Continued from our-second-day-in-wuhan-part-3

We leave Wuhan this afternoon after finalizing our adoption this morning. We got Caleb's passport, his adoption certificate, birth certificate and abandonment certificate at two different offices and it only took about an hour total. When we were here 6 years ago for Ben's adoption we had to listen to a speech about Chinese/US relations that seemed to go on for quite awhile, but since we are the only family here this time, we grabbed the paperwork and were done. Yea!

We are more than ready to go as this city is cold, grey and filled with exhaust fumes and cigarette smoke. Wait a minute...every city in China is filled with exhaust fumes and cigarette smoke. Micheline has developed an awful cough and the smoke and fumes are not helping at all I am sure.

We ended up going to the Provincial Museum yesterday instead of East Lake because it is just too cold outside to be out on the water. We drove past East Lake, however, and saw some rowing teams practicing.

The museum has some beautiful bells that were unearthed when they were building a dormitory 50 years ago for college students. They discovered a tomb of a Marquis Yi along with many concubines, servants and musicians whom the Marquis poisoned when he was going to die. He poisoned them so they would die with him because he wanted them all to serve him in the next life.



The highlight of the tour was a performance by musicians on replicas of the bells. The rest of the tour was a total bust for the kids since our guide wanted to explain everything in great detail and the kids just wanted to run ahead.

We also toured the Guiyuan Temple that had the 500 Buddha statues. It is a
place that I am fascinated with and visited when we were here 6 years ago, but one where the kids took a look at about 40 of them and then said "I'm cold!" Of course it would not be warm because it was open to the air, but almost nothing is heated here. Even in the orphanage, the rooms are heated where the children are, but the hallways are freezing. I went into a bank two days ago to try and change some traveler's checks--a futile exercise in this city--and the offices where the big wigs worked had heat, but everywhere else was freezing as well. Most people work in their offices with their coats on.




After the temple we crossed the street to a museum filled with beautiful rock formations and some dinosaur bones. The kids liked this a little
better, but our guide asked us to go in the shop. Talk about beautiful but outrageously expensive carvings for sale! A tiny elephant about 2 inches tall carved out of jade was 800 yuan or about 100 U.S. dollars. Too many things to have to worry about breaking, yet we lingered because they had a propane space heater that sure felt nice.

Continued...