Gourmet Eating and Beyond

Thursday Sep 18, 2008 9:35am... Yesterday was our first day waking up with Xiao Ming and spending the day touring. We started at the orphanage who saw over Xiao Ming's care, Kunming City Children's Welfare Institute. We are not sure exactly how much time, if any, Xiao Ming spent there except for the week before we received him. Even so, it was interesting to see how the orphanage system is set up here and this is an especially large one. The orphanage has 600 children in their care and if sounds like all are special needs children. And on that note, I don't think I mentioned in my last post that Xiao Ming is extremely mobile; which was a bit of a shock to Nathan and myself. He walks, runs and even can climb and jump on play structures amazingly well; he told our driver yesterday that there is no pain.

At the orphanage, we met the director and were able to give our donation of clothing for the children and many treats as well. Xiao Ming was not happy to be there and even shrugging our affection. As soon as we left, he was back to his old self again. I think it's going to be really good to get him home and focus on the future. The orphanage was very clean and the nannies seemed very nice as well. Our guide said it is one of the nicer facilities she has seen; of course, Xiao Ming wasn't living there.

After the orphanage, we went to the Golden Temple. This temple goes back to the Ming Dynasty and when overthrown by the Qing Dynasty, the ruler used this temple as his personal office. It is beautiful and made from 250 ton of metal. There was a museum as well on the grounds that houses bronze artifacts that date over 2000 years. There are no guards in the museum and the driver said these are plentiful artifacts all over the area so there is no need to take security precautions. Lots of really wonderful things!

We stopped for dinner at a restaurant that serves hot pot, a Mongolian type of dish. It is basically a chicken broth that is boiled in courses with different vegetables and during this season until November, many types of fresh mushrooms. There are over 30 different kinds of mushrooms in this province and our hot pot had 6 types. They were very good but Nathan had a bit of a problem with the chicken parts that went into the soup. Our driver enjoyed the feet and our dear son, he had a bit of the head (as shown in the picture above). All in all, a good day!