We have had a wonderful day here in Anya's hometown!  It is nice to slow down for a day, sleep in and be away from the big group tour. (Our group has been great, with lots of nice families..it is just a different pace when you are going everywhere with so many other people)

We met our guide, Micheal, at 10 and were able to go see Anya's finding spot.  First, he took us to the local police branch office where Anya finding papers said she was taken to. We talked to some officers, including one who was there in 2000, however he hadn't been there when Anya was found.  They have no paperwork there either, so we didn't really find out any new information.  We were able to take a few pictures though.
I was excited to see that our guide took us to the same factory that our guide in 2001 took us to as Anya's finding spot.  I guess you always wonder if it is really "the spot" that is written in Chinese and how do they know which switch factory it is..There are ALOT of factories in a city of 7 million people!  The area around the factory looked just as I had remembered it and so did the little park across the street.  We walked all around the area, took pictures, and talked to a man who had retired from the factory..he had worked there in 2000 when Anya was found but he didn't remember anyone ever talking about a girl being found at the entrance gate.  Anya seemed to take it all in, she asked a few questions, wanted a few pictures, and was then ready to move on with the day.

Tumen local police,Lianhu branch
Anya's finding spot

The afternoon we spent on our own, exploring all around the bell tower and drum tower.  We did lots of shopping, ate at a famous dumpling house (even somehow figured out how to order and the dumplings were super great!)
The golden dumpling

We met Michael at 4:30 and he walked us over to a foot massage, followed by more shopping.
We love foot massages!

We found the old shopping area in the Muslim area that we had enjoyed when we were here to adopt Anya 10 years ago.  Mary's shop was still there and Mary was very nice to us (we got outfits for the girls and Simon and Henry there) Then we found the artist that we bought our wood carving print from 10 years ago and he was there in his shop. Grandma Anita bought two pictures and we bought one cute little picture for Anya.  Ding Ji Tang, the artist, signed all our pictures and book and was so nice about photos and asking us to keep in touch and email him.
Anya got a cute little duck pond picture made from a wood carving. Fun for her to have her own art work from a famous local Xi'an artist.

Mary with the girls (Meila was DONE shopping at this point!)

We didn't get back to the hotel until 8:30 and we were all starving.  I am embarrassed to admit that we got take out from McDonalds as we didn't have the energy to figure out ordering anything else at that point.  The night before we had Ramen noodles in our room and we didn't want that again.  The girls got their second wind after food and tried on their new outfits, danced together, and did a lot of giggling!
They were crazy!

We are all looking forward to our big day tomorrow with our visit to Anya's orphanage.