Hello from Guangzhou!

So this concludes the fun of our trip I think! We said goodbye to Nanjing and Fred and gosh I was a little emotional about it! As I said he felt like a friend instead of a guide. I don't think we will have the same experience here. To give you an idea of what our day was like we got to the airport early and had a 2 hour flight. EmmaLi did really great for her first flight. Considering we had a 1 hour car ride to the airport first she was a trooper! After getting to Guangzhou we collected our baggage and looked for our guide, in previous trips our guide as been right there anxiously waiting for the Hirschi family with a sign. Today, no sign we waited awhile (not that long) and decided to check outside for the guide so, Jon left me with the girls and went outside. As he was gone Jessica spotted a little man with a sign Hirschi on it and because I had the girls and luggage I couldn't leave my spot so I flagged him over and over until he finally noticed us. (had to laugh we are the only white people around) Anyway he comes over and quickly picks up one of our cases and mumbles something about parking and he is off like fast and I say wait my husband and thankfully Jon is rejoining us as I say that and he runs off. I am running after the guy with EmmaLi in the stroller and praying Jon and Jessica don't get separated from us hoping the taxi's don't kill us as we run across the traffic lanes. He finally stops and says oh, driver had to leave we parked too long so, we have 5 minutes. He starts to rattle off papers he needs and Jon's fumbling to get to them and then he tells him how much money and Jon is like You want it now? He consents to let him give it to him in the car. I'm thinking "What the heck..." and thinking "now concludes the fun portion of our trip". I finally ask the guy who he is. He is our guide Peter. He is Cantonese and for me extremely hard to understand. He works with Li Ping (a fun guy I will introduce later;another guide) Anyway he is extracting money from Jon and explaining that after a 40 minute ride to Shamian Island we would go straight to the medical center for EmmaLi to have a Tb test because she is over 2 she has to have that. I was impressed with how well she did! After planes, trains and automobiles and a very small nap she only whimpered for about 30 seconds and that was it. She let 2 doctors check her out and she only cried a little when one undressed her to take a look. Then we were told to get ourselves back there 9:30 Monday morning and to report to Li Ping's hotel room and that was it. Of course after such a long hot day and not having too much to eat or drink I was completely useless with a migraine. Jon conducted business for an hour with LiPing and Peter with documents needed for the government. He came back and we tried getting something to eat. It's interesting because many places close (even restaurants) for lunch. We finally settled for ice-cream cones and Gatorade from 7-11. Let's just say their deli section isn't potato logs and hot dogs. Went back to hotel to die and Li Ping calls us and wants to come for a visit. I'm thinking ok business is conducted now he will orient us a little and tell us our itinerary for sight seeing this weekend. He comes into our room and says Hi and proceeds to tell Jon how much he owes him and "you pay now". If I sound as if I am complaining, I'm not. I think it is all rather funny. To top the night off we found out our flight home is cancelled and our travel agent wants us to get ourselves to Hong Kong somehow. He says take a plane, train or boat to Hong Kong. Li Ping says way too hard and expensive. No kidding? Hope we can get home-pray for us it seems we are having our own version of the amazing race and we have 2 kids with us too! We are staying at the White Swan Hotel, which so far has not impressed us as much as the Nanjing Grand Hotel, but we really haven't given it much of a chance so far because of the migraine and being so tired. Maybe tomorrow will be a different story. It's very beautiful, but it seems as if everything here is much higher in price. I guess we got spoiled in Nanjing!!!