5 Days Fujian Province Adoption Heritage Tour

A typical process of orphanage visit: Your family will be welcome by firecracker ceremony with hanging red banner(Written sentence meaning welcome for home return visit), then you will have a conversation with orphanage director and staff, after that it’s a limited visit of facilities the SWI and view the file of your child(if possible). Having lunch with orphanage director and staff, in the afternoon you will visit the “finding spot” of your child or doing the city sightseeing.

Please note that process of each orphanage is different, actually there is no standard process.

So activities of a typical orphanage visit could be:

• Visit facilities and surroundings of the Orphanage(SWI)
• View profile of your Child
• Meet the Nurse/Nanny of your child
• Meet the foster mother or family
• Conversation or with orphanage director and staff
• Meal with orphanage director and staff
• Visit the “finding spot”
• Gifts to orphanage directors, caregivers, foster families and children
• Donate to the orphanage

More and more Chinese orphanages are now open to adoptive families for return visiting, but each province is different and has different regulations, No single person can 100% guarantee the permission to visit an orphanage. so please check with your Travel Advisor beforehand to see what you should expect when visiting your child’s orphanage.

We work closely with Social Welfare Institutes throughout China and Chinese Government department like Provincial Civil Affairs Bureau (CAB) and CCAB to arrange your orphanage visit. With great knowledge, experience and resource, by fully understanding the needs of both adoptive families and government, we have helped many families to visit orphanages of their adoptive children.

In the morning, you will be transferred from Fuzhou to Xiamen. Then you will take a 10-minute ferry crossing to the romantic Gulangyu Island. This scenic area is renowned for its delicate natural beauty, its ancient relics, and its varied architecture. The island is on China’s list of National Scenic Spots and also ranks at the top of the list of the ten most-scenic areas in Fujian Province. In July 2017, it was listed as a world heritage site by the UNESCO.Wandering along the winding paths, you will feel the pleasant sunshine and warm sea breezes and see exotic architecture with a Mediterranean flavor, such as various old consulates and churches. Boutiques are wonderful places to buy souvenirs and post cards. You will visit two attractions on the island: Sunlight Rock Park and Shuzhuang Garden .

In the afternoon, you will head to South Putuo Temple and take a scenic on the Island Ring Road along the East Coast of Xiamen. South Putuo Temple is one of the most famous pilgrimage sites in Southeast Asia. You will see important Chinese buildings, monks, and dedicated worshipers, and you will feel the peace. The temple is located at the foot of Wulao Peak. Climbing up to Wulao Peak, you will enjoy a bird’s-eye view over Xiamen University and Xiamen Port.

You will then take a scenic drive along the beautiful Island Ring Road.

Today we will head to visit the Tulou in Tianluokeng Village. It takes about 3 hours driving from Xiamen to Tianluokeng Village, located in Shangban Village, Shuyang Town.

Tianluokeng Tulou, composed primarily of four round and one rectangular earthen buildings, is one of the most magnificent and well-preserved Hakka castles. The village is also listed as one of the 'Famous Historic Cultural Villages in China' for its special culture and architecture. The Hakkas who settled in mountainous south western Fujian province in China developed unique architectural buildings called Tulou, literally meaning earthen structures. Because of the undesirable mountainous regions, the Hakkas set up these unique homes to prevent attack from bandits and marauders.A Tulou, or “earth tower”, is a traditional communal residence in the Fujian province of Southern China, usually of a circular configuration surrounding a central shrine.

Then, you will head west towards Taxia Village which is a distinctive Hakka village located in the valley of Nanjing County. It was built in 1426 during the Ming Dynasty by the Zhang family, and many famous overseas Chinese people can trace their history to this village. It is listed as one of the 15 most beautiful villages in China.

It consists of more than 40 earthen buildings in different shapes as well as some Diaojiaolou (hanging corner building, another type of Hakka buildings built on wooden pillars) that have been built along the banks of a clear brook which flows through the village.

You will stay overnight in an orignal tulou to experience the hospitality of local Hakka people and see night scene of tulou. Hakka people were from the central plain area of China, where is the cradle of Chinese civilization. They value family unity, so Hakka people build their big tulou houses for the whole family living together. They also value Ba Gua which is the most holy culture symbol in ancient China, so Hakka people build tulou based on the complex Ba Gua which also affects all Chinese people today on policy, culture, architecture, phylosophy and so on.

In the morning, you will be transferred to the airport in Xiamen for departure. Service ends.