I love this photo! I call it 'meditation'.
okay, so packing lists. Fun subject. I swear I read and copied a ton of packing lists that others had posted on Yahoo! Group sites, blogpages, etc. I can now safely say that with the exception of a few items, I wish I hadn't taken time to read through all of them. We also got plenty of suggestions: "take whatever you plan to take and remove half"....."just pack as light as you can and buy stuff in China"...
Hmmm. It's really a tough thing to work out because you start thinking of what you Need along with things that you Feel You Should Take.
I'm sure there are lots of people that swear by a certain way of thinking when it comes to a packing list, but I found like most things, it's going to end up swaying towards what you in your head think you want to travel with. There are some items that you can just flat out eliminate off of your list, and those are: shampoo, hair dryers, razor and shaving cream, and based on where we were, toothbrush and paste. The hotels have these things. If there isn't something, you definitely can buy it in China because inevitably, there will be a grocery &/or department store close to where you stay.
So, now, if we were traveling and knew what we know now, here are the "basic" things we'd take:
4-5 sets of clothes (there is laundry services available, but ask if there's a "local" place, because the hotel service is expensive)
batteries for anything you take that require them.
prescriptions
any Hygiene type items needed such as "personal" stuff, perfume/colonge, hairbrush, lotions, etc we didn't take mouthwash because of the whole liquid thing and really those "travel" size bottles just don't cut it anyways.
sanitizing gel (hands) and travel size is perfect if you get like two of them
sanitizing wipes (hands and/or objects) and travel size is great for these as well...we took four pkgs.
coats/jackets if applicable...we took gortex (water repellant) jackets because supposedly ChongQing is rainy during the winter months, but it never rained when we were there and out and about.
comfortable shoes because there's alot of walking to be done.
some baby outfits, but you can buy more in China. we took like 5 outfits for Autumn and she was a styling girl.
a blanket to cover baby. why? Grandma Police. and believe me you WILL get busted if there's skin showing on your child other than her/his face.
sling/snugli/hip-hammock: we bought and took a Snugli. had AR in it facing mom the first week...but when in GuangZhou we faced her out and she came alive.
baby/infant meds-stuff: BabiesRUs has a couple different types of "kits". We took the "Little Remedies" kit which had tylanol, gas drops, cold drops (nose), saline spray, etc. We didn't need to use toooo much of them, but we also let a couple other families use stuff from the kit. Good thing to have.
definitely have a travel wallet/body belt to hold your money/passports, etc. the hotels all have safes in the room so you can leave things in there and only take what you need when you go out.
anything that plays music (iPod, portable CD or MP3 player)
cameras and video camcorders are a must (obviously). :)
a roll or two of toilet paper. you may not need it, but I found that the hotel in ChongQing we stayed at hardly had any in the room when we got there and what they used was horrible...so I'm glad I packed it.
This is what I can think of off the top of my head that we definitely Needed. I would say the only thing I'd have for carry-on luggage is something to hold your paperwork/adoption stuff...prescriptions, cameras/camcorders (I Never pack these in check-in luggage ever), your money, and anything else you might think of to keep you "occupied" on the plane. The planes do have video/movies and channels of music, but we used our iPods. and slept when we could. The only other thing would be is after you get your child, have a carryon bag (backpack is best I think) to have diapers, food, formula, etc for baby. I actually felt we could have done with one less carry-on and I do feel like we took some things we didn't need to either because we could have just as easily got in China, or we just never used at all.
My thoughts are that you should use your best judgement, I mean..you will be living out of suitcases for two weeks or so. And you will buy things in China such as souveniers and gifts which will need to be packed and traveled with. and, Most Importantly: you will have a child that will occupy all your time and attention. This will factor into what you bring. We took books to read...and never opened them. Puzzlebooks? same thing. Just imagine what you thought you might be doing there and then just think one thing: Baby. :)
Oh, and lastly...computers. Hmmm. That's a tough one too. We almost took our laptop, but then didn't. G wished we would have, but I didn't want to lug it around as a carry-on. Also, we have heard from others and did have a family whose laptop "quit working right" after being hooked into the hotel room internet access. It would have been nice though to have it for things.
Hope that helped!
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