Clothes fit for a king (or Emperor!)
Getting ready to ring the huge bell in the pavilion
Our visit to the Teng Wang Pavilion
4-9-10
Matthew says: Today we went to the Teng Wang Pavilion. It is a beautiful house built by a son of one of the emperors who was banished from the capital because he didn’t agree with his father’s policies. It is a wonderful structure; it has green upturned roofs, red walls, and gorgeous, lush gardens containing statues of all of the zodiac figures. My zodiac sign is the mouse, and I took a picture by it and everybody else took a picture by theirs. Inside the Pavilion we saw a traditional Chinese dancing and music performance, and it was really cool actually. One of the instruments was very interesting, it looked like a row of different sized cowbells all nailed to a piece of wood, it had a nice sound though. I don’t know what Mia though about all of this though, but she was really scared when my brothers and I dressed up as emperors to have our picture taken on the prince’s Dragon Throne. She doesn’t know us well enough yet to recognize us in costumes, no matter how simple, and was crying for the picture. There was a great trade- off to this though, tonight she gave us a real treat and fell asleep within 15 minute of a bottle and walking. Aahhh.
Maria says: Our third day with Mia! We all enjoyed our outing to the pavilion today. The biggest bonus (apart from having Mia in our family) is learning all we can about chinese language, culture, and history form our fabulous guide, Karen.She taught us a Chinese lullaby today. She told us all about the Chinese zodiac signs based on the lunar year (we learned that Mia was born during the year of the golden Pig...a very lucky year because it comes only once in every 100 years. She says that the characteristerics of a Golden Pig child are wealth and good promise of promotion during her life. the jury is out about whether or not becoming a part of the Theis family would be considered a promotion or not!) w e learned that the city from which Mia comes is known for their herbal medicines, and Jiangxi province as a whole is know for their green tea and fine porcelain. We learned that when babies are left by their parents at the orphanage, the director of the orphanage names the baby, mostly in a random fashion. Zhuang (Mia's surname) is actually the name of the Welfare institute from which she came. Qi (Mia's first name) means start, or to teach. Chen (Mia's middle name) is a fairly common name, often given to boys. After hearing this, I didin't feele so bad about moving her Chinese name to her middle name.
Although all of our paperwork was officially completed on Tuesday, the day we picked up Mia, we are scheduled to stay in Nanchang until Mia's Chinese passport is processed. (Our guide tells us she will probably be able to pick the passport up on Monday). Once this is completed, we will be travelling to Guanzhou (another city almost directly south of us, very close to Hong Kong), where we will wait for her American visa to process, at which time we will be free to fly home (because China doesn't grant dual citizenshiips, it will expire as soon as her American passport is issued, and her Chinese passport become a nice souvenir... ).Since we have no official business to do, the time here in Nanchang is ours. Therefore, we have been enjoying our daily routine of breakfast in our hotel, meeting our guide in the lobby for a nice little half day excursion (Walmart one day, the zoo the next, 600 year old famous plaza the next...all met with equal levels of fascination as you can imagine!), and an afternoon of napping, card playing, reading, walking down to the river, going to the local grocery store, doing some schoolwork. Although our hotel roms aren't quite home to us, and the city of Nanchang isn't a bustling metropolis full of fascinating, historical sights to see, these days full of family bonding and getting to know Mia are priceless.
Matthew says: Today we went to the Teng Wang Pavilion. It is a beautiful house built by a son of one of the emperors who was banished from the capital because he didn’t agree with his father’s policies. It is a wonderful structure; it has green upturned roofs, red walls, and gorgeous, lush gardens containing statues of all of the zodiac figures. My zodiac sign is the mouse, and I took a picture by it and everybody else took a picture by theirs. Inside the Pavilion we saw a traditional Chinese dancing and music performance, and it was really cool actually. One of the instruments was very interesting, it looked like a row of different sized cowbells all nailed to a piece of wood, it had a nice sound though. I don’t know what Mia though about all of this though, but she was really scared when my brothers and I dressed up as emperors to have our picture taken on the prince’s Dragon Throne. She doesn’t know us well enough yet to recognize us in costumes, no matter how simple, and was crying for the picture. There was a great trade- off to this though, tonight she gave us a real treat and fell asleep within 15 minute of a bottle and walking. Aahhh.
Maria says: Our third day with Mia! We all enjoyed our outing to the pavilion today. The biggest bonus (apart from having Mia in our family) is learning all we can about chinese language, culture, and history form our fabulous guide, Karen.She taught us a Chinese lullaby today. She told us all about the Chinese zodiac signs based on the lunar year (we learned that Mia was born during the year of the golden Pig...a very lucky year because it comes only once in every 100 years. She says that the characteristerics of a Golden Pig child are wealth and good promise of promotion during her life. the jury is out about whether or not becoming a part of the Theis family would be considered a promotion or not!) w e learned that the city from which Mia comes is known for their herbal medicines, and Jiangxi province as a whole is know for their green tea and fine porcelain. We learned that when babies are left by their parents at the orphanage, the director of the orphanage names the baby, mostly in a random fashion. Zhuang (Mia's surname) is actually the name of the Welfare institute from which she came. Qi (Mia's first name) means start, or to teach. Chen (Mia's middle name) is a fairly common name, often given to boys. After hearing this, I didin't feele so bad about moving her Chinese name to her middle name.
Although all of our paperwork was officially completed on Tuesday, the day we picked up Mia, we are scheduled to stay in Nanchang until Mia's Chinese passport is processed. (Our guide tells us she will probably be able to pick the passport up on Monday). Once this is completed, we will be travelling to Guanzhou (another city almost directly south of us, very close to Hong Kong), where we will wait for her American visa to process, at which time we will be free to fly home (because China doesn't grant dual citizenshiips, it will expire as soon as her American passport is issued, and her Chinese passport become a nice souvenir... ).Since we have no official business to do, the time here in Nanchang is ours. Therefore, we have been enjoying our daily routine of breakfast in our hotel, meeting our guide in the lobby for a nice little half day excursion (Walmart one day, the zoo the next, 600 year old famous plaza the next...all met with equal levels of fascination as you can imagine!), and an afternoon of napping, card playing, reading, walking down to the river, going to the local grocery store, doing some schoolwork. Although our hotel roms aren't quite home to us, and the city of Nanchang isn't a bustling metropolis full of fascinating, historical sights to see, these days full of family bonding and getting to know Mia are priceless.
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