely see the temple.

From there we headed for Sarah’s Market. Mike was a lot of help here because he walked ahead through the market with his camcorder held high and attracted a lot of attention. This allowed me to hang back and take pictures and video without being so obvious. My shots didn’t come out as good as I would have liked because of the low light but I did get some good ones.

At a shop near the Market I bought a tea pot and glass tea jar to have a memento of the place for Sarah.

We then walked by the SWI again as Mike wanted more pictures and over the bridge to see the lake. I was glad we did that as we went a little farther than I did last time and it opened up a few more picture opportunities.

We took a bicycle rickshaw back to the hotel and I meet Constance and a couple others to go to the post office. The post office turned out to be a real gold mine of souvenirs. I bought a 2- Gaoyou 2 coin commemorative set for 80 y, a 3 coin set for 120 y, a large and small Gaoyou stamp book for 380 y and 138 y, and 7 sets of postcards @ 15 y ea.

This is our last day at the SWI. We started by repainting the anteroom, since the touchup paint didn’t match the original, and then we cleaned up everything and put toys out on the shelves.

When we got back from lunch the foster families and children were there in the main play room. It was total, fun craziness. I hadn’t realized it until then that the children were all special needs, but it made sense. It made me really appreciate the sacrifice and challenge these Foster Parents were taking on each raising four of these children to adulthood. No way could I do it.

Most of the kids had a great time. One little boy who is about four was missing his right forearm but it didn’t slow him down a bit. He made great use of what he had and seemed to be one of the children having the most fun.

As things wound down I presented the director with the pictures of Sarah, Elena and Laura. He was very respectful in receiving the pictures but I’m not sure how far they will go.

We left at about 4 which worked out great because it gave us time to get to the post office and bank.

After a quick dash to our rooms I teamed up with Vera, Sandra and Caroline for some shopping. First stop was the bank to exchange some money ($340) then back to the post office for some gifts. I bought a 3 coin set and large Gaoyou book for Jennifer (120y & 380y) and a China stamp book for us (380y).

After dropping of our purchases at the hotel we went back out heading for Old Town. On the way there Vera and Caroline managed to talk two girls at a high school track meet out of their track jackets that said “Gaoyou Middle School” across the back. It caused quite a stir and probably brought the track meet to a halt. The girls were very generous about giving up their jackets and the women had to force 100 yuan notes into there hands. The boys weren’t so shy and immediately started trying to get 300y for their jackets.

Down the walk a little ways I handed out Tootsie Pops to the boys at the fence until a guard broke it up.

We continued on to Old Town getting there by going down a long narrow alley.

The shopping was a lot of fun in Old Town and we all made a few purchases from vendors with small knick knack shops. From one I bought 3 old coins for 25 y, and a couple of small wood doors for 100 y. From another vendor I bought a two handled dragon cup for 300 y.

After shopping it was getting dark so we flagged down a couple of rickshaws and headed back. The work of the track jacket purchase got around because during the trip back some boys stopped us, trying to sell their jacket. I thought about it but turned them down because it just didn’t feel right.

We had the rickshaws drop us off at the supermarket then we stopped at the map Kiosk for more maps and post cards. I got to use more Chinese here and it went pretty well. It was a good evening and I felt real good about my purchases, and being able to more comfortable using Mandarin.

I was up till 10:00 making notes, and packing. Then I finally crashed.

Saturday 4/8

I was up at 4:30 because I couldn’t sleep and because there was a lot I wanted to do before a HTS meeting at 8:00. I worked on packing, pictures and diary.

At 6:00 Mike and I went out one more time. It is raining pretty good for the first time this trip. The traffic on the street is noticeably less but it is hard to tell if that is because of the rain or because it’s Saturday. Mike and I walked to the northwest, past Sarah’s Market then down the street until it intersected with the canal. From there it was past the SWI and a rickshaw to the hotel. On the way we stopped at the north gate jewelry store and I tried to get them to open for one last purchase but didn’t have any luck.

The 8:00 meeting turned out to be a long one. Against HTS policy, someone had brought a camera to the SWI and it was used to take pictures. Jenny took this very seriously, but it was soon resolved. Then it was time to say goodbye to Gaoyou and board the bus to Nanjing for the next leg of our trip.