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The
weather has improved, but it’s still cloudy. Today we went sailing on the
West
Lake. After a short bus
ride, we sailed across the lake taking in the sights. Hangzhou has a great skyline, but the weather
was too grey to really get the best of it. We sailed by a new Pagoda that had just been re-built and
had it's official opening just a few days before we arrived. It's supposed to be
spectacular, but unfortunately wasn't open to the
public yet. Sailing on the lake, one really gets the impression of Hangzhou being a tourist attraction
- there were lots of tourists on our boat, from many different countries
- including many Chinese-Americans.
After
the trip on the lake, we drove across town to visit a silk factory. Hangzhou is very famous for
its silk, many of the farmers live off breading the silk worms. It was very impressive to see
all the work that goes into making silk. Yanmei was very impressed with the
fashion show - as were all the girls. Lene bought a Chinese
silk jacket and shirt; and a dress for Yanmei. Even though it was a tourist
place, it was still far, far cheaper than it would be possible to buy the same
clothes in Denmark.
 In
the afternoon, the four of us went for a long walk into downtown. Here there
were many
department stores. We got a bit lost and ended up in residential area,
with lots of small shops. We bought Disney T-shirts for the children at 15RMB (2
USD)
each! We went back to the mega shoe store and bought shoes for Yanmei – more interest
from passers by.
Daji and Yanmei bathed again,
they get on really well in the bath. Daji is opening up to both Yanmei and Lene, but doesn’t let Steven out of sight. He eats and drinks well (we have to
ration food and drink), sleeps well, and his motor skills are improving all the
time (even though they were already good to start with). He doesn’t really have
any contact with the other children in the group. His
excessive laughing is still there, but not as often or as loud as before. He gets
angry quickly, and often for no apparent reason - at least for no reason that we
can see. He can moan and whimper for ages - it just goes on and on. In the end one has to shout at him to snap out of it – and then he shuts
up immediately and gets on with something as though it had never happened.
It
is getting longer between the bouts of hysterics. It seems like he's beginning to
accept that he can't always get his own way. He's showing more natural
reactions, both happy and sad, playful and thoughtful, and hopefully the
excessive laughing
will completely go away, once he feels more secure.
NEXT
DAY (1st)
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