1. Question: What is the proper name and mailing address of the Xiangtan Orphanage?

Answer: Xiangtan Children's Welfare Institute
          No. 3 Banma Lu Road, Bantangpu, Yuetang District
          Xiangtan City, Hunan Province 411102
          People's Republic of China Telephone: 86-732-55766897   (8/97, updated 11/02)
When sending things to the orphanage, it would be helpful to include your child's chinese name either in Chinese or in English (obviously, Chinese characters are better) instead of only their (new) English name. The nannies are thrilled to see photos of children who have been adopted from there.

2. Question: What is the name of the Orphanage director?
 
Answer: Mr. Peng, President (9/05)
 
3. Question: What types of gifts would be good to give to the orphanage staff?
 
Answer: Quality pens, stamps, t-shirts (with American themes) (6/98); baseball caps (10/97, 2/93); gift bags of toiletries, cosmetics, soaps, perfumes (2/99); inexpensive jewelry, postcards of the American town where our daughter(s) will be living (10/99)
 
4. Question: Did you get to keep the clothes that your child was wearing when you first met her?
 
Answer: Yes (10/99;2/93); Yes, but we were asked to replace them with other clothes (2/99)
 
5. Question: What gifts are good to take for the orphanage?
 
Answer: Children's clothing, shoes, medicines (10/99; 2/93) For the children in the orphanage, small things like stickers, balloons (be careful-do not give to young toddlers), candies, party favor type toys (2/93).
As a result of contributions from various families from the Xiangtan Families e-mail list, in June 2000, the orphanage received an air conditioner -- this item was one of several on a "wish list" from the orphanage administrators (the list was provided upon the request of an adoptive parent). Note that the item was purchased in China.

6. Question: What can you tell me about the workers/number of children at the orphanage?

 
Answer: There are a number of male workers at the orphanage who serve as farmers, gardeners, and maintenance men. There are 158 children at the orphanage and 100 of those were infants. There are also a number of boys at the orphanage.  Chinese people are more likely to adopt boys due to the need for more hands on the farms, but would usually travel to a distant city from their own to adopt. (6/00)
 
7. Question: Where does the orphanage get its food?
 
Answer: The orphanage raises most of its own food in a large garden and fish from a fish farm/pond.(6/00)
 
8. Question: Do you think the nannies at the orphanage care about and/or love the children there?
 
Answer: Yes, definitely! And they do the best they can with the limited resources they have. (2/93, 12/99,6/00)
 
9. Question: Do the children go to school?
 
Answer: Most of the older children attend a school in Xiangtan, where they learn English or another language like German, in addition to Chinese reading, writing and arithmetic. (6/00)
 
10. Question: Will we be allowed to visit the orphanage?

Answer: That varies from group to group and the political climate at the time. Some were not allowed to visit the orphanage at all-- the babies were delivered to their hotels; some were given tours of the exterior of the orphanage and selected portions of the interior. (2/93;12/99;6/00)
 
 

Answer: Sharyn, in April 2005,writes of her visit:

We had a momentous day yesterday. We drove out to the XiangTan CWI where our kids were from. It was about an hour drive from Changsha, through the countryside. XiangTan isn't the best orphanage but it is pretty good. The nannies who work there do a great job. The infant room had 8 babies (11, of course, last week) and there were 8 nannies. The babies were kept in one room and it was definately sparse but you could tell the babies were very loved. When we arrived at the orphanage, all the nannies came to greet us. They immediately inspected the babies, including their clothing. I didn't pass the test. Apparently, our baby J wasn't dressed warm enough and they didn't like that the tag on her outfit was making a mark on her neck. The took her away and cut off the tag! They fawned over the babies for at least an hour and then they made each of them a bottle and let us feed them. They all stood around watching. I think it was another "inspection." They let us take pictures of the outside of the orphanage and any of the grounds. The grounds look pretty much exactly the same as they do in all the other pictures we've seen except that the main gate is in a courtyard, not in front of the main building. All of our babies were found at the front gate. The orphanage has a gate tender who guards the gate. We were able to take pictures with her and each baby she found. We had to surrender our cameras to go inside the orphanage but they let us see everything. They were very open. When we left (a little more than 2 hours later), I looked in to the room where the nannies were. Most of them had tears in their eyes. The other 8 babies looked healthy. We were able to talk (coo) to them and touch them. We got to see the nannies giving all of them their bottle, too. The youngest looked about 2 months old (so precious) and the oldest was about 13 months old. We asked it we could take them all home. After our visit the Director (Daddy Peng) took us all out to lunch. He told us how happy he was that we had all come to adopt these babies and that he hoped China would change and be able to accept children who weren't theirs, biologically. Daddy Peng seemed very proud, though, of the work they do at XiangTan. He presented each child with a set of 4 tea glasses. What a treasure. I can't think of a nicer gift. Husband also collected 3 rocks (large size stones) from the courtyard and we took some leaves which had fallen. I'm going to try to press them. I'm so glad that we had the opportunity to see what Baby J's life was like so we can tell her about it. It really is clear that the staff at XiangTan are doing as good a job as possible. The children we've adopted are all really happy and healthy. Changsha and Xiangtan

1. Question: What services does the Grand Sun Hotel in Xiangtan provide?

Answer: It is a very nice hotel. Laundry service is available and less expensive than in Guangzhou. There is a small grocery store around the corner rom the hotel which sells formula and rice cereal. The hotel has a business center where you can make copies, send faxes, and e-mail. (2/99)

2. Question: Are the sidewalks in Changsha suitable for strollers?

Answer: One couple on our trip bought a stroller in Xiangtan since their child was too heavy to carry.(10/99)

   The sidewalks are rough in areas. If you bring a stroller, make it a sturdy one.(2/99)
    Sarah's Ride worked for us, better than the stroller we also brought. (2/95)
    The sidewalks were really crowded and in rough shape. A backpack carrier worked much better than a stroller. (2/93)

3. Question: Do they have cribs in the hotels?

Answer: Some of the hotels may but most groups take the 2 arm chairs in each room, put them together with the arms facing each other and padding the resulting space with pillows, sheets, and comforters--voila! a crib! (2/93; 6/00)

4. Question: Is there any place to shop in Changsha?

Answer: There is a Friendship Store and the Apollo Department Store.(6/00)(webmaster's note: There are other places to shop too--these two were just mentioned after a recent trip)

5.Question: Do you have any recommendations for hotels in Changsha?

Answer: The Tong Chen "Doulton Hotel", opened in 1998, was excellent and within a block of the Friendship and department store.(6/00)
 
 

General

1. Question: Are there any items that you didn't bring that you wished you had?

Answer: A digital or video camera (2/99; 2/93)
             Real scissors for cutting holes in nipples (10/99)

    Regular nipples and baby bottles (not the Evenflo kind)(2/93;6/00)

2. Question: Are there any items that you were glad you took?

Answer: Comfort foods for adults like instant oatmeal, peanut butter, cup of soup (2/93); all of our baby supplies like formula, diapers, rice cereal (2/93; 2/99); cheerios for toddlers, pediatric decongestant for plane rides (10/99); adult medicines for upper respiratory problems (the air in Changsha is brutal!) and alcohol wipes (for cleaning anything and everything) (2/93); Polaroid camera to give photos to the orphanage (6/00)
 
 

 

Please also consider viewing the pages Memories of the Orphanage  and Travel for further information.