Today is Sunday and it’s pretty quiet around here. We didn’t have anything specific planned today
so we’ll rely on our guide and driver to show us Loudi. I had researched a few places to visit but I
guess it’s quite a drive to get to both of them, so we’ll stay around the city.
Most of the time the breakfast included Western items and
the place cards with the food name was written in both Mandarin and
Pinyin. But… in Loudi we’re pretty
remote and the need for Western food with Pinyin writing just isn’t there. So, toast and fried eggs, fruit and tea. Still not adventurous with food due to our
sickness last week.
(random observation- men still smoke everywhere and anytime,
even while standing in front of the no-smoking
signs!)
Our driver takes us to one of the parks along the Lian River. There is barely anyone here. I think we saw maybe 25 people. Very unusual.
And, there were no cars along one of the roads in the park. Very unusual!
As we are walking through the park, we come across a group of ladies
practicing their dancing. Very
common. Just as I was about to say we
wouldn’t get by them without a photo, one of the ladies runs over to us, grabs
Kyle’s arm and is shouting to the other ladies to get a picture. Chaos soon ensued as all of the ladies wanted
pictures with Kyle and I. We didn’t look
too closely at any of them as they were clad in biking tops and were obviously
doing a belly-type dance. Awkward! Finally we broke free and continued our walk. The driver was telling us that this river had
flooded just 3 weeks ago which was why the dam was closed and part of the river
dry.
As we drove to another park in a different part of town we
passed the new government buildings.
This park, Louxing Square, was very busy with lots of families enjoying
the shade and breeze. It’s another very
hot, 102˚F,
humid day. Couples were dancing, grandpas
were playing cards while younger men looked on, kids were swinging and riding
the merry-go-round, people were exercising, others were singing and playing
instruments… it was a symphony of different sounds! As we passed by many stopped to look and
wonder. We took pictures on the bridge
and walked around the lake that was part of the park. An older lady stopped Kyle and was trying to
ask if Natalee was his. With our guide’s
help, she explained our girls were Chinese and adopted to the USA. The lady then smiled big and gave him a
thumbs up! We are very blessed!
After the park experiences we had lunch at a nearby restaurant. It was pretty good and again way too much
food. The Chinese don’t have “doggie
bags” or anything as it’s culturally not really accepted. The government has started a campaign to
change that opinion and encourage less food & therefore less waste. Imagine a country with 1.3 billion people the
amount of waste that occurs!
Our driver and guide take us to Natalee’s finding location
after lunch. It’s the gate to the former
Loudi Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau. Today
it’s various offices. We walk around.
There is no one here. We talk to
a lady who lives at the store out front and she says this was also the original
Loudi orphanage. It looks familiar to me
from pictures I received from other adoptive parents who had visited Loudi back
in 2003. It’s very odd to stand here at
this gate and think what it must have been like 15 years ago when on a January
day Natalee’s birth mom wrapped her up and placed her at this gate. And, to think, that somewhere in this city
there could be her family – birth mom, birth dad, grandparents, cousins…. It’s
so hard to comprehend and words just can’t fully explain the range of
emotions. Natalee seems rather chill
about everything. She tells us that she’s
cool with it all and that I have more sentimental feelings than she does. I hope she’s okay.
After resting back at our hotel and connecting to our blog,
we decide to take a walk to find the pool and see if Megs can swim for a while. Well, no luck. The pool is a 5-minute walk which means it’s
not easily found. What we do find is the
stadium and look inside and then we find the Loudi Municipal Museum. It’s one of those buildings that is a work in
progress and never really finished for use.
Part of the building is done and houses the Loudi Art Museum. It’s open and the lady who is working is
thrilled to see visitors, especially foreign ones. We look around for a little while and then
try to walk along the river just outside our hotel but there is a large fence
and we can’t find a way around it. Megan
is melting so back inside to enjoy an ice cream treat and more ramen before
packing up and getting to bed.
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