Room for a Brother: Thursday in Shanghai

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Thursday in Shanghai

This morning was our day to visit the Shanghai Children's Palace - also known as the Shanghai SWI. It is an old mansion which has been turned into a place for after school activities for Children. As June 1 is Children's Day in China, they had a celebration with lots of activities for kids. Unfortunately it rained and so all of the games and the climbing things which were set up outside were not used and that made it more crowded inside. The girls sat down at a craft table and started coloring in some pictures with glitter glue. Next they made a little hanging ornament from material - they had to stuff it and to sew it closed. There were video games, shooting games, bowling the legos pieces and lots of crafts. One of the more interesting games we saw was children using chopsticks to pick up marbles which were in a bowl of water. We thought that would be a good game to play at home so that the girls can learn to use their chopsticks better.

After the Childrens Palace we had lunch and then some rest time until the banquet in the hotel. Our family dressed up in our new Chinese outfits. There was a surprise guest at the banquet - Director Huang Xin of the JianXin SWI. He is the director of the orphanage that Ji Ji is from. He brought gifts for all of the families - a set of 3 framed butterflies in a very nice asian frame. He also had a special gift for Ji Ji - a silver necklace which has the symbol for longevity. Below is a picture of Director Huang holding Ji Ji and she is wearing her new silver necklace.

Below is a group photo at the banquet.

Below is a photo of all the Great Wall employees: Carol, our Shanghai guide; Abby who works in the Beijing office; Mark who is the Europe RO; Snow ; David who is the RO for Houston; Tammy who runs the Beijing office ; Grace our National Guide.