Half-way Around the World

This afternoon we visited Lifeline for an Open House.  This outing presented a wonderful opportunity to talk to Adair more about bringing home her little sister from China.  In the International Adoption section of the offices there was a large map of the world on the wall.  Hank pointed out where we live (the US was blue on this map) and then where her sister lives (China was yellow on this map), then drew an imaginary line to show Adair how we would get there; he also explained that we would have to travel by plane to go and get her.  We were also able to introduce Adair to our social worker, Amy, who quickly became the "lady who will help us get my sister" to Adair.  As the event progressed, Adair explained to everyone that we were going from the blue to the yellow on a plane to get her little sister and Ms. Amy would help us.  If only getting our daughter into our arms was so simple!


Looking at the map got me thinking about how different our "world" is from the "world" our second daughter lives in.  In addition to the vast differences between having parents and having 1 caregiver per 20 children, our home and an orphanage, plenty of food and rationed food, our countries and our countries histories are incredibly different. 


I have been reading simple children's books about China and I thought it would be interesting to share some of what I am learning.

• China is the third largest (land size) country in the world, after Russia and Canada.
• More than one billion people live in China.  About one of every five people on Earth is Chinese.
• Because the cities are so crowded the government controls the number of people who may live there.
• The Great Wall of China was built during the Qin dynasty to protect China from invaders.  It is about 1500 miles long. (That is about half of the US.)
• In 1368 Emperor Yongle built a royal city in Beijing called the Forbidden City.  Common citizens were not allowed inside.
• In 1912 the days of dynasties came to an end and China became a republic that was headed by a president.
• In 1949 the republic was overthrown by communists and renamed the People's Republic of China.
• Few homes in China have their own showers and toilets.  Most of the time these are centrally located where many people can use them.
• China is the only place in the world where giant pandas are found in the wild.
• Three of every five people in China work on farms.
• Today, the major farm crops are rice, wheat, cotton, fruits and vegetables.  Some farmers also raise chickens and pigs.
• Many Chinese work in factories or the shipping business.
• The Chinese calendar follows the cycles of the moon.  Chinese New Year usually comes with February's full moon.  An animal is matched with each year.

 It's almost hard to fathom how "old" China is.  It's earliest dynasties began almost 4,000 years ago.  It's hard to compare that to the 200+ years of American history!