Sunday, August 05, 2007

Back to Zhenjiang ( 3 ) - The Finding Place


Meeting Ms. Chen, who found Baby Shayna

Shyana Meeting Ms. Cheng in Zhenjiang







Standing at the tree, where Baby Shayna was found.






Mrs. Zhang then led us to a community center to which baby Shayna was taken after being found. (Or it may be not the same one but the one for the area.) While speaking to someone there, Ms. Zhang apparently determined that the then-director, who then (as required by law) took baby Shayna to the police station, still lived nearby; she was called, rushed over, then led the group, except for Shayna and me, to where she was found.


The community center to which the baby (Shayna) was brought after being found.



The auto mechanic "shop" inside the courtyard outside of which was tree where the baby was found. To the extent that there is a food stand (left side of photo), it wasn't there in '96, when the baby was found.
Rewind: One of the records viewed at the orphanage, which we apparently had not previously received, apparently gave the prior history, as it were: found (at a garage or not; more below), taken to the community center, then police, then the orphanage.

Shayna was very creped out by the idea of seeing the spot where she was found so we stayed back with the driver while everyone else walked on, about a three minute walk from the community center. (Shayna felt unready to see the spot and had been worried for a few days about meeting her past. She wanted to wait till the next time she was in Zhenjiang to see the spot.)

The area was I supposed working class, more or less, with, typically, must action and busyness on the street, lined with street -level businesses. We got into the van for the a/c. The driver assumed we wanted to be driven after the women. I corrected him, he parked and we then had a Chinese-style fender bender. A van backed into us in the course of making a K turn (in reverse!) and the driver disregarded our driver's honk. Much scratching around the van's taillight two teeny marks on our minivan -- like two very little scratches. The drivers argued and reached a financial resolution i.e. our driver received a satisfactory payment. My car should have only such little scratches.

Lily later told us that the drill is that the drivers would try and work out a resolution between themselves. If not possible, the police would be called who would then determine who was at fault, determine an appropriate sum and fine the guilty driver as well.

When Donna came back and told us that it was all cool and OK, Shayna changed her mind and we all went back to the scene. Adjacent to the tree is a new i.e. post-finding -- refreshment kiosk. Behind that, though, was a small courtyard, along the left side of which was a... garage, an auto service operation. While unimpressive now, ten years ago it must have been significant. Personally, though, I'm, well, intrigued by the idea of a baby being left at such a location....

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