A Visit to Dianjiang

Today was a special day.  We travelled outside of central Chongqing into the rural area of Dianjiang.  Dianjiang is roughly two hours from from the outskirts of the main city of Chongqing.  We whirled down the 'carriageway' and occasionally into the 'overtaking' lane at about 140 km/hr with no seatbelts or carseats.  Thank heavens for toll booths or I'm sure the driver would never have slowed down!!  We went to visit the SWI where Ethan was adopted from.  We were able to meet the director, Mr. Gao (sic) and have a brief look around.  As we were driving into the neighborhood of the SWI, Ethan recognized where he was and started 'talking'.  He definitely knew the place and the people and they knew him too.  One of my favorite pictures is the sub-director (momentarily forget her name right now) who is in charge of the children saying good-bye to Ethan.  She was very sad to see him go.  She told us he was quite popular as he is so handsome.  Well, it's hard to argue with that.  They gave us back the camera we sent and I'm hoping that there are actually pictures on it. 

Ethan slept in the van both ways. He was quite comfortable, all stretched out.  I, on the other hand, will need some physio to regain the ability to straighten out my arm again.  As he slept, Alan and I took in the beauty of the area.  The climate is sub-tropical and everything was lush and green.  The terraced rice fields were amazing.  We saw a few farmers using oxen to help work the land as modern machinery doesn't stand much of a chance against the Chongqing hills.

It was a wonderful day and we really value the opportunity to take this side trip and see where Ethan lived for part of his life.