May 12 - Scenes from Hefei, Anhui
On May 12th we ventured out into downtown Hefei (or at least the part of downtown we could walk to). About two blocks from the hotel and over one bridge and one river was a huge shopping area. All of the streets were open to foot traffic only. This was the home of Parksons, a 5 story department store with a full grocery in the basement. We came to love Parksons! We bought ourselves pepsi and chocolate chip cookies, snacks for the kids, and all kinds of comfort food. We also bought shoes, outfits and strollers This is when we really started to fall in love with Hefei and this definitely became the best part of our trip. We had three floors of the hotel chock full of newly formed families. Whenever we heard a baby cry, we knew it was someone from our group! We ate dinner together, and breakfast. We walked around, shopped and hung out in rooms. Despite the paperwork this was by far the calmest, most relaxed part of our trip.
Here's a great shot of people! We were inside a toy store with our children, and two families elected to stay outside. Within moments a crowd had gathered! Believe me when I tell you that this really wasn't threatening. We got lots of thumbs up, a few hello's and all kinds of smiles. Families would come up to us and have their pictures taken with us.
This is a good shot of downtown Hefei. Here we are about half a block past the vehicle traffic and heading to Parksons (which would be on the right, out of frame). Lots of people shopping and lots of places to poke into, plus a nice walk!
There was a lot of pubic art in the form of statues and sculptures. We found this one particularly encouraging as it featured a mother and an older daughter.
Bella would fall asleep on many of the walks we took. On this particular trip we walked past Parksons and found a whole new area of shops and people.
One woman came up to Jenn and started talking to her. At first we were a little wary of her but soon, through sign language and our extremely limited command of the language we established that she was interested in the three of us and wished us well! Jenn showed off our camera to her and she immediately wanted to be in a picture with us. We wonder if she still thinks about this day occasionally, as we know we do! She walked with us for a few blocks, smiling at the three of us and patting Bella's head, and then we said goodbye and parted ways.
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