It’s hard to say, but there are probably dozens of towns named Taihe in China. When you transliterate Chinese into English, you end up with a lot of words that would look different in Chinese, but look the same in English, so without Chinese characters and/or nouns, it’s difficult to know for sure. I do know of a town called Fuling, located in Chongqing municipality (most known as being the site of Peter Hessler’s book “River Town), but it is definitely more than 2 hours away from the Taihe I visited, which is located in Anhui province. Like Taihe though, there are likely dozens of cities called Fuling. Any chance you have any more information about the Taihe where your daughter was born? I’d be glad to bust out my Chinese atlas and do a little detective work.

My daughter, adopted from China in 2005, was found at the Veterinarian’s Station in Taihe, in 2004. I have not been able to find pictures of Taihe, until I came across your blog today. I was told that Taihe was about two hours from Fuling, where she was taken to an orphanage. Were you about two hours from Fuling?

That sounds about right, although I don’t recall ever hearing a 冰 in there. That could possibly refer to a frozen version, eh?

J.

Most small towns I have visited seem to close down around 11 pm, with not much nightlife. In fact I can recall on at least 2 occasions, running around a small town just around midnight in search of a bottle of water, only to find every single shop had closed down. I guess it’s all pretty regional though. And most big cities seem to stay up late as well. At least in Fuzhou, there was always a kiosk and usually a 大排档 open pretty much 24/7 in most neighborhoods.