Yangzhou!

We had a long travel day today and it is late right now! At the Beijing airport our group was followed and photographed by "reporters" from The China Daily newspaper. We were told that there was going to be a full page article in the paper tomorrow regarding our group and visit. We are anxious to see the paper in the morning! We flew from Beijing to Nanjing, then had a three hour bus ride to Yangzhou. When we arrived at the airport we finally reunited with Donna and Marissa who have been living here in China. They had traveled by train to meet the group at the airport. The girls were so excited to see Marissa again. We all boarded the bus, now with two new "volunteer student helpers" from Yangzhou. We were told that we would be stopping on the way to the hotel for dinner. We did not realize until we arrived in Nanjing that we were stopping for a special dinner event. We pulled up to a hotel in Yangzhou and a red banner was waiting for us, welcoming home children from Yangzhou! We were greeted by the Mayor, the orphanage officials, and the BLAS representatives. We then went inside to a large banquet room all decorated with a wall size red banner, red bows tied on the chairs, flowers, etc. The evening was hosted by a local television personality and was being filmed by Yangzhou television. There were welcome messages by the Mayor and entertainment for the audience consisting of music, magic, a puppet show with caligraphy and singing. We were served too many dishes to count, they just kept arriving! We met a new family that just joined our "Green group" tonight, the Krafts from Indiana. Their daughter, Claire, recognized Lilly (Shu Ru) right away from living together in Yangzhou. We enjoyed our evening and meeting new friends. We didn't actually get to our room until almost 10 PM! Only a few photos taken tonight, mostly video. When I get home and figure out how to post these videos, I will!