Survivor: Shamian Island China

Tribe: Harbour family members Tony, Stacee, Morgan, and Jax.

Underestimated member: Jax-he may be little but he's the only one who can understand the language and ask for a western-style toilet.

Challenge one: Make it up the street without being enticed to enter an overpriced Chinese trinket store.

Challenge two: Enter an overpriced Chinese trinket store and exit the store without purchasing a knock-off Coach bag for $10 dollars.

Challenge three: Leave Shamian Island with as little yuan as possible and still have enough money to make it to the airport.

Since our last post, we received Jax's China passport and hopped on a short flight to Guangzhou. Our next order of business is the "medical exam" and applying for Jax's visa to the U.S. We are staying at annex of the Victory Hotel on Shamian Island. The rooms are bigger which is nice with two kids to entertain.

This morning we took our laundry to "Sherry's Place." Tony really liked the two women who ran this store when he was here last. He couldn't remember where the store was, so we just started walking up the street in hopes of finding it. One block up from our hotel we ran into one of the women, Daisy. She took us to their new location and introduced us to her new coworker, May. Sherry has since gotten married and is now going to college.

Most everything is the same as Tony remembered. There is significantly less people here adopting, which means there are a lot of small trinket stores trying to get your business. There is also a noticeable increase in price. Our awesome facilitator, Judy, said that in 2006 China saw a noticeable increase in consumer pricing. Thus the days of $2 dvds are over. Tomorrow Judy will be taking us off the island to get some better quality and pricing.