Shenyang City

Now that we are closer to traveling, I have been doing more research about our son's birth city. I wanted to show where he is currently living in China. Here is a map of the city (Shenyang City) and province (Liaoning).

If you look closely, you can see that to the east of Liaoning is North Korea. To the west of Liaoning is Beijing. Shenyang is the capital city of Liaoning province. Liaoning is located way into northern China.  It will be interesting seeing northern China and  hopefully,the Great Wall since this will likely be a once in a lifetime trip!

    

These are some of the tidbits that I have uncovered about this city. Shenyang means "city to the north of Shen River".  The Hun River on the city's south side used to be called the Shen River. Shenyang was first established around 300 B.C. and currently has a population of 7.4 million.  

It is the largest city in northeastern China by population and contains 38 of China's 56 ethnic groups, including the Han Chinese majority which makes up over 90% of Shenyang's population.
 

According to one tourism video I saw:

Shenyang is the birthplace of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and has many cultural relics which symbolize the prosperity and subsequent decline of China's last feudal dynasty... The most famous of these is the Shenyang Imperial Palace, which is of great historic and artistic significance and second only to the Forbidden City in Beijing in the extent of its preservation.


Shenyang Imperial Palace



The Children's Welfare Institute in Shenyang City is our son's home.  After much searching, I finally found this picture on another adoptive mom's blog:

It struck me as a very nice facility which eased some of my fears.  Here is what another Mother shared about her visit to Shenyang in 2010:

"We were very impressed when touring the facility and meeting the staff.  We had the privilege of meeting and spending some time on 3 different days with Mrs. Tan who is the director of the adoptions there.  She is very loving and kind and seems very interested in the children's well being."

A different adoptive mom who's daughter came from Shenyand CWI sent these pictures of her trip there June 1, 2011 where she attended the Children's Day celebration...

What beautiful costumes!  It is a very bright and colorful event.



I searched and searched, but I don't see Junchi anywhere in this pic.



Adorable!!!



See these pink shirts?  They are the same as the one that Junchi
is wearing in one of the updated pics we were sent.

This next photo COULD be Junchi, but we can not be sure.... Same shirt, same bracelet, but no way to tell for sure since he is looking away.

Far right....

Can you tell that we are anxious and excited about getting on that plane?  Ok, maybe not so much excited about the plane ride, but the destination- YES! 
I am hopeful that we can visit the place where he was abandoned and learn as much as possible about his history so that we can help him as he matures.  We also hope that we can visit with folks who knew him as a younger boy. 
Presently, my heart is heavy with the desire to take our son, Tommy to China with us to meet his brother.  We are still so far away from our financial goals, but I know that this will be an experience that we will never be able to replicate and one that will be very meaningful to us all in years to come.  I just hate to leave him behind.  Join me in praying for the added funds that we need to travel together as a family to get our boy!


Blessings to you all!
Angie