I’ve been to China a couple o’ times, but this will be my first time to Hubei Province.
If you’ve been to Hubei, specifically Wuhan, I’d love to hear about your time there.
Where did you stay?
Did you tour?
Where did you shop for groceries? Baby supplies?
How was the weather (if you traveled in March or April)?
Where did you eat?
What did you love (or not love) about your time there?
I’m not gonna lie. I’m a homebody. And I really have a hard time traveling anywhere, much less halfway around the world to a place I’ve never been. So it’s extremely beneficial for me to have some ideas on where to go and what to do during our time in Wuhan.
That’s where – I hope! – y’all come in.
If you’ve been there, tell me about Wuhan. Pretty please.
Hey Stef~
I think Leslie Schultz’s Myah is from Wuhan. It is hard to keep all the girls straight . Maybe it is Kate Morrison’s Lia. I hope one of them will see your post and contact you. I’m sure you’ll get the info you need.
So exciting!
xo~
Lisa
I know the twins on the Salsa in China blog are from Hubei.
http://salsainchina.blogspot.com/search/label/Lifebooks
a college friend of mine lived in the Hubei province for a year. She says that Wuhan has malls and at least one Carrefor aka WalMart like stores. They also have several “less exotic” choices for food! She also said that March-April is one of the best times to be there as it is WICKED humid in the summers. There are several tourist stops…temples and such and lots of outdoor shops to visit. I think y’all will do GREAT!!! 🙂 I stopped by St. Patrick’s Cathedral this morning and lit a candle for you and your family and your dear Tallula!! All will be well!! 🙂
Stefanie, we loved our time in Wuhan! Will PM you!
Our precious David is from Wuhan and we had a lovely time in his city. The orphanage director, a physician himself, is a very kind man and he will spend a lot of time with you. Expect a photo album and some sweet items from the orphanage. We have exchanged emails several times with him and he seems happy to receive updates on the children. We stayed a little further from the Civil Affairs office near a small lake and park. The night life was very fun. (Dancing, roller skating, ride on toys…we did it all). The food was amazing, but we are a little adventurous in that area. We look forward to following your journey to Tallula. Wuhan is a special place! There is ample shopping everywhere. Can’t help much with spring weather. We traveled in November. Blessings to your whole family and God bless your trip!
Step,
Carrington is from Hubei. Of course that was six plus years ago. We stayed at he Shangri La. It was nice. I liked Wuhan a lot. There was. Carefore down the street (within walking distance from he hotel). Any other questions just ask!
Jen
In 2007 we stayed at the Mayflower and we walked alot. My daughter hated being inside and wanted to go in the stroller all the time. We walked out the Mayflower and turned left and stayed on the same side of the street that the hotel was on. We saw many cute shops and shopped at a few. If we walked even further we found a great shopping center that had toys, clothes and food. If we went to the right from the Mayflower we saw a gated school and a small park. We toured the Yellow Crane Tower and it was wonderful. We also saw a bird sanctuary that was very nice as well. We were there in May 2007 and it was muggy but the air conditioning at the hotel always worked. The official adoption stuff happened in a conference room at the White Rose but that room was no longer open when we went back in 2011 – it had been redecorated.
In 2011 I took my girls back for a heritage tour and we stayed at the White Rose. We didn’t have any time to walk around but the hotel had a great pool and exercise area. We toured the Hubei Provincial Museum and the Yellow Crane tower again. Both were great. Unfortunately the bird sanctuary was gone as well as the park by the White Rose. They have been changed to transit stations. It was rainy and not so hot in June 2011 as it was in May 2007. We went to the Wuhan Children’s Welfare Institute so my daughter could see her orphanage and were only there overnight but enjoyed the food and the two tours we did.
We took the train to Guangzhou and that was kind of scary for me. It was just me with my two girls but our guide made sure we knew were to line up to get on the right train. There wasn’t a way to check baggage though so we had our luggage in the seat with us… it was a little crowded and the train ride was 3 hours I think.
I also posted to your Facebook account.
I posted on fb about East Lake Park. I think that’s what it was called. Anyway, we were there in April. And let me tell you, IT WAS HOT! And it wasn’t “air conditioning season” so I burned up the whole time. We stayed at the White Rose. It was fine, but I think there are probably other hotels that are nicer.
Laine has 2 from Wuhan, too. We weren’t there at the same time, so she did different things than we did. So ask her, too.
We loved the food in Wuhan. It was spicy and very good.
Hi Stephanie,
Your little Tallula reminds me of our daughter, Sophie. She is 7 now, but she was 13 months when we traveled to Wuhan to receive her, in 2006. We traveled end of March/April and it was very comfortable weather then. It is one of the hot spots at different times of year. We toured a museum with bells and one trip to a countryside village. But I can’t say I remember much of anything else, since it was our first adoption and we were enthralled with this new little one. Our blog for traveling is http://www.thestoryofyou.net/SophieAnn.html
Blessings and prayers, as you prepare and travel.
Beth
Hey there….We went to Wuhan to get our little girl in July of 2007. Here’s my answer to your questions….let me know if you have any others…Thanks! Buffi
Where did you stay? – We stayed at The White Rose. Lobby and downstairs was really nice. Breakfast really good…the rooms were a little old. They needed freshening…nothing a little Febreze wouldn’t take care of! 😉
Did you tour? – We toured The Yellow Crane Tower, and a couple of other places I can’t remember. most of our time there was focused on the little one. Our group wasn’t too interested in travelling as it was the first adoption for all of us! 🙂
Where did you shop for groceries? Baby supplies? – We shopped at Carrefours. its like a 4 story Walmart. It had everything you would need. Wuhan has 8 million people. It is a very LARGE city…but not tourist type city.
How was the weather (if you traveled in March or April)? We traveled in July…it was EXTREMELY HOT when we went. We have some friends that went in April…and I remember seeing them wear lite jackets outside.
Where did you eat? I have no clue other than the hotel restaurant! LOL!! Our guide chose everything for us so we just did what he said! LOL
What did you love (or not love) about your time there? I didn’t like how old our hotel room felt…but we got over that quickly. There are a lot of places to walk and shop pretty near The White Rose hotel…it was just a bit overwhelming to us because things are not catered to tourists so we were apprehensive to do anything without our group and guide. We were much more comfortable in Beijing and Guangzhou. It isn’t a bad place though. You will have everything you need!!! 🙂
Let me know if you have any other questions!! Have a GREAT TIME!!! Blessings, Buffi
We were there last Feb. Our forever family day was Feb. 28 it was cold but not too cold not like bejing was! We toured the museum with the bells, East Lake, rode over the Yangtze river, and The Yellow Crane Tower was our favorite. Bought baby girl some nice silks there. Our guide was wonderful, her name was Christine, and the driver was fun and had a sense of humor, we could tell even though he did not speak much English. We were also, followed by a CHinese lady one day, she followed us in a restaurant, talked to the waitress about us and to us…she was very upset, and peered in the windows at us…after this event , my friend, also adopting and staying at the same hotel, gave us one of those notes to use when needed that said who we were and that we were in China adopting. Wuhan was a fun and busy place, Our hotel, (mayflower, best western) was right in front of a school, on Monday morning, we saw them raise the CHinese flag and all line up on the field and do their start of school ceremonies…very neat to watch. It was also neat seeing the school activity from our hotel windows all during our stay. There were lots of little shops next door to the hotel where we bought water, and snacks and such, and we walked to a mall everyday for lunch, very nearby. The Police station was just down the block from us and one of the policemen there was always friendly to my 10 year old son, when we passed by. ALSO, if you can ride the bullet train from Wuhan to Guangzhou…it was a totally fun experience and I am so glad we did it. You can check out our wuhan travels on my blog our travel dates were feb/march 2011..
We were in Wuhan almost 5 years ago at the same time you were there with Jude. Shayla is from Jingzhou. I’ve been trying to find the name of our hotel but haven’t had any luck yet. I know it was changed at the last minute because the normal hotel our agency used was booked. We loved the hotel and it was very close to a number of american type resturants and a nice grocery store. The rooms were big, very clean and had a great play room. Our travel blog is right next to yours in 2007. My favorite site we visted in Wuhan was the Yellow Crane Tower. Shayla loved the zoo but it wasn’t that nice. We traveled in the summer and it was VERY VERY VERY hot.
If you have any questions let me know.
We were in Wuhan in March 2007. We stayed at the Best Western mentioned above. At the time, we were the ONLY adoptive family staying there as all others were staying at the White Rose but our agency liked the Best Western better. The school was kinda interesting but really I wasn’t too fond of the area. It wasn’t kid friendly and getting to the nearest park meant crossing a really big and really tricky intersection and you know how pedestrians do not have the right of way there. The mall close by was good for shopping though. If I had to do it over again, I would probably want to stay somewhere that you can walk to the Carefour and also to a park which I think is over by the East Lake area. Also, the food in the province is pretty spicy because they borrow a lot of their flavors from Hunan and Sichuan cuisine. One funny experience in a restaurant happened when I asked for “mild spice” and they brought me what was mild to their tastes, and it just about burned my mouth. My son, only three at the time, still has that memory of everyone laughing at me. It was kinda funny. So if you don’t like a lot of heat in your food, tell your guide to see if they can help you out on that score. I have to admit to being a bit of a wimp when it comes to spicy. I like a little heat in my food but not a lot.
As for sights, I think the only thing we really did was the Provincial museum which with the bells and the musical performance was amazing. I believe the rest of the time we were pretty much on our own because our new son and I were both under the weather. Wuhan was quite comfortable then, light jacket weather, but GZ was unbearably humid. It was quite humorous to see all the regular GZ residents with their coats on because it’s March and all the American adoptive parents in sleeveless tops and shorts because it was so stinkin’ humid. 🙂
Definitely yellow crane tower…
We stayed at the White Rose…not the nicest but we didn’t care, PLUS, we didn’t know any different…first adoption! And since it was our first adoption, and we adopted two at once, we were a teensy bit pre-occupied with some attachment issues, so I honestly cannot remember much about Wuhan. Except it was SWELTERING in July, it was very busy and crowded, we went to the bell concert and museum…that was a nice reprieve from the heat.
emailing you…
email me…Kiara is from there.
We were there this August! We stayed at the the White Rose hotel. Yes, we did tour. We went to the Yellow Crane tower and the Provincial Museum. We didn’t buy any toys there, we brought everything. The White Rose hotel has an amazing buffet for breakfast, by the way! We had a big breakfast and then walked to local restaurants for dinner or ate in the hotel restaurant.. We loved the White Rose’s playroom! There where not many international food places in Wuhan, compared to Guangzhou. I am so excited for y’all and hope you have a great time!
You can visit my blog at http://www.joymontague.blogspot.com and go to August for pictures and other information!
A family we traveled with in December got their daughter in Hubei. They said it was not the safest place, but do check out their blog. Their blog is http://listen2ourhearts.blogspot.com. Email me and I can send you her email.
Can’t wait to see pics!!
My husband and I were in Wuhan the end of July, 2011 adopting our daughter. We stayed at the White Rose Hotel. Very congested area and there was a lot of construction going on, so we didn’t venture far from the hotel unless we with our guide, which was only for a couple of hours in the morning. The food at the hotel was great in the morning because they had a western style breakfast. Let’s just say we tried to eat a lot in the morning! 😉
We visited the Yellow Crane Tower; which was beautiful; but a lot of steps in 40degree heat, carrying a two year old who only wanted me was exhausting. Should me more comfortable weather when you travel.
BTW, Congrats on your girl.
Kim
Just read through some of the comments…re: “not the safest place”…I wouldn’t say that…it’s a big city, & you need to be aware of your surroundings, but being from NYC, that’s second nature to me, but we really didn’t notice it being “unsafe” per se. I never “worried” about safety. There is a large Carrefour market which has EVERYTHING!! From diapers to snacks to strollers…in fact we bought our $10 stroller there & had it for years. A very awesome store. GREAT food in Wuhan…can’t remember the name of the dumpling house we went to but it was great…we also had dinner at the ShangriLa which was magnificent! We stayed at the White Rose Hotel…it was fine…the breakfast buffet was very good.
Please email me privately & I will disclose more info re: their “adoption protocol”…from what I understand it is more strict than other provinces.
We adopted our son from Wuhan in December. We also met several older children from there that we were allowed to videotape. These kids found families almost immediately. The staff at the orphanage is wonderful and clearly love these children. We stayed at the Holiday Inn which, while it was an ok hotel, it was a horrible location. Kim J stayed at the Mayflower a few weeks ago and loved it. She said breakfast was great and it was a good location for walking about.
You absolutely MUST go to the Aloha Cafe. I don’t care how far away it is from your hotel. It is MAGICAL. It is owned and operated by an American woman named Janie. You can check out their facebook page. Amazing home cooked (from scratch) comfort foods like steak, BBQ sandwiches, fish tacos, Eggnog shakes, the works. It was a fabulous respite for weary travelers! Worth EVERY penny. The owner is of “like minded faith”.
Blessings,
Angie
I traveled with daughter & family leaving 3/17/11 returning 4/1/11. We flew into Beijing and then to Wuhan. We too stayed at the Best Western Mayflower. The weather was cool, rainy and dreary most of the week. I’m cold natured so I just wore my silk underwear everyday. My impression of the city was that is was dirty…just gray and the streets and cars looked like cars do when they have been in snow. Not that I know much about that living in south Georgia. The hotel was adequate, nothing special. The staff was friendly and helpful although not many spoke English. It is on a very busy street with a bus stop right across the street(one day I counted 16 buses lined up). We never saw any open green space or gardens anywhere near us. We were there during the cherry blossom festival and the trees were beautiful. They do not call them cherry trees, but something like sukuro trees. There are many universities in the area and one of them has thousands of the trees and the Chinese tourist travel from all over China to see the trees. The University closes the campus and charges admission. It definitely affected our travel time around the city. The Yellow Crane Tower and the Hubuei Provincial Museum are worth visiting. We shopped at the above mentioned Carefore store and with several local small stores that are in the neighborhood. There is a great bakery just down the street. We did not venture out much on our own and our guide did not stay with us at the hotel. The food at the hotel was good and we always found something to eat, including a really good tuna sandwich. Imagine that! There is a 2-story Pizza hut about 6-8 blocks away and a great little fried chicken shop right by the hotel, also. We traveled by bullet train to Guangzhou and that was a wonderful experience. There is no luggage car, so you have to take your luggage on and off the train by yourself. It was clean, the seats were very comfortable and it was great to see all the Chinese countryside with the rice and canola fields. The canola fields were in full bloom, solid yellow. They grow the majority of the world’s canola. We, too, were given a photograph album with some pictures of Lilly as a baby and small child. She was 2.5 when Heather & Brian adopted her. Hope this helps….looking forward to traveling with you once again….
My blog of our trip:
onthegowithmammy.blogspot.com
Our son is from there, we were there March of 2009. The weather was great, cool but not cold. We also stayed at the Best Western. It was close to a school and it was fun to watch the kids. We thought the food was too spicey and did not find it to be very good. We were the only adoption family there so we did not have any one to hang out with. We did feel comfortable venturing out on our own with our our guide. McDonalds was not to far away from the hotel and there was a couple of stores we could get drinks and things from. The Yellow Crane Tower was very good. Can’t wait to follow along when you travel.
I cant really add much to what others already posted. I was in Wuhan in 2007. We stayed at the White Rose. It was ok but is next door to a military training so depending where you room is you may hear them early in the morning. Also, thankfully, I didn’t notice the cockroaches in the kitchen until our last day. Like everyone else said, there is a Carrefour within walking distance but the stress of crossing the street was to much, we paid $2 for the cab to drive us literally across the street. From your blog and the photos you take, you would really like East Lake. It is so beautiful. The mall is close by and very nice. We didnt do the Yellow Crane or eat out much since it was our first trip. One lady, though vebted at us in the Carrefour in Chinese. I don’t think she liked us adopting, but the lady that was with her apologized for her. I pray you have a wonderful trip and look forward to seeing your family grow again.
Stephanie, if your daughter is from Chibi City, please contact me! We have PA for a daughter in Chibi City, but have not been able to find a family that adopted from there yet.
I am in Wuhan right now sitting in the lobby of the White Rose hotel. I honestly cannot wait to get out of here. This place is unbearable. Feel free to email me. This is my second adoption in china. I can also enlighten you about the extremely expensive orphanage donation and Provençal justice costs too. If you want it sugar coated I’m not your person, but if you want the straight up truth, I have it.
Our daughter is from Hubei and we stayed at the White Rose in Wuhan during our time in Hubei. I would avoid the White Rose Hotel if at all possible. Our room had NO air conditioning and the windows only opened a few inches. As others have mentioned the property backs up to a military base and we had a choice of opening the windows (the 4″ or so) for what little air we could drag into the smoke filled room and have our daughter wake up at 5 a.m. to the military chanting and drills, or close the window and swelter. The outdoor pollution in Wuhan is indescribable and the White Rose cigarette smoke was so thick that at times we felt we couldn’t catch our breath. I’m hoping this situation has improved since our trip, but from what I hear from others I would opt for a hotel that assures you non smoking and working air conditioning.
Our agency made a point about how it was important to be comfortable in your hotel room those early bonding days, but our experience at the White Rose hotel was anything BUT that. It is a cheaper hotel and perhaps that is why our agency selected it. Our beds did not have sheets. Just a scratchy wool like blanket to use and most of the staff did not speak English. We actually considered leaving the hotel in the middle of our stay it was so miserable. Looking back I wish I could have dismissed everything and enjoyed those early moments with our new daughter. Things were so much better when we got to the White Swan in GZ!!!!!!! 🙂
Having said all this, I would still go back to Hubei in a heartbeat. There are many interesting sights as others have mentioned and I truly think our experience and time in Wuhan would have been so much better if we could have had relief from the heat on the 18th floor facing the sun during the afternoon and pollution along w/ thick cigarette smoke.
We are heading to Wuhan in a month and would also love to hear honest take on the province and experience. Please email me!
It looks like you already have plenty of responses, but we just traveling to Wuhan last November with our family of eight and had a great adventure with our large family and our amazing new daughter. Check out our blog posts about the trip. I wrote about all of our daily adventures. The blog is http://merrymeditations.blogspot.com/, and if you click on the China Trip link tab you can directly find our posts that we made during our three and half weeks in China. Or you can click on the posts from November in the blog archives, and that will show you all of the posts in a list. We LOVED our time in Wuhan!
er.. “traveled”
Morning Stef – I don’t know the provence or the city – but I can help you with the weather! PRC is almost exactly the same size as the US – and is almost excatly in the same lattitude and longitude range! So – Beijing / QD is roughly Cincinnati, Ohio – and GZ is roughly Key West, Florida. Lay a map of the US over China and you will know what to expect temp wise during your trip!
hugs – aus and co.
I was there exactly a year ago. I chronicled our journey fairly thoroughly on my blog in posts from late February and early March of 2011. http://www.3wades.blogspot.com
Hi Stephanie,
I just returned from China/Wuhan on Feb 9. Our daughter is from Wuhan Hubei. Our hotel was nice, but not really close to any real shopping. We did have a market, McDonalds, and Starbucks close. We were also by the park/pond with roller skates and toys. There was no one else in our group, just us. We used CCAI. We did not do any tours, we all felt crummy. I would not say that we loved our time there, we were very happy to head to Guangzhou (sp).
I know nothing about Wuhan (as our little gal is from Chongqing) but I wanted to ask … where did you find the amazing map? I keep looking for something for our home, but have yet to find one I am in love with. THAT is perfect! If/when you have time, can you let me know?
How excited I was to open an email this morning from the director of the Wuhan orphanage inviting adoptive families to join a great celebration July 2013 when they open the new wing of their facility. How I’d love to return to Wuhan with our family. Probably won’t happen from a budget standpoint, but I hope many will be able to join the planned festivities/tours. They are collecting photos/videos to share during the event!!!
We were in Wuhan in 2006 getting out little guy. We traveled the first week of April. The weather was great–at first, it was warm and sunny! Then suddenly they had a huge temp. drop–by about 40 degrees and we were all freezing since we had only worn flip-flops etc…. So, be prepared for anything. We stayed at the White Rose—it was ok, but lots of smoking all around us–the halls smelled smokey, the elevators etc.
Be sure to go to the Yellow Crane Tower, that was really cool. Although, our little guy was so darn traumatized (he was 20mos.) I don’t remember too much. He was certain we’d kidnapped him and just wanted to go back to his foster family!
We ate alot of noodles in our room–he was obsessed with eating noodles, didn’t like rice. I was told that noodles were the main dish around there, not rice.
There was a McD’s that was a long walk away or a very short taxi ride.
There was a HUGE Carrefour across the street from our hotel where we bought all our supplies. But across the street was really across this huge highway and through a park–we walked once and it was too scary with the traffic and took a taxi the next time–and the taxi driver thought we were nuts trying to have him take us basically across the street!!
A friend of mine from our church is also headed to Wuhan very soon, I think she got her LOA the same day you did? She is traveling alone and this is their first adoption….perhaps you will travel with her. She is with WACAP. She is thinking she will travel late March or early April!
Hi Stefanie, my wife and I have some American friends that live there. It looks like you got a bunch of info already, but email us if you want their contact info. Hope we can help! -Matt
I’m no help here, but it is reassuring to read this post. For me it’s the flights. Nothing makes me more nervous about our first adoption than getting on those planes. I’m excited about the actual experiences, but oh oh oh! It makes me feel better just knowing that another reluctant traveler made it through and did it again (and again lol)! Sounds like the new region could be a neat one 🙂
Our second trip to China involved time in Wuhan. Very industrial city, but the Yellow Crane Tower, the Provincial Museum, and a walk on the river front brought life into our time there.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn and while the rooms were a bit outdated and slightly dark in color, it was quite nice. The breakfast buffet was one of the best I’ve experienced in China and we always took fruit and cereal to go for the kids and never got a second glance. The Holiday Inn was walking distance from a great pedestrian shopping area and a huge mall. And the very best (and least expensive) meal I’ve ever eaten in China was just down the street ~ just walk out of the hotel and turn right. Within a block was a restaurant called Mr. Xie. So, so good!
Our guide there was a delightful young girl named Zoe. I adored her so that I spontaneously kissed her on the cheek when we were leaving because I couldn’t hug her (sleeping child in my arms).
I have much of our time there logged on my blog if you want to know more.
Or better yet, how about I find someone to watch my brood and I go with you… 😉
Would love to hear from you and what you have heard as well. We are traveling to Wuhan in late March/early April to pick up our little man. Blessings!
Hi – Hubei mum here! We’ve travelled to Wuhan twice now, 2006 and 2010. Its a huge industrial city but we love it lots! First time we stayed in the Mayflower and second time we stayed in the Marco Polo (only because we knew the manager through my husband’s work and he gave us an unbelievable deal). Favourite things are walking along the north bank of the river, big wide promenade – kite sellers, tai chi, etc etc often there is something happening in the evenings there as well. Yellow Crane tower and gardens is a must – it is good luck to feel the huge bell as it is being rung, you’ll see what I mean when you get there – walk right through the gardens. Also we took a little buggy around the lake – ok – but its a lake, what can you say? Didn’t do it again second time – not outstanding. Took the ferry boat across the Yangtze a couple of time, that’s fun and Lucy always talks about her river with great pride (her SWI is in a small town on a tributary of the Yangtze). there are some great streets for wandering around between the river and the Yellow Crane tower, we found a fascinating market and food street. Not sure on shopping front – didn’t do that as on first trip husband went off with our guide and came back with pram etc apparently from a department store near the Mayflower thing theres a Pizza Hut as well near there – we certainly ate pizza. In 2010 we didn’t have a guide or anything so just walked and explored on foot, felt very safe although apparently Wuhan is the mafia capital of China, but not interested in tourists (there aren’t many in Wuhan!). Eating wise besides breakfast in hotels, we always eat out when we are in China and just go for local eatery – sometimes successful sometimes not but works for us, always find something that tempts us! We’ve travelled in Feb 2006 and March 2010 – March was warm we were in t-shirts, but needed a fleece as well for chillier evenings – also a rain coat is a good idea.
Hey stefanie,
Just catching up! Congrats on your new little one. Hannah is from Wuhan and I was there right immediately after you got Sophie. I had no other adoption trips to compare it too..but we stayed at the White Rose. IT was fine – nothing spectacular but fine. Lots to walk around and see. There was a Carrefore (wal-martish store) withn walking distance. REally, we got to plenty of eating places (pizza hut was one) and little amusement park things around the corner. Traffic was the craziest I’ve seen in China. I remember it being like the video game “Frogger”. Crossing the street is a little scary. Yellow Crane tower was really cool. The Hubei provincial museum was there and the guide took us there. In hindsight – I’d have skipped that tour. Artifacts of history are not really a two-year old’s favorite thing to do. I don’t remember much except chasing Hannah down. But they did have a set of really old bells and we enjoyed the little concert they do. Orphanage is massive huge. We did get to visit and the director was very nice. But if your child is in foster care, that is one thing they are very strict about. They do not allow any contact with foster parents and will give you very little info. But they are free with other types of info and gave me a nice photo album of pictures. Again, congratulations!
We were there in August 2010, adopting our daughter, Hope. We did not travel as part of a group, and so we were the only Westerners in the city at the time, or so it seemed. Everything was under construction then, it was very congested, and the local Pizza Hut would not serve us when we stopped in with our daughter, and so I don’t have the fondest of memories of our time there. Guangzhou was paradise, in comparison. Our blog detailing our experience can be found here: 4starkeys.blogspot.com.