Rhodes5 in Deutschland: China Day 3 (Qianjiang District)

I mentioned before that the first time we came, we didn't go to the area that Mia was found. The man that we rented the apartment from had a friend that he hooked us up with. She traveled with us for 3 days to Qianjiang District and we had the most amazing experience. This part of the trip is where most of the puzzle filled in for Mia. I wish we could have spent more time in Qianjiang District - it is a beautiful area (the train ride was breathtaking), and the people were so nice. Many people in this region had never seen anyone from the West and so we definitely felt lots of friendly stares. It was actually quite funny at times. People would take photos with Camden and a few handed Bailey their children to take photos with her. We gathered quite a crowd on a few particular occasions too.

Anyway, we got up early the first day and took 2 taxi's to Chongqing's North Station. Our new friend that traveled with us for the 3 days, is a structural engineer professor by profession (and was between semesters). She was amazing and helped us reserve train tickets (the ones we had to pick up the first day), and totally made our time amazing. We could not have done it without her. We made the train on time and settled in for the long ride. Our friend bought playing cards and taught the kids a new Chinese game that all of the people on the streets play. (It is our new favorite game by the way :-)). The train went from Chendu all of the way to Shanghai - 40 hours. I was pretty confident that absolutely no one on our train spoke English - but then sitting directly beside me, a super nice girl asked if we were from the U.S. Of all things - she studied American Studies and English in Beijing and was on her way home for the school break to see her family in QIANJIANG DISTRICT OF ALL PLACES!!!!! It is a 40 hour train ride and she happens to get off at the exact same place as us!We talked the entire 4 hours (while the kids played the new card game with our other new friend). She was so nice and helpful and even helped us find our hotel once we were there. I am always amazed at the kindness of people and these amazing connections that take place sometimes in life. From our new friend, we learned that the city that Mia is from only has 100,000 people (which for China is a bit like a village). We had no idea it was so small. We also learned that people from this region are known to be very pretty and very short! We were told the first time that people were tall from this region - so I was quite surprised. A few of the ladies were smaller than Mia! The other thing that we noticed immediately - is that SO MANY people looked like Mia. Small little lips, thin, pretty skin, and large cheek bones. It was striking to us (definitely aa few more pieces of the puzzle to add).

Once we made it to our hotel, we checked in and had lunch and then headed off to find where Mia lived for most of her first year of life and also to the location that she was found. Before I go on, let me just say - this experience was amazing. I am so glad that we came here when she is 10 years old (and before puberty). She is old enough to comprehend and remember, yet young enough to be so enthusiastic. Her enthusiasm and optimism about it were contageous! So we began our walk down a big hill into the center of the city to find where her Social Welfare Center (orphanage) was. Did I mention that people had never seen foreigners before? The first group of people we came across included in it a lady who was a street cleaner. Our friend explained what we were doing and she was so taken by it that she walked us half way to where we were going. I tried to offer her money- and she would not take anything and instead told me (through our friend) that she wants to thank me for adopting Mia. My heart was already full - yet this was just the beginning! We continued on walking and because many of the names of the streets had changed, no one knew where it was, but everyone was very curious and tried to be of assistance. Soon, we had over 30 people surrounding us trying to help. One man even came up to our guide and said that if Mia is 11 years old, that he might know the parents - I was blown away by this! Mia is 10, (so it couldn't have been her he was speaking of) but the protective Mom in me started to panic a bit because I wasn't sure what more we might find here. No one seemed to know the location of this address that we had, so then Bryan though that a taxi driver would probably know where it was. Sure enough - next thing you know we are in 2 taxi's climbing this big hill overlooking the city. Then I saw it - the building that I had seen in photos - where Mia lived for 10 months of her life. She lived in this town for 10 months of her life- and I think we all felt so much peace and happiness to be standing there. The building is no longer an orphanage (which I knew). What I did not know though is what became of it. I had read a blog of another lady that had traveled there and said that the building in the front is now all locked up, but she went around to the back. I didn't really know if we should do this or not, but our friend totally thought it was a good idea and soon we found our way into the back up the stairs (that still had cartoon characters drawn on the walls) and into the courtyard where our only pictures of Mia as a baby were taken. It was amazing to be standing there. There were 5 or so young kids playing around the building and that is when we found out that the building now is just small apartments (a bit like low income housing). It was neat though to see the building with children playing (it made it much more of a happy looking place than if no one was there- which was nice for us all to see). Next thing you know our friend has struck up a conversation with one of the people who lives there and she invites us into her 1 room apartment to sit down and have an apple. This lady has nothing, yet she is sharing what she has with us - this was what we saw all over in china - people were so kind and giving! We can't speak to her of course (not knowing Chinese), but we sat around a small plastic table on little stools. I had stocked up on candy before we came, so I had candy to share with the kids. It was so neat to be there and see where Mia lived. Just amazing!

The train ride there was so neat. I sat in the middle most of the trip, so the girl in the grey sweatshirt was the student we met and the girl in the middle in this picture (who comes from another region in China) was the one that traveled with us and helped us.

The view from the train - beautiful green mountains with mist!!

We were so excited to be in Qianjiang District!

Lunch at our hotel

The beginning of our walk into town started with a bit of a small parade (it was really quite cute). The lady in orange was so proud to help us (and we were so grateful!!!)