DongGuan Social Welfare Institute

Dong Guan City  Children's Welfare Institute:

Address:No. 1 Zhu Shan Guan Wen Road, Dong Cheng District, Dong Guan City, Guangdong Province, 511700.

General Information:The orphanage is located in Dongguan City, Dongguan Dongcheng district, 1 hour and half drive from Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province.The orphanage was founded in March 1998.It is located in the east part of town, in a suburb on the outskirts.

On the first floor there are children over 8 years, the second largest of the 3 last smaller. Each floor is divided into several rooms with about 10 children in each.It is one of the largest orphanages in the area. It can accommodate up to 200 and 300 children.Many children have special needs.It has an outdoor play area for children to play.The orphanage provides homes for children and the elderly.Some of the children living in the orphanage and other foster families in the city (from agsoto 2002).Adoptions in this orphanage have been increasing.

Dongguan is located at the center of Guangdong province.It is an important industrial city located in the Pearl River Delta.Dongguan is located behind Shenzhen, Shanghai and Suzhou in exports among Chinese cities.Of the total area of Dongguan, 27% is water, 25% forest land and 13% of plowed land.The climate of Dongguan is subtropical. It lies south of the Tropic of Cancer. The average temperature is 22.8 ° C throughout the year.Dongguan has 6,949,800 inhabitants, among which there are 1,748,700 residents and 5,201,100 permanent premises immigrants from other parts of the country.

Humen Town, located at the southern part of the city, is the cradle of Chinese modern history. When the Opium Wars (1840-1842 and 1856-1860) broke out in Humen Town more than 150 years ago, they had a far-reaching influence on Chinese modern history. The battlefield of the Opium Wars is the best preserved historical battlefield in China, and now houses the Opium War Museum, the Weiyuan Emplacement, and the Shajiao Emplacement. Nowadays, relics of the Opium Wars are the vital basis of patriotic education for the younger generation of Chinese. Aside from the three relics, the large area of litchi in the Former Residence of Jiang Guangnai, a founder of the PRC, the grand Humen Bridge and the Humen Naval Battle Museum near the Weiyuan Emplacement are really worthy of a visit.

Keyuan Garden, which was constructed in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), is one of the four most famous gardens in Guangdong Province. It attracts visitors by imitating the ancient gardens of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province. Get to the garden at No.25 of Keyuan Road by taking buses No.15, 16 or 31. Additionally, the Yinxian Resort that is situated in the Changping Town of Dongguan City is a tour highlight of this City. Originally, it is the house of hermit Li Juesi, a respected official in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Now in modern times, the Yinxian Resort is a tour and amusement center with characteristic ancient buildings and a group of exquisite sculptures especially the white marble sculpture of Kwan-yin.

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.