Elisa's Home Town and Orphanage
Where's Elisa From?
Elisa was born on October 10, 2003 in South-Central China, in a mountainous area called Xiushan in the Chongqing Municipality. There are about 580,000 people living in Xiushan. Most people in Xiushan are farmers.
This is the earliest picture of Elisa that we have, from the local newspaper published a few month after Elisa was born. It was probably taken when Elisa was a newborn.
When Elisa was found, she was taken immediately to a local orphanage, called the Xiushan County Social Welfare Institute, also called the "Social Welfare Institute of Xiushan Miao and Tujia Nationality Autonomous County". The orphanage gave her the name Xiu, Qian.
This picture of Xiushan SWI was taken in 2004 or 2005. The
orphanage is housed in the building at the far right of the picture. Our girls
lived on the 2nd floor. The building at the far left was the "nursing home"
portion. The area in the middle is just a common courtyard for people to
sit in and do their exercises. (This photo was given to some other families by
the staff of Xiushan SWI. Credit to Mark and Liz for scanning and sharing
this photo.)
Xiushan
on Huan Cheng Xi Road
in Zhong He Town
in Xiushan Tujia and Maio Autonomous County (秀山 : Xiùshān)
in the Qianjiang Prefecture (Shizhu,
Pengshui and Xiyang counties are
the others in this prefecture)
in the southeastern portion of
Chongqing Municipality (重庆市)
in the Sichuan Province (although
the Chongqing Municipality itself is on the same level as a province)
in China
- Latitude:
- 28:27:09N (28.4525)
- Longitude:
- 108:58:26E (108.9738)
Xiushan SWI first received a "certificate for intercountry adoptions" and began referring babies for international adoption in 2003, and the first Xiushan babies had their "gotcha day" on February 2, 2004. According to one of the families in that first group, there were four babies, including one that was 18 months old and one that was 23 months old. Prior to 2003, some of the babies were sent to other orphanages which already had a certificate for intercountry adoptions. The entire Xiushan SWI led by a male director who has served in that position since about 1996. From 1983 to 1996, he worked for the civil affairs office, since 1983, and, prior to that, served in the army for 5 years. He told one adoptive family that he only learned the English alphabet at school. There is a female director who leads the orphanage portion of the Xiushan SWI. She does not like traveling so she usually does not go to Chongqing for Gotcha Days. The SWI also has a doctor who sometimes travels to Chongqing. As of May, 2006, there were approximately 150 children at Xiushan SWI, all but a few of whom are under 1 year old. Each month, about 2-8 children are taken to the SWI. The children are under the care of a staff of about 9 employees of the state and about 30 caregivers under contract. As of June, 2006, not many adoptive families had visited the SWI, perhaps because the all of the adopted children were still very young. But the orphanage director told one family that adoptive families would be very welcome, and treated with great hospitality. A rail line is due to open soon which will make the journey 4 hours instead of 10 hours by road.
In March, 2004, when Elisa was about 5 months old, the staff at the orphanage decided that it would be best for her if she was matched up with a family from another country. So they made arrangements for an international adoption. They did a physical exam, developmental exam, took some pictures and sent all the paperwork to the Chinese federal governmental agency in charge of international adoptions.
These are the pictures the staff at the orphanage took at that time.
Click here for hi-res version.
Here she is "reclining" -- dressed in many layers of clothes to keep warm because there's not very much heat in the orphanage. Note the innovative use of color!
Click here for hi-res version.
Here's Elisa in her walker, looking like she's ready to head out. Lorelei told us that she had the same walker.
Click here for hi-res version.
On November 9, 2004 we received some recent pictures of Elisa at the Xiushan orphanage.
Click here for hi
res version cropped for 4x6 printing.
Click here for hi
res version cropped for 8x10 printing.
"See, I can stand up!"
Click here for
hi res version for 4x6 printing.
Click here
for hi res version for 8x10 printing.
"Hanging around with my friends." Elisa
is in the front, right crib with crib-mate Isabella Xiu Ju Shepard,
Click here for hi res version for
printing.
November 7, 2004: I found some pictures of one of the rooms with cribs in the Xiushan orphanage from the web site of another family who adopted a baby from Xiushan. They sent a disposable camera ahead of their visit, and received the camera back on their trip. I got permission from that family to put these pictures on Elisa's scrap book site. These pictures were probably taken in September, 2004. It is possible that Elisa is in one of these pictures.
The following pictures were taken during 2005 to provide encouragement to donors involved in a nutrition program established by Love Without Boundaries, a charitable organization based in Oklahoma that is focused on improving the lives of orphaned children in China. The nutrition program was started during 2005 to provide high quality formula to Xiushan SWI and some other orphanages. Many of the donors for the nutrition program for Xiushan SWI are families who have adopted babies from there. (Pictures included with permission from Love Without Boundaries.)
Additional pictures of the Xiushan SWI are available here.
The following map shows the relationship between Xiushan and Chongqing. Elisa took a 12 hour bus trip through Qianjang and the Wulong mountains to get to Chongqing for "gotcha day".
This is a closer map of the area around Xiushan. (Click here for interactive version of this map).
(Click here for an even more detailed tourist map showing Xiushan).
The following is a picture of Xiushan taken from Google Earth in December, 2005. As of Dec, 2005, a Google Earth search for "Xiushan, China" shows a town far from Sichuan Province. But back in 2004, a search for Xiushan, China in Keyhole.com revealed that Xiushan was at Latitude: 28:27:09N (28.4525) Longitude: 108:58:26E (108.9738), at the expected location in the Southern part of Sichuan Province. (Keyhole.com later was bought by Google to become Google Earth, but apparently the city location data changed during 2005). So the following is a picture from 3 miles up of the location of Xiushan. Another family that did this same search hypothesized that the visible bridge over the river may be the Xin Beimen Bridge, where many Xiushan babies were found. (Xin=new Bei=north Men=Gate).
This is how you would address a package to the orphanage:
From the information gathered by another family that adopted a child from Xiushan, this is a fairly new orphanage that is quite remote (and therefore, they do not have a lot of resources, a website, etc). In the past, it was a home for the elderly only. They started to house orphans in one wing of the building in approximately 2002 (just a couple of years before Elisa arrived there). As you face the building, it looks like an upsidedown "U", and the orphanage section would be on the right hand side. From our contacts with other families that adopted from Xiushan through a Yahoo Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Xiushan), as of 2005 there were several groups each year adopting children from the orphanage. As of June, 2005, one family had heard that the orphanage was caring for about 100 children.
Xiushan County
Situated in the Southeast of Chongqing and the central region of Mount Wuling, Xiushan County, which adjoins to Hunan Province in the east, Guizhou Province in south and Chongqing and Hubei Province in the north, has been a material collecting and distributing centre of Chongqing, Guizhou, Hunan and Hubei border areas. Located at the economic circle of Chongqing, Guiyang, Nanning and Changsha, the county has a total area of 2,462 square kilometers and a population of 561,500. There are one county town, 8 districts and 48 townships under the county.
Xiushan is an autonomous region that includes a large percentage of ethnic Maio and Tujia people. Both of these ethnic groups have a long history and rich culture. (See more information on culture of Maio and Tujia people.)
Some pictures from the Xiushan Tujia and Maio Autonomous Government Website:
Ethno-linguistic Maps showing the distribution of ethnicity and language in China.
Elisa is from the portion of China with the greatest diversity of people.
