God leads and we follow...to China!: Day 3 - Sghtseeing Around Nanchang with Yi Fan

Highlights for today:

Yi Fan is a high school classmate and friend of Matt's coworker Lu Xu. He had volunteered to meet with us and give up his entire day to host us. He also offered to drive us around the city and take us anywhere we wanted to go. What a blessing it was to have an English-speaking tour guide today with a car! Deanna and I were reminded of what love and hospitality look like. I hope we can return the favor some day.
In case you didn't catch it, the fact that we met Yi Fan is AMAZING. Only God, the maker of the universe, who desires to have a personal relationship with all those called to him, could have orchestrated this. Let me explain: Deanna first met Lu at Nathan's preschool in 2011. Lu got a job working at CAT a few years later. Out of all of the places to work in CAT, her job placed her in the same building as Matt. The new job Matt took late last year moved him closer to Lu's desk. Lu found out about our adoption and wanted to get involved. It turns out she is from Nanchang city and has many friends that still live there. Her friend Yi Fan has a condo that is literally a 5-minute walk from the hotel. This could not have all come together by coincidence alone.

Today was a holiday so there were many people at the park. There was also music and a water show. Note to self ... do not try to cross the bridge during the water show or you WILL get wet.

We met with Lisa around 11 AM. She prepped us for our day tomorrow and our week in Nanchang. She also gave us our "red book" with some pictures of Hannah and our itinerary for this week.
Lisa said Nanchang is known for three things: Spicy food, spicy/hot weather, and spicy/stubborn girls. We also found out that Holt has a relationship with the Shangrao orphanage and that Holt staff visits there about once a month. Lisa seems to know Wuxi well.

Working at McDonald's is a respectable job here. The staff works very hard to get the orders out fast. Everyone is dressed nicely and is friendly. The girl taking our order even spoke some English and was able to get our food as we wanted.

Think K-Mart in a downtown area. We purchased water and snacks. Matt bought a badminton set for kids. We also found some Ultra-man activity books for the boys.

Tourist destination in Nanchang. Apparently, the entire place is a concrete recreation of something that once stood. The highlight was taking a picture for $5 in Chinese robes. We apparently were very entertaining to see and had our photo taken by many of the visitors.

1 hour drive up the mountain outside of Nanchang. We were very interested to see more traditional Chinese buildings and rural Chinese living. We also came across a farmer who lost his cow, goats walking across the road and straight up the mountain, and we even saw a horse.
The road we took gave switchbacks a whole new definition. Maximum speed was somewhere around 25 mph. It reminded us a lot of the drive from Guatemala City to Hogar de Vida. The only difference was that this time we were in a car and we slowed down for the hair pin turns. In Guatemala, we literally banged our heads against the windows while the bus driver took the turns as fast as he could.
Green Lake Resort is at the top of the hill. Apparently, it is a 5-star hotel and a spot for families and retired people to escape from the Nanchang heat and the hustle and bustle of the city. The whole place was peaceful and serene. You could actually see the blue sky and hear some wildlife. Based on our previous travels, I didn't know places like this existed in China.

By this point in the day, Deanna and I were completely exhausted and the two hours of mountain driving had about been the end of us. We were happy to arrive at the restaurant and get out of the car. Yi Fan ordered us many things: braised duck, sweet bread, broccoli, soup, and the list goes on. Our favorite was a dessert with short bread and ice cream.

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