Sunday March 20, 2016

Lions, and hippos, and panda bears. Oh my.

Hefei is a city of 7 million people that doesn’t even crack the list of top 35 most populated cities in all of China. That’s pretty mind blowing when you think about it. The last time we were here, 11 years ago, the population was half what it is today. Anything doubling in size that quickly is either Val Kilmer or an almost unsustainable urban explosion. The seams of Hefei are pulled tight. The traffic is nightmarish, the air pollution oppressive, the construction continues unabated out to the horizon in all directions. The city today has almost no resemblance to the one we first saw when we arrived to meet our son for the first time all those years ago. That said, we had a great time touring Hefei today.

First stop: Hefei Wildlife Park. We actually visited this zoo the last time we were in town when Matthew was all of 1 year old, Aelex had just turned 3, and Olivia wasn’t even on our parental radar. The main difference is the absence of roaming wildlife we encountered on our first visit. Back then there were animals just walking around the grounds totally free. And not squirrel and pigeon type animals either, I'm talking hoofed and horned ones. These days, everything is caged up tight however, unable to mingle with the general populace. I blame the lawyers for this type of “nanny-statism”. If I want my kids to be able to feed a Siberian Tiger by hand, then that’s my right as a parent! I dunno China, I thought you were cool. But maybe all this “progress” and “development” and “wanting to keep young children from being eaten by captive predtors” is going to your head.

One new addition to the zoo that we didn't see the last time was the Giant Panda. It did indeed live up to its billing, exhibiting both gigantism of size as well as unmistakably panda-like features. Truth in advertising right there. The panda knew that it was the star attraction of the whole operation and acted the prima donna as it lounged in its enclosure browsing on bamboo stalks. The approximately every-kid-in-Hefei-and-surrounding-countryside who thronged the exhibit didn’t seem to mind though. We always forgive our heroes their flaws.

The rest of the zoo is actually quite nice, though still dated in parts. No Orcas living in bathtub Seaworld-type cruelty mind you, but a fair bit of concrete and jail bars instead of natural habitat recreation. Although the lions, tigers, and bears all roam across several acres of meadows and woodland with a suspended walkway overpass from which we humans gaze down upon them. The fact that I only saw a mere three young children placed sitting, by adults, on the railing with legs dangling over the killer-animal side of the fence is yet another example of China’s mellowing. We all grow up sometime I guess.

After the zoo, our guide Georgiana took us to Lord Bao’s Temple. Lord Bao was like the Oliver Wendell Holmes of ancient Imperial China. He hailed from Hefei and his ancestral home remains as a testament to his legacy as a jurist. Like the time he sentenced the Emperor’s father to death for “defiling a young maiden”. He had huge stones did Lord Bao. Respect.

Next the kids begged and pleaded to take a boat ride on the lake adjacent to Lord Bao’s Temple. So we did. The boats were those kind that you peddle incessantly and with strenuous effort to move an average of 3 feet per hour. The deal was I would take them on the boat, if they did all the peddling. They quickly agreed. Suckers.

Thoroughly winded and borderline dehydrated we next dragged our kids — leg cramps and all — over to the hotel we stayed in when we adopted Matthew. We showed Matthew the ballroom where he was first placed in our arms. Sorry, I mean Dorothy's arms. The first time I was allowed to hold Matthew was when he turned 7. Dorothy can be a tad protective as a mother. Matthew was very happy to experience firsthand this part of his life story. It brought back a flood of deep and powerful emotions to relive the scenes of our first encounter with our son. He’s such an amazing person, and we are the luckiest parents in the world to have been privileged with his addition to our family.

Sorry to get a bit real with you folks there for a second, but that’s the price of admission for reading the rest of my drivel: you have to deal with the odd bit of real, unvarnished familial love and devotion. So cowboy up folks, because tomorrow’s entry is going to make this one look like a stone cold laugh riot for tomorrow is the day we bring Matthew back to his orphanage to see where he lived for the first year of his life before he became part of our family. Promises to be a real tear-jerker. You’ve been warned.

Violating child labor laws on the high seas…