Today we traveled from HK to Wuhan, the capital city of Ashley's province. She will be presented to us tomorrow and life will never be quite the same.
The flight was uneventful, save for the rice and facsimilie-chicken-product served for lunch. I will not try to describe the taste or texture as I'm sure much will be lost in translation!
Kyle slept almost the entire ride, while Dyland chirped for the duration, providing the family with descriptions of the sights and lots of laughs. Customs and immigration in Wuhan was a breeze, and we were met by Grant, our guide for the week. He helped us into the van where Mr. Dong our driver was waiting. The ride to the hotel took a lot longer than I thought it would, due to the pervasive traffic.
Grant described many of the sights including the bridge over the Yangtze River. Finished in the 50's, the bridge provided the FIRST crossing point for the two adjacent banks. Before the bridge, you had to make your way to the river bank and transfer to a boat for the crossing and pick up your journey on the opposite side. The bridge carries so much vehicle traffic that even today, crossings via automobile are very restrictive.
For instance today was the 10th, an EVEN Day. So the rules stipulate that only private cars whose license plate numbers end in an even number can legally cross. Trucks, buses and specially licensed vehicles are exempt. But despite the crossing "rationing", traffic was considerable, especially for a Sunday.
The Best Western Mayflowers hotel seems nice, however the "Non-Smoking" room that we have can better be described as a "Not having been smoked in for a while but still having a stale smoky odor" room.
More to come soon, (remind me to tell you about the "adapter" incident)!
The boys and Lisa are sleeping, having faded off to a CD of a children's choir singing Chinese lullabies - this is actually making me nod off every few moments. It's Kyle's favorite recording.
Anticipation is running very high as we prepare for tomorrow!
We all need to get a good night's sleep so I'm gonna hit the sack.
Reveille is at Oh-Seven Hunded.
Ashley will be awake early as well and departing at 6AM on her 3 hour journey to the civil affairs office where the presentation will be made. We are all very excited to finally meet her and welcome her to the family.
Good night.
C
We are anxiously awaiting your next post. We love your posts and have been following your trip. We feel like we are right there with you sitting next to the nice man in the McDonalds. We are thinking of you and can't wait to meet Ashley. Hope all goes smoothly, we love and miss you! The Carey's
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