Isabella has no longer grieved. Her personality is shining through each day that passes and we are realizing that she has some minor behavior issues that need to be adjusted and have been dealt with here in China. When she doesn't get her way she bursts into a full blown tantrum but she is quickly learning that this behavior will not cause her to get her way.
Today we woke up early had breakfast and headed out on an optional tour with our group. We did some sightseeing of the Buddhist Temple, Old Chen House and the provincial arts & crafts shopping center.
The Buddhist temple was beautiful. A serene environment, aptly suited for the Buddhist way of life, surrounds the Bright Filial Piety Temple. It is one of the major Guangzhou attractions that one will come across during their stay in the city. This ancient Buddhist temple has a history that is about 1,700 years old.One much like the one that we saw in Nanning. We did hear a service going on while we were visiting and we got to see many locals pray to their different buddas. Again, it gave me an appreciation for the one and only true God that we serve, our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ.
After the visit to the temple, we went to the Old Chen House. The Guangzhou house of the Chen family is commonly known as the ancestral temple of the Chen family. It is now the site of the Guangdong folk art museum. The 100 year old temple was once the ancestral temple and study of 72 Chen families in Guangdong in the Qing Dynasty. It is now the largest and best preserved and decorated ancient architecture existing in Guangdong Province. We had the chance to have the master chen write Isabella Yong Mei's name in chinese on a large scroll. So we got that for her and hopefully she will appreciate it when she is older. We also got the boys a smaller one for their rooms in chinese as well.
After our visit to the Chen House, we went to the arts and crafts shopping center.
Here we visited a jewelry center where the sell authentic Jade. It is a custom in China that a child is given jade three times in there lifetime. The first time it's given to them by their parents when they are born. They can give them usually a small pendant jade or earrings. We bought Mei Mei a beautiful pair of Jade earrings that we will put on her once we get back home and can get her ears pierced. The second time they are given Jade is when she gets married (usually given by her parents or by the in laws) and the third time is when she turns 60 years old and its given to her by her children.
One thing I can say about the Chinese culture is that they have very strong family ties. The children look after the parents (the way it should be).
Oh let me mention while we were at the jade shop, we were getting ready to pay. Next to the register there was a Budda (very common to have buddas in stores for good fortune and money) Mei Mei was in her stroller and she saw the budda. She made it clear that she wanted to get out of the stroller. She kept pointing at the Budda and saying Mo Mo. So I went and grabbed our guide and asked her what mei mei was saying. Grace began to speak chinese to mei mei and what mei mei was saying was "that she wanted to touch the Buddha". I am not sure if the foster parents ever exposed her to buddhism or not but I took her to the buddha and she touched him and smiled. I asked grace what type of buddha that was and they said it was the buddha for money and good fortune. So, of course Herb went and rubbed everything on that buddha, lol (crazy man).
We got back to the hotel around 1:00pm and then at 4:00pm, we met our group downstairs to do visa's paperwork.
After the paperwork we all got together and went out for a group dinner at the Macau Street Restaurant.
We had a great day, here are some pictures of our day !
This was the Buddha that mei mei was rubbing and so was Herb
No comments:
Post a Comment