[ElineD]

Originally Posted by sakelley

When buying things in China, always pay with the lowest possible denomination bill. This will help avoid getting counterfeit money as change. When we were at the Great Wall, we wanted to buy 2 bottles of water and my husband gave the guy a five (in yen). The guy tried to say it was counterfeit and refused it because he seen that my husband also had fifty's & hundreds. So my husband gave him another five and we walked away. We showed our guide the five he refused and she said it was not counterfeit but he was trying to get us to pay with a fifty or hundred so that he could give us counterfeit money as change.

The following website might be useful as well:
See MyAsiaChannel News Which banknote is not real? (fake money). Learn how to detect Chinese fake money and make sure you get real money!
for an example of counterfeit chinese money and to learn how to detect it

[KarenInCa]

Richard, those are some great tips.
It made me think of a few others as well...
Our daughter was fine with holding her, but as you said, sometimes they don't like it. It's important though to do it. If your child has difficulty with holding her and looking in her eyes while you feed her, hold her outward while giving her a bottle, and try it with a mirror in front of you so that when she looks out, she is almost forced to see you holding her, and finds comfort in it.

Also, take the child's que at first...ALWAYS. We were told by our agency to try to keep their undershirt in the crib with them when they sleep for the first night. The scent is familiar. We were also very careful about her first bath. She accepted it, although we don't think she had ever been given a real bath, at 17 months old. The water was very shallow and we moved her into the bathtub very, very slowly the first time we bathed her. We enticed her into the tub with a very small inflatable ball. She held on to that ball the entire time, as well as after the first bath.
All that said, if she were to have cried or felt uncomfortable with the bath, we would not have given it to her. Making sure she was cleaned and changed was a top priority but our first priority was making her feel comfortable and at ease. That was the most important part of the bonding process.

[specialk4b]

I'm making this post sticky (stays at the top of the page) so it's easy to find.

Please continue to contribute as you have ideas!!!! I'm gonna travel to China one day and I'll need all the help I can get!

[MMalstrom]

Thanks to everyone for all of the wonderful tips! I have been writing furiously since I opened this thread. We will go to China in May 2008 to get our twin girls!! (Jing-Jing and Juan-Juan, soon to be Megan and Emily)

We are very excited - we can hardly stand it!

One question - Our daughters will be 11-months old when we go to get them. Their growth report had them at 15 lbs and 13 lbs but I don't know when the growth report was issued. What size clothing should we bring with us? 9-month or 12-month old sizes?

Thanks again so much!

[richard p.]

Congradulations, how very exciting! You really cannot go by age since most Chinese babies are smaller. You need to buy cloths where the weight range is specified (many do this). Our first was tiny and our second large (even for an American baby) so the weight thing is key.

[Couchkat]

Bring a couple of different sizes of clothing. I've seen a lot of babies smaller than what their paperwork said. Join the yahoo group that your child is from. You'll get great tips on the accuracy of the reports etc.

Bring a pill cutter and a pill cruncher. My dd was put on antibiotics but they were huge pills. I had to squish them with a spoon. It was terrible.

Do bring at least one bottle (regular cheap kind from the dollar store or walmart) and a few diapers. You may not get to shop before you get your child. Also, careful of the unusually shaped bottles (Avent and such) some babies will refuse them. One baby in our group refused to drink for a whole day until she got a "normal" bottle. Ours took the Avent with no issues.

The Airborne was a total waste of $ for us. We had a hard time remembering to take it and we ALL got sick. My DH, myself, my oldest dd, my new dd and my parents.

Lotion and baby oil. Non-allergenic stuff. Lots of rashes and dry skin in these babies.

First aid kit and all the non-prescription medication you think you or the baby may need.

Thin blanket (Gymboree has great ones that stay nice after many washes). Light weight jacket for baby if going South.

snack trap or silar (cup with "lips" to prevent snacks from falling out)

Small toys, small chunky books