Hi all - we have tried to post pictures all morning, but our internet keeps blocking them so we'll have to try again later tonight. I don't know if there is an overload on the circuits or what the issue is.
We are currently staying at the Garden Hotel in downtown Guangzhou and it is filled with people from around the world who are all here for the World's Largest Trade Fair. This is the time of year when everyone comes to China to view all types of Chinese products that they can import (from electronics to manufactured goods to clothing and toys). We actually even met a local man from the Philadelphia area who is here as a Boscovs buyer. The hotel is packed night and day with people coming and going. The traffic is horrendous, too, as the convention buses try and navigate the buyers through town to the Convention Center.
Yesterday, we drove about 45 minutes across town to another part of Guangzhou to the Safari Park. It was literally a left turn off a main street of stores into a big entrance (right in the middle of a commerce district area). Not typically where you would expect to find a massive Safari Park. As we entered the park with 3000 (I am not kidding) Brother Electronics workers who were there for an outing, we first made our way to the Safari on Wheels. You could either drive your own car through it (if you had one) or you take a Safari Tram. We boarded the tram and made our way through the Safari with all animals being a surprise as we rounded corners, since the entire tour was all in Chinese! The tram ride was really neat. You literally ride up next to many animals including camels, deer, ostrich, zebras, and other wooly mammals. Many of the animals came right up to peoples' cars begging for food in the windows!
The tram does not stop so we were not able to have such a close encounter. However, further into the park, the more ferocious animals (rhinos, hippos, bears, wolves, lions) were all a little bit further back from the road not in cages but definitely in more types of enclosed areas. Many of the animals were sleeping as the heat of the day was increasing, but the ride was definitely fun.
After the tram ride, we took the Safari on foot tour. The boys were able to have up close encounters with giraffes (got to feed them huge branches and leaves). Their mouths are very strong; they ripped the branches right out of our hands. They also got to pet a baby black elephant who was literally inches away from them performing a few tricks. We saw dozens of little baby animals including many baby tigers. The panda exhibit was really neat with 6 huge pandas all posing and eating bamboo (several of the pandas were re-located here after the big earthquake a few years ago.) As we made our way to the big elephant exhibit, you could buy bananas for $1.50 US and throw them at the elephants for them to eat. There were two little baby elephants in the pack of at least a dozen who would try and grab them, too. They were adorable. We had wanted to have our pictures taken with the baby white tigers, but the area was closed for some reason yesterday (maybe due to the safety of the animals in the extreme heat). The animals are all relatively close to you (unlike the US zoos) and the locals feed them whatever which is probably not too healthy for them either. They did look to be in good shape, so I am sure that they must be fairly well taken care of. We left the park in mid-afternoon after a small stop at the gift shop for a baby elephant with tusks (for Kyle), an orange tiger (for Dylan) and a white tiger (for Ashley, who promptly threw hers on the ground). Anyway, it was a very fun day and I would highly recommend the park.
Today, we are waiting for our consulate appt. that will be around 3:30 p.m. (our time). Ashley has not felt good all morning (again a hugely bloated belly) so she, Charlie and Rita are down in the medical clinic at the hotel speaking to hopefully what is a good doctor. She has been eating okay again, but then somehow her system must really reject the food and not process it properly. She LOVES mashed potatoes from KFC, though! She couldn't get enough of those last night. She might still be suffering a few ill effects from too many shots on Saturday, too. Hopefully, we'll be able to make her more comfortable in order to do the swearing in this afternoon.
We'll check in again later today and hopefully get more pictures up, too.
p.s. also what Charlie didn't elaborate on with the Mr. Dong story is that due to his accident and his having a bigger car, the Chinese police held him 100% at fault (bigger vehicle is always at fault here), and he was 100% responsible for the damage to all vehicles, for the other person's medical bills and he had his license pulled for several days! It was a very sad story, as he was such a kind man and even called Grant as we were leaving to say goodbye to our family. Also, the boys were so worried about his accident that each time we got into the car, the questions about Mr. Dong, the "screwdriver" and the Chinese police would start so it was a massive comedy act of us laughing all of the time.
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