We're Here!

We left Wednesday morning at 8:30 and 26 grueling hours later have arrived in Guilin Thursday midnight! Xing Xing was a trouper! She's always been a good traveler. Mom and Dad are bleary eyed, but grateful for a safe and relatively smooth journey--the only delays from the snow in NYC! It is exhilirating to be in China again and to feel the incredible energy. We are staying in a comfortable apartment in a new complex in Guilin. From our thirteenth floor window we have a view that is now quintessential China: construction at a feverish pace- several towering building cranes, including one a few feet away, constructing highrises, while just beyond the first is a series of small farm plots, fields, flowering trees and ancient houses with the mountains in the background. Before we left we received last minute permission to go to An Lin's SWI (orphanage) and so we will be there Friday, but were told when we arrived we will not be permitted to see her. (Soooo disappointing!!!) We hope to photograph other children for parents still waiting in the US for travel permission ( and maybe, just maybe, by accident see An Lin!!.) Xing Xing is enjoying her first hours here, although did need reassurance from Mom that it was just for a visit!!!