After many hours in front of my computer surfing the internet I realize it’s time to start blogging about this years biggest event!

Already in 2007 as new parents we decided at a return trip to Nanning, Guangxi was a must. We also decided when we should do it: October 2014! Well it was many years ahead so no worry!

Well my friends we are here! Welcome 2014, year of the horse! It’s real, the planning has begun and I want to start writing about it NOW!

Of course I want to blog in China too, and I realized that I have to blog in a different way this time compared to the trip in 2007. Linnea is not a baby anymore. She will be 8 years old next month. Her feelings and thought about this trip is hers to write not mine!

I will be writing my perspective on the whole booking process and the trip. We talked about a daily update in China where I write, and Hans, Linnea and my mother will tell me what memory of the day I should write…or they can do it them selves!

So when are we going?

October is the answer I can give at the moment. Hopefully later this week I can set the dates of the flights!

The plans is to fly from Copenhagen, Denmark to Frankfurt, Germany, to Beijing, China and to Nanning in Guangxi in Southern China. Nanning is Linneas town!

We will stay for almost a week in Nanning, then fly (we think) to Guiyang in the neighbor province Guizhou to visit our dear Dutch friends, who move there on this Friday. After some days there, we’ll move on by night train (we think) to Guilin back in Guangxi.

In Guilin we’ll be picked up by a minibus and drive 65 km to Yangshuo and The Giggling Tree in the small village Aishanmen. The Giggling Tree is a hotel in the country side. 23 rooms in a old farm. The landscape is breathtaking and I’ve decided that I’m gonna live in such a place in my next life!

We will (we think) stay for 9 nights!

Then back to Nanning for a little less than a week.

Finally back the same way we came: Beijing – Frankfurt – Copenhagen – Bjärnum!

Somehow I don’t like to think of us coming home, this is so big, so many feeling are rushing in my body. And on the other hand, I will miss my little Tindra (dog) so much, that I don’t like to think of her staying at home for 28 days!!!

Yes, we plan to travel for 28 days! I have never been away from home for such a long time. I feel I could have travel for 3 month IF I didn’t have Tindra.

It if fun to think of what worries me or for example my mother about this trip: I think of my dog and the “stone” hard beds and she thinks about getting lost.

Why do we need so much time? Well several days are just traveling from one place to another. I Nanning we want to see everything since when we were there in 2007 we arrived Wednesday evening and left Saturday morning. I have no recollection of anything: The hotel room number, the hotel breakfast, the city etc. Only that we had a very sad child longing to leave and go home to her (foster) mother.

I do remember meeting Linnea foster parents though. And we will spend a good deal of time with them! We all look forward to meet again. Hans and my mom have never met them and Linnea has no memory of them.
We want to visit a park with monkeys with them. There are 2 parks in Nanning we want to see, maybe some museums and just be able to be there in no hurry!

We will also visit our sponsor girl Li who lives outside Nanning, spending a day with her and her family and visit her school. In Nanning we’ll meet some of the people who helped Linnea so that she could live in a foster family for 17 months of 19.

Tomorrow I will take a break in the surfing, emailing and chatting with people in Sweden, The Netherlands, Finland, Scotland, China & USA and focus on my other big project: Learn Chinese!!!

I have borrowed some photos to show what I’ve been looking at for many hours! Click on the photos to see them in full size.