Day 5 was the 20th December 2016

Day 5 was the 20th December 2016 and today was not only the transit from SuZhou to ChangSha but also the end of the first part of our trip. We had wanted to see and enjoy China but we knew there was a business element and that started now. I was happy to come to China but it was our daughters choice to return to the orphanage she came from, the area of China her biological family came from and the people who would recognize her as 湖南人 - Húnán rén - a person from Hunan province.


Now, to help understand why I post as 'the village idiot' it needs to be understood that whilst I know Hú means lake and Nán means south, I had not realized Húnán meant to the south of the lake. I took a much wiser Taiwanese man to point that fact out! With 湖北 being the province to the north of the lake, as 北 - běi - means north. For interest the lake in question is DongTing on the Yángzǐjiāng - or Yangtze river.
Today we were again travelling by train and this was a much longer journey; some five hours. So we packed up, took a taxi to SuZhou north station and waiting in a very crowded waiting room for an hour. Snacks and coke arrived and we watched rush hour SuZhou, I did not use the station toilet but those who did returned with the 1000 mile stare!
The journey was literally fast, with the train exceeding 305 kph. A little sign at the end of the carriage kept us informed of the time, the speed and the next station and I followed our journey on a map of China. We passed through Nánjīng and before we knew it the train stopped at it's terminal station ChangSha - Zhǎngshā - 长沙.
We were now in Húnán and we got down to business straight away, the taxi took us to Walmart. I have been to the Walmart in ChangSha before, ten years ago give or take a few weeks, to buy a new stroller for our newly adopted daughter. This visit was courtesy of my family who had foregone Christmas presents to allow us to donate some gifts to the welfare institute as a bigger gift to begin the process of saying thank you for our beautiful daughter, niece, cousin and grand daughter.
Walmart looked and felt the same, small live animals swam around in tanks awaiting their fate, piles of unfamiliar food packages graced every corner and clothing with odd western slogans hung from racks. I do not know who makes up the slogans but they really need a few lessons in English. We purchased sweets, clothes, blankets, books, hot water bottles and an enormous pink teddy bear. We had brought some gifts from the UK, donated by my wife's friends and colleagues, to add to this pile, so all in all we had a substantial, and to us meaningful, gift to take with us.
As a footnote, thank you all for foregoing a Christmas present and/or donating to this, it really had a special resonance when we handed this lot over.
I also had been given a watch from my father and we managed to get a replacement battery in Walmart, this was destined as a gift for the director of the institute. Chris asked me how much it cost but I did not know, so in true Chinese fashion he asked the watchmaker and a smile appeared on his face, 'This is a very generous gift' Chris said staring at the watch.
We packed everything in the taxi and headed to the Dalton, again a familiar place from our first visit. We checked in to this resplendent hotel and sat looking at our pile of 'stuff' stacked in our room. We packed it up had some tea, donned our swimming costumes and headed for the pool. A pool we had rather cruelly plonked our daughter in ten years before, with her new big nosed parents, and expected her to enjoy herself. We did exactly the same things, we played 'sea horse' and splashed around and I felt as though no time had passed at all, the same laugh rang around the hollow space.
The sauna was also the same, so off I went, inside were a couple of ladies and a young girl, and she made a comment, in Chinese, about my belly. I understood and patted my belly and replied in Chinese. She stood wide eyed and then started rattling off questions to her mother. My wife and daughter came in and, in Chinese, I introduced then as such. The lady next to me spoke in English and I tried to respond in Chinese, I was communicating in Mandarin, it worked and it felt amazing.
The young girl latched onto our daughter and almost immediately began to call her Jiejie or older sister. It was right there and then she looked and felt truly Chinese, she initially looked bewildered and I had to answer some quick fire questions. I cannot imagine how that must have felt, whether it was amazing, scary or both. Either way I could see on her face that the reality of the situation had hit home, she was home. And, our daughter spoke, a little, Mandarin, in a meaningful way, that made her dad very proud.
I can hypothesize all I like as to what this will mean, I do not know if this is a gift or will become a problem as she gets older. I know there will be more questions, questions I have no answers for. How will we ever know, I guess you will need to ask her in 50 years time. But here we were among her Húnán family. The China she could not remember was now staring at her, asking her questions, she now needed to take the reigns and lead her parents on the next part of this journey.
I might be over dramatizing but in my journal I wrote: home, not home - family, not family - people, not people - country, not country. I think I know what I meant but now I am not so sure.


第5天是2016年12月20日，今天不仅是从苏州到长沙，也是我们旅行的第一部分结束。我们本来想看看以及享受中国之旅，但我们知道那里还有一些正事要做，而且从现在开始，我很高兴来到中国，而这是我们女儿选择回到她来自的孤儿院，她原生家庭的中国地区，和认得她是湖南人的湖南省人。

现在我来说明帮助你了解，为什么我以'村庄愚人'发文，这需要被理解的是，虽然我知道”湖南”的湖指的是湖，”湖南”的南是南方的意思，但我没有意识到”湖南”意味着在湖的南部。 我从一个更聪明的台湾人那里知道！ 湖北是湖的北方的省，有趣的是这个湖是在长江上游的洞庭湖。

今天，我们再次乘火车旅行，这是一个更长的旅程; 大约五个小时。 所以我们打包收拾好行李，坐出租车到苏州北站，在一个非常拥挤的候车室等了一个小时。 卖小吃和可乐的经过我们，我们看到苏州忙碌的高峰时间，我没有使用车站厕所，但由他们从厕所回来时目瞪口呆的眼神就知道！

这个旅程真的很快，火车超过每小时305公里。在车厢后面有一个小显示器(跑马灯)让我们知道时间、速度和下一站，我在中国地图上对照我们的旅程。我们通过南京，我们知道火车将停在它的终点站长沙。

我们现在在湖南，一下火车我们立即就开始进行我们的正事，出租车把我们带到了沃尔玛。 我去过长沙的沃尔玛，大概就在十年前这个时候的前后几个星期左右，为我们新收养的女儿买了一辆新的婴儿车。这次拜访带来了我家人的心意，在仪式一开始时，为感谢你们给了我们一个美丽的女儿、侄女、堂妹和孙女，他们放弃了他们的圣诞礼物，让我们能够捐一些礼物给福利院，当作一个更大的礼物。

沃尔玛看起来和感觉中的一样，在那里可看到，活生生的小动物在槽里游着等待他们的命运，成堆的不熟悉的食物包装堆放在每个角落，还有一些带有奇怪的西方标语的衣服挂在架子上。我不知道那是谁作的标语，但他们真的需要加强他们的英文。我们购买了糖果，衣服，毯子，书籍，热水瓶和一个巨大的粉红色的玩具熊。我们从英国带来了一些礼物，由我妻子的朋友和同事捐赠，再加这一堆，所以总言而之，我们带来一些实质需要的物品，也带来了对我们有意义的礼物。

附注，感谢大家前述的圣诞礼物或捐赠，当我们转交这些礼物时，这真的有着特殊的共鸣。

我的父亲也给了我一个手表，我们设法在沃尔玛更换电池，这是指定送给福利院主任的礼物。 克里斯问我花了多少钱，但我不知道，因此以真正中国人的做法，在他问过钟表师后，克里斯盯着手表，他的脸上露出笑容地说，“这是一个非常慷慨的礼物”。

我们把所有的东西放在出租车里，然后直往道尔顿，这是我们第一次来住过熟悉的地方。 我们入住这家金碧辉煌的酒店，我们正坐看着堆在我们房间里的东西。 我们打包好，喝了点茶，穿上我们的游泳衣，去游泳池游泳。在十年前我们相当残忍地将我们的女儿放到游泳池，与她新的大鼻子父母一起，并期望她自娱自乐。 我们的确做了完全相同的事情，我们玩起“海马”，四处溅起水花，我感觉好像时间一点也没有过去，同样的笑声回荡在空荡荡的空间。

桑拿也是一样的，我去过那里，里面有几个女士和一个年轻的女孩，她用中文对我的肚子做了一个评论，我了解并拍拍我的肚子，用中文回答。她睁大眼睛，然后一口气问了她妈妈一些问题。我的妻子和女儿进来了，我用中文介绍。在我旁边的那个女士用英语说话，我试着用中文回答，我可以用普通话沟通，这感觉很好。

年轻的女孩紧跟着我们的女儿，几乎一开始就叫她姐姐。就在那里，那时她看起来像是真正的中国人，一开始她看起来手足无措，我不得不回答一些一连串的问题。 我无法想象这是什么感觉，无论是惊讶，害怕或两者都有。无论哪种方式，我可以从她的脸上看出来，事实上她已经回家了。而且，我们的女儿以有意义的方式说了一点普通话，这使得作为她老爸的我非常自豪。

我可以假设所有我想要的，但至于这将会如何，当她年纪渐长时，我不知道这是否是一个礼物，或将变成一个问题。我知道会有更多的问题，问题是我没有答案。我们怎么会知道，我猜你将需要在50年后问她。但是在这里，我们是她的湖南家人。她不记得的中国现在正盯着她，问她问题，她现在需要自行去掌握，以及带领她的父母走接下来的旅程。

我可能过度戏剧化，但在我的日志我写道：家，不是家- 家人，不是家人 - 人，也不是人 - 国家，也不是国家。我想我知道我的意思，但现在我不太确定。