Coming to China was kind of a shock. Imagine taking a time-machine all the way back to the Middle Ages in Nepal, then going twenty years or more years into the future – that’s what landing in Guangzhou was like. There were a few places in Nepal that we stayed that had no running water. Sure, there were plenty of streams, but no faucets. Then you come to China: everyone’s on a cellphone; there are subways that go everywhere in all the major cities; and the pollution levels are crazy.

Hangin’ in downtown Shanghai.

Right now the pollution level is at two hundred, and in California they cancel PE if the pollution is at fifty. The highest pollution level ever recorded was in Beijing, and it was at one thousand! In Maoming, it’s hard to see the buildings that are like fifteen blocks down, yet in the distance you see smoke stacks just pouring smoke into the atmosphere. And it gets me thinking: it’s pretty likely that Lucy’s birth parents are migrant factory workers, and could be working in the factories I’m looking at. I pass a woman on the street, is that Lucy’s birth mom? Our hotel maid, is that Lucy’s birth mom? The woman selling us bananas? The man trying to sell us fish? The woman sweeping up leaves? You just never know.

On The Great Wall of China with my sister. The air was so clear up there!

When I see those smoke stacks at first it’s like, why do they just keep pouring smoke into the already over-polluted air? Then you have to realize, it’s ’cause people like me want our plastic shovels. We want our stupid water guns. We want our plastic throw-away dishes and plastic spoons and forks (and chop sticks if we’re talking China) if we’re throwing a party. We need our plastic wrap. We need our plastic bags to put our vegetables in at the grocery store. We need our plastic containers to put lunch stuff in for school, and if you care less about the environment, plastic sandwich bags for lunch stuff too. It’s a serious reality check. We are all part of a huge problem thats killing the ocean, and polluting Planet Earth. When you walk into a lot of restaurants here, your dishes are wrapped in plastic to ensure sanitarity. (That’s not a real word; I made it up.) In pretty much all the restaurants the chop sticks are wrapped in plastic, again, to ensure sanitarity. This is insanitary!

Pork sold at the market. Every part of the animal is used.

We visited Lucy’s orphanage yesterday. It was really sweet, and heartbreaking. All the women when they saw Lucy were like, “Xin Feng! Xin Feng!” And hugging her. It was really different then when just me and my dad (and Kelsey) visited seven years before. There are much nicer sleeping spaces, and a whole new building. I also learned that if you don’t get adopted by the time you are fourteen, which means you probably have a major physical or mental disability, you spend your whole life at the orphanage! We saw fifty and sixty year olds! And everyone seemed to remember Xin Feng. (The first bit means heart, and the last part means wind bird, or Phoenix.) All of her old nannies were there, except one. We asked them if it was really hard to let kids go. Those nannies are the ones that took care  of Lucy from when she was one month old to when she was two and three quarters. Through Julie (our guide and friend), they told us that it was ‘cause they are like parents to those kids. But they had to remember that the child was going somewhere that would have more food, more possibilities, and most importantly, a family.

Green eggs, not with ham. These are called “buried eggs”

It is very hard to get around China if you don’t speak the language. We have been to some wild markets, and eaten crazy food (like buried eggs). We have also eaten a lot of crazy good food! We have walked on the Great Wall, had high tea on the eighty seventh floor of the seventh-tallest building in the world, (for my bday) and gone shoe shopping in Shanghai (also for my bday). China has been really great, especially the food. I really miss friends, but modern communication is keeping me updated. My birthday was really awesome, and I think I will always remember my thirteenth birthday.

High tea in Shanghai for my 13th birthday!