Tengwang Pavilion

This morning we went to the Tengwang Pavilion in Nanchang. It’s been kind of rainy and cloudy (again), but it was nice to get out and walk around. Shirley told us lots of history about the Jiangxi Province and the emperor who had this pavilion built for entertainment purposes. This isn’t the original; it’s been rebuilt 28 times! 

Depiction of the emperor enjoying dancing and poetry

Apparently Johanna’s province is known for having lots of talented people…artists, philosophers, poets, musicians, etc. The Pavilion had several depictions of these famous people, along with artwork and written poems and such. Lots of pretty things!

The views from the higher levels were cool too. We could even see our hotel across the river! The kids got a little bored with all of the exhibits, and poor Zack had to pretty much carry Johanna through the whole thing, as she loves being held by him! It wasn’t the most exciting outing ever, but I’m glad we checked it out.

Everybody loves Daddy!

Afterward, we stopped at a porcelain shop, as this province is known for making beautiful china. I definitely want to bring home a tea set for Johanna, but I didn’t find any that I really liked. Zack did find an $1400 vase he loved-ha-he's dreaming! It was quite hard to manage two tired and hungry 4-year-olds in the store…think bulls in a china shop! Maybe we can have better luck with shopping once we get to Guangzhou.

We’re just hanging out and relaxing in the hotel room now. The kids are kind of entertaining themselves with toys and watching Chinese cartoons on the TV. Johanna actually just drew eyebrows on herself with a dry erase marker! I brought back Subway and Dairy Queen (a green tea blizzard!) from the plaza across the street from the hotel for lunch, as we needed a bit of a break from Chinese food.

Morgan and Jonas doing a sword dance,
because that's how they roll.

There haven’t been any tears yet today. Johanna even let us wash her hair this morning! I didn’t think there was a chance, but I asked Jonas to let me pretend I was going to wash his hair under the bathtub faucet, and then she came over and willingly stuck her head underneath! So at least her head is clean now. Can’t say the same for the rest of her, but maybe there’s hope for this evening. 

Tomorrow we take the bullet train to Guangzhou. I think we’re all ready for a change of scenery and warmer weather. Maybe that will tempt Johanna to take off her coat?! The people of this hotel (Sheraton Nanchang) have been amazing to us though. They’ve given the kids stuffed monkeys and bears, gave us cookies and cakes to take to the orphanage yesterday, offered to help with anything we need, and they’ve been so friendly. The breakfast buffet has a ridiculous amount of choices, and the “happy hour” food in the club lounge each evening is plenty for dinner. We’re ready to go though!