Visitng China by Hope Wood

In the summer of 2007, I went to China with my family for a birthland tour.  I was born in China in 1998 so my family wanted to learn more about my birth country.  My favorite part of the trip was seeing my orphanage in Anhui province.

When we arrived at the orphanage, my caregiver came out to greet me and seemed really happy to see me.  I got to see where I slept in my bed, and we took pictures.  We asked the orphanage director questions about when I was found.  The orphanage staff took us out for a fancy lunch.  Then we took pictures of my finding place at the orphanage gate.

Then we went to Guilin which is the prettiest part of China.  First, we toured the Reed Flute Caves deep in the ground.  There were stalagmites and stalagtites.  Also the cave was very colorful and there were pools of water at the very bottom of the caves.  It was very hot outside and cool in the caves.

After seeing the caves, we went on a boat ride down the Li River.  We saw limestone mountains, grazing water buffalo, fishermen in bamboo boats, and waterfalls.  We ate lunch on the boat.  it was cool!

On of my favorite parts of the trip was the ricksha rides in Beijing.  We climbed into bright red rickshas pulled by men on bicycles who took us through the Hutong area of Beijing.  The Hutong are traditional homes in the central part of Beijing.  We stopped to watch old women dancing, then we toured a traditional Chinese home.  At one home we had a lesson in making dumplings.  Then we had lunch there.

After all of that, we went back to our hotel and went swimming.  it was fun swimming after a hot day.  The best part of the trip for me was going to my orphanage and seeing how I would have lived if I was still in China.