Yunxiao-A Day in The Life of a Chinese TV Star

As we ate our first Chinese buffet breakfast-which I love, Chris relayed that rather than be confrontational, she would just let go and try and distract the guide with questions and possible excursions so we would be in Hazel's city as long as possible. With my documenting tools in bag, a great breakfast of fried noodles, bok choy, pork buns and juicy pineapple, we were off with Min and Mr. Shen in our lace ladden toyota van. Xiamen is like no other Chinese city that I visited. It is very clean and organized and obviously sees a lot of foreigners as all the roadsigns are in English and there is English in many of the stores as well. The traffic(fortunately) is much calmer and I am not scared to cross the streets. Our driver is not of the wreckless Beijing style and took the drive nice and easy. Fujian is mountainous and green and growing all of my favorite things; bananas, papayas, mangoes, lychee, tea. Hillsides are lined with beautiful terraces and groves dotted with brick houses amongst odd rocky outcroppings. Most fields have a water buffalo somewhere in sight, often on a rope being led by its' owner. On the Tongsan Expressway they have reststops and we stopped at a very nice one to check out the local tea. Oolong is the specialty here and as we sipped little cups we were shuffled around the store and given taste after taste of tea infused kumquats, nut brittles and a rather pasty unsavory cake. As usual there were 12 employees shadowing us and trying to get us to buy their goods. One woman just layed it out and told our guide who then translated to us "she recommends you drink this tea- you lose weight". Min then bought us the specialty of the teahouse-Green tea cakes. From my dissection they were taro or sweet potato encased in green tea dough with sesame seeds on the edges and then deep fried. They are really quite tasty. Onward-As we approached the city of Yunxiao, many phone calls ensued. We waited at the entrance of the city in a torrential downpour and I got my video camera all ready to go. The director Miss Chin arrived with driver and we followed their Citroen through red dirt pot holed streets of one story dwellings. Most people were on bikes or motorbikes wearing purple plastic rain ponchos. It was hard to see much as it was just pouring. It reminded me a lot of the finding sites of the girls on our last trip. We stopped at the Police station and I was perplexed as to why a policeman was needed, are we suspect? We soon found out he was a "friend" of Miss Chin and there to translate for her. He was definately sweet on MIss. Chin and obvious the feeling was mutual-a little romantic sidestory. The final 2 or so blocks to the orphanage were deep, deep potholes that I wasn't sure we'd actually make it through. The orphanage is situated on a river and is a rather grand beautiful colonial style building. There is a lovely garden with a stone mah jong table, tennis courts and a fountain amongst banana trees. We followed Miss Chin and entourage to a nice room. As I began to start photographing the policeman jumped up-I still had no idea why he was with us, but eventually his fondness for Miss. Chin overcame his fear of photos and he is in most of my video. Chris and I predict a marriage in the near future. I just videoed as Chris asked questions about Hazel and her life thus far. We were offered fresh lychees (of which I had no idea how much I loved), small peaches from the area and tea. Miss Chin was very open and honest. it was quite apparant how much she loved her job and all the children she takes care of. She is the youngest of a family of four from a Northern province. All at once a woman walked in carrying Hazel! Totally shocking and never in our wildest dreams did we expect to meet her. I couldn't even imagine how Chris must of felt-I was overwhelmed by the casualness of it all. What an amazing moment. I had been pondering on the way up how strange it would be to go to the orphanage and look at it and know Hazel was within the walls, but we not be ableto meet or see her. She was handed to Miss Chin and clung like a monkey-clearly a strong bond between the two. It was so great to see how loved she is by all involved. Obvious too that "York" the policeman had spent some time with Hazel as she was very comfortable with him and he knew her love of TV commercials! It was decided we would go to lunch together and Hazel was put down for a nap. Driving to lunch we meandered through one story buildings and dirt streets amongst tri-cycles in which we were told are the "public transportation" of the city. A person rides a bicycle which is attached to a seat on one wheel parallel with it. They were all enclosed with plastic to keep the rain out-very inventive. We arrived at the lunch spot which had a marble drive and fancy entrance between rather run down ramshackle little stores. We were hurried into a gold elevator and taken to the second floor where we ushered into a private room complete with a crystal chandelier and upholstery draped chairs with metallic gold bows. Within moments another woman arrived who was (we think) an orphanage official-Miss Chins boss lady. Then there was a big discussion amongst our guide, the two ladies and our driver (who I was relieved joined us as in the past the drivers always sat in their cars) as they thought we wanted American food. We had to do some serious convincing that no we did not want American food-only Chinese and the specialties of the region. Very quickly after our Tsing Tao arrived (we declined the Heineken) a feast ensued with women servers surrounding us. The lazy susan was filled with perfectly poached prawns, mussel tofu soup, noodles with chinese broccoli, tender asparagus, clay pot eggplant and of course a fried fish heag for each. The meal was finished with pineapple and watermelon. Just as we were leaving they asked Chris if she would be interviewed and she accepted. Back to the orphanage where the reporters were-we had newspaper in mind, they were from the TV news! Chris' fifiteen of fame and in China. She is the first American to adopt from this particular orphanage and the first to visit as well. In to the room and more waiting for another official. He arrived and held Hazel as Chris was interviewed-it was exciting for all, even our driver whom I assume had no idea what an adventure he would be part of! The official was called grandpa by the children and it was obvious Hazel was very dear to him. They are all perplexed as to why Chris would apdopt a baby with a medical problem, but so very thankful and happy for her bright future. The interview went quite smoothly and we were off. As we left we had fun playing with Hazel and getting great laughter from her. It was difficult to leave but so exciting to have had a pre-meeting and such a surprisingly positive and warm welcome from all of her people.
As we drove down the pot-holed road to the expressway, we saw Ghandi leading the way. A very old old Chinese man with a totally bald head leading his water buffalo on a rope walked on the side of the road. He was only wearing grey gym shorts and a green slicker-what a sight.
The drive back was totally different as the rain had stopped and we could really see the villages and the people and animals. To our hotel to decompress and revel in what an unexpected outcome to our trip to Hazel's birthplace.