We are a Holt family, and Holt uses the Shangi-La hotel in Changchun. I've heard some people complain a bit because it is on the pricier side (US $220/night for a standard room). However.....it is a very nice hotel, and we've enjoyed staying here. The standard room is plenty big enough with a king-sized bed, desk, dresser, t.v., little refrigerator, safe, nice bathroom, and a love seat and chair. We had a crib in here for the first 2 nights, but it looked to be adjusted for a newborn. We were afraid Elliott was going to fall over and crack his head open, so we didn't even try it. He's been sleeping in the bed with us....which I also like because I am literally right there when he wakes up in the middle of the night.
The Shangri-La has a laundry service, but July, our guide, showed us another place right around the corner. We thought it would be a laundromat-sort-of-place where we could do our own laundry, but that wasn't the case. The ladies don't speak any English....Matt ended up handing over our load of clothes and $500 RMB (the exchange rate is about 6.2, so about US $80). We had July go with us to help pick up the laundry since there was the language barrier. Everything looked good, folded nicely, bright colors in individually-wrapped cellophane bags. We were informed that Matt had actually purchased a laundry card for the $500, and we were getting some sort of discount and should bring all our other dirty clothes because it was a better deal to use up the card value. So we dropped off another load yesterday. You can pick up your clean clothes 2 days after you drop them off, so you need to plan accordingly. We did have the hotel clean Matt's coat, and even though we were told it would be ready the next day, we had it hanging in our closet a few hours later. The hotel laundry is much more expensive than the place around the corner.
Food...
You get 2 free breakfasts/room/day in the hotel restaurant...and they haven't charged us anything for Elliott to eat (I think....unless it shows up on our bill at check-out tomorrow). It's a very nice restaurant with both traditional Chinese food items, as well as Western things (eggs in all forms, pancakes, waffles, French toast, breads, pastries, cereal....).
Matt and I haven't been that hungry for lunch, so we just picked up a few instant noodle cups and boxes of milk from Walmart for Elliott to eat in the room. We have been frequenting Chinese places for dinner, but there is also a KFC and a Pizza Hut across the street. Our first afternoon here, July took us for a walk around the hotel and showed us good places to eat. The Eastern Hot Pot place next to Walmart is excellent, but easier to do (I think) without a kid in tow. (Hot Pot is a Chinese take on fondu....so pots with flames underneath and boiling broth on top....). There is a King Steak place, also next to the Walmart, which has both Chinese and some Western offerings. There is a good (and very inexpensive) noodle place next door to the laundromat place.
I had read in someone else's blog that they were having potty issues with their child while staying here, so the Shangi-La had purchased a couple different potty seats for them. While we haven't had potty issues with Elliott, I called the front desk and asked about a potty seat (or 'child toilet'....I forget what I called it), and they brought one right up. Elliott much prefers using it because otherwise he looks like he might fall in.
The CWI is about an hour's drive from here. We had asked about visiting, but July looked at us like she didn't know why we would want to go. I was under the assumption that even the children with foster families spend a certain amount of time at the CWI each week....but now it sounds like Elliott had just been going to Half the Sky in the mornings, and then was with his foster family the rest of the time. We asked about visiting Half the Sky or meeting the foster family, but July said that doing that is generally very upsetting for the children. We had actually heard that in Beijing from a Holt staff member who is an adoptee herself. So we didn't push the issue. I had begged for a photo of Elliott with his foster parents before we left, and we received one with our last update. So I am happy with that. I'm assuming I could probably ask Half the Sky for photos of their facility when we get back. (We were given a huge packet from Half the Sky with all these photos and progress notes about him....all in Mandarin.)
You may have read this elsewhere, but if you want to access either Facebook or a blog while over here, you need to set up a VPN before you leave the States. (China blocks a lot of the Internet from its people.) We downloaded a VPN app for our iPad, but there are other ways to subscribe.
It seems that children commonly drink from straws over here. Of the two different sippy cups we brought for Elliott, he MUCH prefers the child Camelbak cup, with the thing that approximates a straw with a valve.
That's all for now. If you have any questions, feel free to ask....
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