About Xinjiang
As an autonomous region (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) in China, Xinjiang is the largest Chinese administrative division, highly up to 166,000 square km, one sixth of the whole China and more than 21.58 million people live here. Xinjiang borders the Tibet Autonomous Region and India's Leh District to the south and Qinghai and Gansu provinces to the southeast, Mongolia to the east, Russia to the north, and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India to the west.
Xinjiang, literally means "New Territory", was given during the Qing Dynasty, and it is home to a number of different ethnic groups and major ethnic groups include Uyghur, Han, Kazakh, Hui, Kyrgyz and Mongol, however, Only about 4.3% of its land area is fit for human habitation, for the Taklimakan Desert and vast Gobi Desert.
As a important area on the road of Silk Road, Xinjiang has a written history of more than 2,500 years, and it has been ruled at various times by the Yuezhi, Xiongnu Empire, Han Dynasty, Sixteen Kingdoms of the Jin Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, Uyghur Khaganate, Kara-Khanid Khanate, Mongol Empire (Yuan Dynasty), Dzungar Khanate, and Manchu Qing Dynasty until the 21st century.
Interesting to know that local residents follow their own official time-Xinjiang time (Xinjiang time UTC+6 time zone, Beijing Time is UTC+8) which means people generally perform their daily tasks two hours later than people in other provinces in China.
Collection of Xinjiang Orphanages
Based in China, Lead to China works closely with Chinese Government and Social Welfare Institutes throughout China. This section contains detailed information like each orphanage address, photos, travel stories, visit arrangement, and travel tips.
Get Inspirations
Having no idea how to start your China homeland tour? Don't worry! You can get inspirations from our hand-picked private tour, or join the group tour with other families, even let us to customize a trip for you.
13 Days Xinjiang Children Reunion Heritage Tour
- We can arrange the visiting to all orphanages in Xinjiang Province
- Famous places like Great Wall/ Giant Panda/ Terracotta Amy are all covered
- Private guide/ vehicle and diver offer you valued sevice
- No forced shopping activities
Small Groups: 2024 LTC Heritage Tours-A
Summer Schedule: Jun 10th, Jun 24th
Customize Your Own Return Trip
Tips for a China Orphanage Visit
When you plan to have a China return trip, you'd better prepare a gift for other children in the orphanage. You can ask our travel consultant about the details and buy some gifts several days before your trip or you can buy that after your arrival in China if you're inconvenient for the excessive baggage. The guide from LeadtoChina will give you proper suggestions and help you to buy these. If you're confused about what items the SWI need, here are some good examples: snacks, or a basket of fruit, backpack, books or other school supplies. You are also suggested to buy fans and air conditioning in summer in some poor SWI. Most of the SWI will give you a present in return for memory.
Many families care about the donation, and if you want to do this, we suggest you to exchange the donated money for RMB and show this to the director of the SWI. Some SWI will issue a donation certificate to you but not every SWI will do this.
According to the size of the SWI and the frequency of the families' return, the visit can be the most important thing for the staff or a small part of the orphanage's routine work. You can talk to your child about the actual situation you've known to let them make enough preparations. You'd better tell them what will happen and what to do if things are not the same as they expected. They should keep a flexible attitude towards life and enjoy the process instead of following a certain model to start as things are not exactly what we think and this is very important. One more important point which is often ignored is that most of the orphanage children always have various special needs. It is better to consider this before visiting and your child should know that some children in the SWI have physical or mental disability. All these can provide a better atmosphere for the children with special needs in the orphanage during your return visit.
If you'd love to invite the orphanage director to lunch, please don't forget other people in the SWI as they are usually the director's assistants. If you want to invite the caregiver or nanny, you'd better extend the invitation through the director to request the consent out of courtesy. Our guide can help you to do this and convey your invitation accurately and politely. What's more, some of the orphanages will offer you free lunch but many SWI will charge you for about 100 USD as lunch fee. You can inquire about this through your trip consultant before travelling.
At last, some Chinese individuals act turgidly in front of you for not losing face. But most people follow traditional Chinese values, modesty and gentleness. Bearing this in mind can help you deal with problems in different situations successfully during your return visit.
