Guangzhou, China

This is where we will spend most of our time when in China. The Consulate office is there so this is where we will do all our paperwork related to the adoption.

Population: 6.66 millionUrban Population: 3.95 millionArea: 7,434 sq km

Nationalities: Han, Li, Yao, Zhuang, Miao, Hui, Manchu and She

History: with a history of 2,200 years, regarded as the the earilest among the international trade port cities in the world; built as Chuting by the Chu people on the middle reaches of the Yangtse River in the 9th century B.C.; established as Nanhai Prefecture in the Qin dynasty and became Nanyue Kingdom in the Western Han dynasty; the starting point of the Silk Road on the sea which links China with the Arabian and western countries in trading; the China's only foreign trade port at sea before the Qing dynasty

Climatic Features: subtropical humid monsoon climate, hot and rainy

Average Temperature: 21.7C annually with the highest of 38.7C and lowest of 0CRainfall: annual precipitation 1982.7 mm, with rainfall concentrated in spring and autumn

Mountains: Western Hills, which belong to the Taihang Range; Mt. Jundushan, in the north, which is part of the Mt. Yanshan

Rivers: Pearl River (West River, North River, East River), Nanhai, Liuhua Lake, Li Lake, Dongshan Lake

Products: paddy rice, potato, wheat, corn, jowar, silk, sugarcane, earthnut and hemp Tropical or Subtropical Fruits: banana, cirtrus, lichee, and pineapple

Local Highlights: Yue DramaFamous Guangdong Folk Music: Bubugao and Xiyangyang

Handcraft: Ivory Carving, Sandalwood Fan

China

China, situated in East Asia, is the world's third largest country by area and the largest by population. It is one of the most ancient civilizations in the world with a history of 5000 years. Much of the country is covered by plateaus, hills, mountains and desert. The plains, China's granaries, only cover 12% of its land, feeding more than 1/5 of the world's population. China's incredible population and the Chinese Government's efforts to ensure adequate food and housing for its booming populace is the main reason behind the One Child Policy.

China's One Child Policy

With a population of 1.2 billion, one of the most serious social and economic problems still facing China is its huge population growth. Every year, China's population grows by 14 million people—three-quarters of Australia's entire population!

Up until the 1970s the Chinese government regarded a growing population as a benefit in bringing about swift economic development. By 1963, the average number of children born to a Chinese woman was 7.5.

In recent decades, China's government has viewed population growth differently. With one-fifth of the world's population, but only 7 per cent of the world's arable land, continuing strong population growth would bring about great hardships, extreme poverty and famine.

The Chinese government decided in the 1970s to control population growth. This has proved a very complex task. The main strategy the government introduced in 1982 was a radical
family planning program to encourage couples to restrict their family size to just one child. This has become known as the 'One Child Policy'.

It is absolutely imperative that we all support the One Child Policy in our country. If we don't, our people will go hungry. Do you think we want our people to be a burden to the rest of the world? It is our duty to have only one child. I thank you if you can understand this. Rongzhao Li, Wuhan, Hubei Province.

Since 1982, detailed annual population plans have been drawn up for all provinces and cities. Birth targets or quotas have been set and controlled and all pregnancies are supposed to be planned and authorised. In February 1995, the government announced a new campaign to reinforce the policy to hold the country's population to 1.3 billion up to the year 2000. Later that same year, the government decided that the population should be held at 1.4 billion by the year 2010.

Because the One Child Policy is implemented and monitored by local and provincial authorities, it has been applied differently across the nation. For example, there has been stricter enforcement of the policy in urban areas than in rural areas.
The policy is attempting a huge shift in the values of most Chinese people. Government campaigns are still achieving only limited success.

Did you know? China has worked consistently on its extensive community health program, raising the average life expectancy from 35 years in 1949 to 71 years
today.

Policy incentives

1. salary bonus (urban)
2. bigger land allocation (rural)
3. extended maternity leave
4. paid medical and hospital expenses
5. priority access to housing, employment and schooling for the child

Disobeying the policy

1. withdrawal of family allowance and medical benefits
2. fines (even against everyone in the village or town)
3. demotion or discharge from a government job
   

Exceptions to the rule

1. membership of a minority ethnic group (can be allowed two or even more children)
2. having a first child with a disability that is likely to result in inability to work
3. pregnancy after adopting a child
4. risk of 'losing the family line' without a second child (the first child being a girl)
5. rural families with 'real difficulties' (all children so far being girls)
   

Did you know? When the People's Republic of China was
established in 1949, 68 per cent of women could not read or write. Today, 90 per cent of Chinese women are literate.

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Click here to see the 60 minutes special on China's Boy/Girl Gap.

CHINESE MOON FESTIVAL – SEPTEMBER 14, 2008

The Chinese Moon Festival (or the Mid-Autumn Festival) is on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. Chinese culture is deeply imbedded in traditional festivals. Just like Christmas and Thanksgiving in the West, the Moon Festival is one of the most important traditional events for the Chinese. The Moon Festival is full of legendary stories. For example, legend says that Chang Er flew to the moon, where she has lived ever since. You might see her dancing on the moon during the Moon Festival. The Moon Festival is also an occasion for family reunions. When the full moon rises, families get together to watch the full moon, eat moon cakes (picture below), and sing moon poems. The moon cake is the food for the Moon Festival. The Chinese eat the moon cake at night with the full moon in the sky.

CHINESE NEW YEAR - February 7, 2008

The Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday celebrated among Chinese people. It is often referred to as the spring festival because it signals the beginning of spring. It is a time when families and friends get together to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new.

The Chinese believe that as they enter a new year, they should put behind them all things of the past. They clean their houses, pay off debts, purchase new clothes, paint their doors and window panes, and even get new haircuts. These activities symbolize new life and new beginnings. Homes are decorated with flowers and paper lanterns stating wishes of prosperity, good luck, happiness, good fortune, wealth, and longevity for the coming year.

The dragon is another popular symbol for Chinese New Year. It is a symbol of strength, goodness, and good luck, and supernatural forces. A Chinese New Year celebration would not be complete without fireworks, which are supposed to scare away all evil spirits and misfortunes, preventing them from coming into the New Year.

Because Chinese New Year follows the lunar calendar, rather than the solar calendar used in the US, the holiday never falls on the same day. On a lunar calendar, the New Year begins the first night of the new moon after the sun enters Aquarius. This date is anywhere between January 20 and February 19.

The Chinese calendar has been in continuous use for centuries, which predates the International Calendar (based on the Gregorian Calendar) we use at the present day which goes back only some 425 years. The calendar measures time, from short durations of minutes and hours, to intervals of time measured in months, years and centuries, entirely based on the astronomical observations of the movement of the Sun, Moon and stars.

There are three ways to name a Chinese year:

1. By an animal (like a mascot). There are 12 animal names; so by this system, year names are re-cycled every 12 years. This system is extremely practical. A child does not have to learn a new answer to the question, "How old are you?" in each new year. Old people often lose track of their age, because they are rarely asked about their current age. Every one just have to remember that he or she was born in the "Year of Dog" or whatever. Take, for example, the Year of Dog, any one who was born in the Year of Dog in 2006 was either 0 or 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84 or 96 years old.

2. By its Formal Name (Stem-Branch). The new year is the year of bingxu. In the 'Stem-Branch' system, the years are named in 60-year cycles, and the Name of the Year is repeated every 60 years. 2006 was the 7th year in the current 60-year cycle.



3. 2006 was Year 4703 by the Chinese calendar. [A few Chinese astrological/zodiac websites believe this year should be considered as Year 4704 for zodiac calculations.]

– JANUARY 29, 2006 started the Year of the Red Fire Dog
--FEBRUARY 18, 2007 started the Year of the Red Fire Pig

--February 7, 2008 starts the Year of the Brown Earth Rat
On the Chinese calendar, 2008 begins the Lunar Year 4706

1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008 - The Year of the Rat begins a new Zodiac Cycle. People born in the year of the RAT are blessed with great personal charm. The Rat is adaptable, aggressive, and creative. Rat people are hard working, thrifty, and can save a lot of money. They are elegant by nature and strive for the better things in life. Bright and gregarious, rat's intellectual versatility is not always immediately recognized. Rat people make good business people, accountants, and bankers.

THE LANTERN FESTIVAL – February 21, 2008

The Lantern Festival or Yuanxiao Jie is a traditional Chinese festival, which falls on the 15th of the first month of the Chinese New Year. It is the last day of two week long Chinese New Year cerebration. Everyone gathers to enjoy the beautiful lanterns. Children will carry their own lanterns to participate in the showcase. Usually there is competition for the most beautiful lantern. Some of the lanterns may be works of art, painted with birds, animals, flowers, zodiac signs, and scenes from legend and history. People hang glowing lanterns in temples, and carry lanterns to an evening parade under the light of the full moon.

DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL - JUNE 8, 2008

The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated in China on the fifth day of the fifth moon or month of the lunar calendar and for this reason is sometimes called Double Five Day. The celebration is held in honor of a former scholar and official, Ch'u Yuan, who lived in the third century B.C. According to legend Ch'u Yuan tried to advise his king wisely but the king did not want to hear what he was saying so he banished Ch'u Yuan to an isolated village, where he lived for seven years writing scholarly books. When, on the fifth day of the fifth month of the seventh year, he heard that his predictions had all come true he drowned himself in the river in an act of despair. Some fishermen who had seen him leap into the river took out their boats and tried to save him while their wives wrapped cooked rice in banana leaves and threw the rice balls into the river hoping that the fish would eat them instead of Ch'u Yuan's body. On this day, the Chinese still eat special rice balls called tsungs, throw some of the rice balls into the river as an offering to the spirit of Ch'u Yuan, and hold dragon boat races to the beat of drums as they re-create the search for the body of Ch'u Yuan.