Shihezi City Social Welfare Institute
Postal Code: 832000 Telephone No: N/A
Day 1:
Upon arrival in Urumqi, you will be met in the arrivals area by your local guide holding a flag of "Lead to China". After a warm welcome and brief introduction, take a private transfer to your hotel for assistance with check-in. If needed, the guide will take you to purchase gifts to the orphanage, he or she will recommend you some good restaurants and places to relax.
Day 2:
Your guide will meet you at the hotel lobby. Then drive about 1hr 50mins to Shihezi city, visit your child's home orphanage and meet with people related to your child's adoption. If you desire, host a lunch or dinner for the orphanage director and staff. Explore the local area with your guide. If needed, locate and visit the place where your child was found or visit your child's former foster family (if applicable and pending special permission). Our guide will escort you back to Urumqi.
Day 3:
Breakfast. Today you will have a full day sightseeing including Heavenly Lake, Xinjiang Museum and Erdaoqiao Market.
Day 4:
After the breakfast, our guide will transfer you to airport/railway station.
Prior to your orphanage visit application submission, please make sure you have the following documents ready:
A copy of each visitor's passports
A copy of the adoption certificate or the notarized adoption documents
An orphanage visit application letter
We all know that it is important to return to China. Apart from visiting the orphanage, children may focus more on traveling itself. Therefore, if adoptive families want to explore more tourist cities in China, please feel free to tell us. And we will customize a heritage tour of lifetime for you.
ShiHeZi City Social Welfare Institute:
Address: No.42 Xiao District, 82 Yuan Nei, Shihezi City, Xinjiang Autonomous Region
Location:The orphanage is located in Shihezi Shihezi city in north central Xinjiang province, about 150 kilometers northwest of Urumqi, the provincial capital.
Shihezi Information :Its population is 553000 , with most Han Chinese residents and minorities constitute 5.4% of the population.
Today textile and food industries are the most important in Shihezi .
There are tourist attractions as the Monument to Premier Zhou Enlai , the " North Lake Park " and the Desert Park .
General Information:The orphanage is located in Shihezi eastern suburb of the city of Shihezi .
It was built in 1979 , with an area of 8000 square meters. It has an Office of Administration, a Department of Nursing, Medicine and Rehabilitation.
In 2006 , there were approximately 69 children at the orphanage , some with special needs.
Some of the children live at the orphanage and others are in foster care . In recent years , the number of healthy children who are admitted to the orphanage has increased, but the number of children with disabilities is increasing as well. In Spain there are very few assignments this orphanage .
Director of the orphanage :Chang Zheng Guo
Surnames of children :Shi
Scenic Spots in Shihezi:Shi Hezi Army Reclamation Museum
There is a house on the south of the park at the interjections of Shi Hezi City, that was the former residence of the 22nd regiment. It is called “Tao Shiyue Mansion”. At the end of 1994, the culture office of Shi Hezi adopted it and did repair work, and it became Shi Hezi Army Reclamation Museum, it was officially opened to the tourists in October, 1995.
Depending on the size of the SWI and how often visitors return, a visit could can be a highly anticipated event by the staff, or a routine, minor inconvenience to the day to day running of the institution.
You will want to discuss this aspect of reality with your child and prepare her or him for what it might be like, based on what you know. It is good to talk to your child about what to expect and then what to do if things turn out differently than you expect. It is important to develop an attitude of flexibility and focus on enjoying the experience rather than to get set on things going a certain way, since things don’t always go exactly as planned on any trip or daily life experience. A small gift is always appropriate for the effort expended by the director and or staff to accommodate the visiting family.
Since it may be several years after an adoption, it’s not unusual that the orphanage moved to a new place. Remember it’s normal, natural, time will not stand still, just as your children changed dramatically from she/he was a baby when just there.
If you are interested in visit both of the orphanages, we are happy to facilitate it, you can follow the previous footprint to recall your excitement when you look at your children at first time.
We usually arrange visiting the finding site for families if have the Notarial Certificate of the finding place. The finding site usually is at the front of hospital/orphanage/government agencies, etc. Please note that there places may be changed also.
Since visiting the finding site is the most emotional part of the trip, it’s a personal decision for each family and only you can make the decision if you want to accomplish it.
We always arrange the meeting with the previous caregiver/ foster family. If you have the information of the previous caregiver, we will try our best to find her. Please do remember that it’ll be some years after your adoption, the caregiver may be moved away or be retired. If the caregiver is still working in the orphanage, the director will happy to facilitate the connection.
Also please note that the caregiver may take care of more than one hundred babies in the orphanage, so that she may not remember your child well.
If your family is interested or inclined to invite the orphanage director to lunch, it is proper to invite others in the meeting as well. This would usually be one or two of the directors' assistants. If you want to invite the caregiver or nanny, then you should extend that invitation through the director to show the proper respect that the position merits. Your guide will handle this for you, but inviting the staff through the director follows proper etiquette for the situation. Some of the orphanages offer the free lunch while the others request about USD90-USD150 for the extra charge. You may ask our trip consultant before you travel.
When visiting an orphanage, it is appropriate to prepare some gifts for the director/staff and the children. You can invite the director, the staff or the caregiver to have lunch together or prepare fruit basket for them, for their effort expended to accommodate the visiting family.
As for the gifts to kids, you can prepare some snacks, candy, books, school backpacks, toys and so on. Usually, you can buy them when arrival at the orphanage place, the guide can escort you.
If you want to donate something more valuable and not sure what is needed for the orphanage, you can first learn it from the director and then purchase them from the local market. Some SWI will issue a donation certificate to you but not every SWI will do this.
With years of experience working with children in orphanages all over China, Lead to China is uniquely qualified to offer a special homeland experience for you. You will:
- Visit the orphanage, foster family and finding site
- Learn about birth country culture
- Get the first hand price from local agency