Here are a few tips I wrote up shortly after returning from our trip.
Hope these help someone.
Each day record the basics of what you did, who you met, etc. You can do this
at night in your room, or even while riding a bus on bumpy Chinese roads (which
you will do a lot of. The rides I was on were really too rough to be able
to write in a notebook.)
Other options:
Camcorder - just tape yourselves on camcorder discussing each days
events. A few minutes a day should do it. We should have done this. We
REALLY should have done this.
Write - this was my plan. I had a small notebook for this purpose.
However, writing takes time and you often have very little time. I did not keep
up as much as I would have liked and there are names and events that I will
never remember now.
We bought one before travel, but in our packing rush we forgot it. (It was
the only thing we forgot, which is not too bad, considering the short notice we
had.) We got along ok the first 3 or 4 days without it. It is possible. However,
we were very jealous of others in our group being able to make hot formula on
the go. We ended up buying one at the hotels gift shop. We loved having it.
Everyone says "pack light", right? Well, we did, considering we needed warm winter clothes for two adults and a baby. We had only one checked, 27 inch, bag on the way over. I had a medium sized backpack carryon. Lisa had a "pilot" (19 inch) suitcase plus a small backpack diaper bag. This worked fine for the first few days, until we started buying souvenirs and extra diapers and formula and baby clothes and...
In China we bought a huge, hard sided, suitcase for about $45. This was just
right for all the souvenirs and extra baby stuff we bought.
It WAS pretty difficult for me to handle two big suitcases, a small suitcase,
and my backpack at airports while Lisa tended to our daughter and her diaper bag
(backpack version is ESSENTIAL here). However, the only choice I can see is to
not buy souvenirs and have minimal baby supplies. Personally, I'd rather deal
with the extra suitcase.
We brought a small tupperware bowl for washing bottles, nipples. You can live
without it, but if you pack with something in it, like cheerios, it doesn't take
much space or weight and it is pretty handy to have.
You've probably heard this before - Don't sweat these. Our facilitator
usually took them from everyone in the
group and gave them to the appropriate people in a bunch. The were barely
acknowledged and never opened in our presence. The only one I handed over
directly was to our notary, who I spent all of five minutes with while he
watched me sign papers. For this he was paid $600 US. I didn't really feel such
a debt of obligation for this service that I cared if he liked the gift or not.
The one time where I might have liked having something special for a gift was
for the orphanage director. This was due to our really liking her on a personal
level and believing that she really puts in a lot of extra effort for all the
children.
Definitely take Peto-Bismol daily. I took two a day (morning and
night), Lisa took three (morning, noon, and night). One day during a group
dinner, several people, without thinking, ate a cucumber salad dish where the
cucumbers were not peeled. (One rule - never eat unpeeled vegetables or
fruits!). One, and only one, person got sick that night. This person was
the only one who was not taking Pepto-Bismol.
Coincidence? Maybe, but I know Lisa and I managed to avoid getting sick the
whole trip.
You REALLY don't need to bring much. At least in Nanjing and Guanzhou it was
very easy, and cheap, to buy snack foods. Meals were almost always a feast with
more than you could possibly eat. Our hotel in Nanjing had a
restaurant with an all-you-can-eat buffet (all Chinese food) at lunch for 38
yuan each (about $4.75). Fantastic food!
We also did one lunch buffet at the White Swan. VERY impressive food, but at
something like 250 yuan each ($31) I do recommend eating most of your meals
elsewhere when in Guangzhou.