Nanjing Update

Thursday we went sightseeing with our small group. we went to the Nanjing Silk Brocade Museum. We saw them making silk on giant wooden machines. It takes 2 people to work them. The guide said it takes all day to create 5 cm of silk. Then we went to the city wall. Nanjing was the southern capital of China. Depending to which Dynasty was in power, the capital moved between the North (Beijing) and the South. This wall protected the city from intruders. When you look at this picture (on Kylie's blog), look for the buildings in the background to see how bad the pollution really is here. The kids got to play at the park for a few minutes after all of the sightseeing. We came back to the hotel, and decided to go to McDonald's for lunch. Then we went walking and browsing through some little shops. Karli was so tired since she had missed her nap; she decided to pitch a little fit in front of everybody. We are walking down the street with a little Chinese girl in a stroller screaming her lungs out. We got lots of stares and comments although they were in Chinese. I'm sure they thought we were kidnapping her. She finally fell asleep in the stroller. You can see Thursday's pictures on Kylie's blog (see sidebar for link to her blog.) Today, Kylie, Karli, and I took a taxi to Wal-Mart to pick up another stuffed bear for Karli. We had bought one Tuesday, but it is filthy now. She takes it everywhere, so it has been dropped outside many times. We went to the Drum Tower, the Ming Tomb and Sun Yat-Sen's Mausoleum to pass time today. It was very nice. We were supposed to go out for a celebratory/good-bye dinner with our group tonight, but Karli seemed to just want to stay in the room. Instead, we ordered Pizza Hut take-out and had it delivered. This evening we received Karli's official paperwork and passport. Now we have that, we can leave Nanjing. Tomorrow, we are flying to Guangzhou and the White Swan Hotel. The White Swan is on a small island that was inhabited by the British many years ago, so it feels somewhat like home. By the way, I measured Karli and she is 36.5 inches tall and weighs 29 pounds.