Shamian Nursery

Today in Guangzhou we arrived at the White Swan Hotel, an old luxury hotel that has always catered to all the couples getting their adopted babies. The hotel is on a small island called Shamian where many foreign consulates were located before they went to more modern digs.


The island was actually not an island once upon a time, but during the revolution the area was made into an island to protect the foreigners living there. The island has old colonial buildings and a great park running down the length of the island. Banks, consulates, homes were on this island where pretty much only foreigners lived.
Now, no foreigner is allowed to live on the island.

But dotted all around are these neat bronze (or fake bronze) statues showing life from the 1800's. Chinese women in Chinese dress waiting for the bus next to western dressed people, Chinese children playing with western children, a guy with a camera, kids reading books... It is supposed to show the mix of western and Chinese life on the island.

Weekend afternoons the park is full of people playing, exercising, gossiping. Couples or parents and teens play badminton, groups kick around a feathered hackey-sack things, kids play on the playground.

Stores around the hotel sell baby clothes, engravings made from photos of families, tee-shirts, and Chinese souvenirs. Many offer free rental of stollers.

And in the hotel all of the other guests, save a Texas businessman, are parents waiting for paperwork to go through on their new family member. Many have older Chinese kids and are here for another cute little baby. The families need to wait around for about 3 days for paperwork to get completed at the consulate. What better place than this beautiful islet, surrounded by trees and river, with beautiful surroundings? There is even a charming church that glows pink in the sunset.