Post on 14-Feb-2017
Dear Heritage Trip Families,
Returning to the birthplace of our children, China, is a wonderful opportunity!
In many cases, this is the first time we have been back, as a family, to
experience the culture, arts, traditions, and daily life of people so similar to our
children. Together as a family, we can honor the Asian heritage of our adopted
children in the land in which they were born. China, who allowed us to adopt
our beautiful children in the first place, has become instrumental in making this
trip possible. What more could we ask for?
As a parent of three children adopted from China and two children by birth, I
was so excited for the chance to be a part of this adventure. My three daughters
were very excited at the possibilities. They talked about it for months – seeing
the Great Wall, eating authentic foods, holding baby pandas, and going on a
river cruise! What they didn’t talk much about was their feelings about coming
back to a place that may have held some more difficult memories, conscious or
unconscious. While I tried to open up discussions about visiting birth places,
abandonment sites, orphanages, and foster parents, they seemed to avoid
expressing themselves or say things that led me to believe that they did not quite
have a full understanding about this part of the trip.
I wanted to figure out some way to help my daughters talk about not only the
fun, cultural part of the trip, but also their feelings and thoughts about the harder
things. For this reason, I created this little book. It was my attempt to open up
communication with my daughters. While they had a fun guide to record their
thoughts and feelings about China as a beautiful country, they could also
integrate their feelings about visiting their birth place.
We are sharing a copy of the book to you as our gift, from a fellow CCAI
adoptive family. We hope you enjoy it, and your family can use it as a tool for
some great, heartfelt discussions.
P.S. The 2011 Heritage Trip far exceeded our expectations! I know it will
surpass yours, as well.
Nancy Fontaine, Ph.D. and
Jenna Cavano (age 10) from Pingnan, Guangxi;
Wren Cavano (age 9) from Chengdu, Sichuan;
and Carolina Cavano (age 8) from Liuzhou, Guangxi
My China Heritage
Adventure
2018
A picture of me in China.
My Name:
My Chinese Name:
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Confucius
Returning Home
When I get back home, I am going to tell my friends that
being in China was ______________________________.
Some things I really missed about my home are
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
If I ever return to China, I would like to
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
The names and addresses of the special friends I made:
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Leaving Home
I left the United States on ________________, ____.
I traveled with my family members who included
_________________________________________
_________________________________________.
I arrived in China on ___________________.
The plane ride was ___________________________.
I felt __________________________about the trip.
I think the things I will see in China are
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
.
I am most excited about _____________________
________________________________________________.
2018 THE YEAR OF TH E D OG
I was born in _________, the Year of the
____________________.
Draw a picture of the animal in the
Pictures of and Thoughts about
My China Heritage Adventure
Pictures of and Thoughts about
My China Heritage Adventure
My First Day in China
______________________________ 2018.
The name of our group is _________________________.
Our leader’s name is ________________________.
I became friends with _____________________________.
We went to see ___________________________________
________________________________________________
I thought the sites were ____________________________
________________________________________________.
That night we ____________________________________.
After seeing the sites, I felt _________________________
________________________________________________.
China
Interesting Things I Saw and Did
What I liked most ______________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
What I didn’t like very much______________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
What I Learned and Liked About Guilin and Yangshuo
Guilin is a beautiful city in Guangxi Province. The town center is surrounded by two rivers and four lakes and studded with sheer sided karst mountains. A picture of one river, the Li River, is printed on the back of Chinese 20-yuan bill. A riverboat cruises down to Yangshuo, small county downstream from Guilin.
A karst mountain is made up of ___________________.
A site I saw in Guilin is __________________________.
A site I saw along the Li River is ___________________.
A site I saw in Yangshuo is _______________________.
The best part of Guilin, the Li River, and Yangshuo is
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________.
karst— limestone landscape, characterized by caves, fissures, and underground streams.
China
I Discovered These Things About
My Chinese Heritage
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
Pandas
The pandas were ________________________
_______________________________.
Pandas eat _____________________________.
Some pandas are not black and white, they are
___________________.
Baby pandas are ________________________.
A picture of a panda I saw
What I Learned and Liked
about Chengdu
Some things I learned about Chengdu are _________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________.
“tea”
China is known for its tea. Southwest China is where tea was first found. At first, tea was used as medicine. During the
Chun Qiu Period (770 BC - 476 BC), Chinese people chewed tea leaves and enjoyed the taste of tea juice itself.
There are 8 main kinds of Chinese tea: green, oolong, black, red, white, yellow, flower, and compressed. Some teas have unique names like Dragon Well, Spring Snail, Iron Goddess,
Fur Peak, Silver Needle, Monkey King, Cloud and Fog, and
Sweet Dew Sichuan Gan Lu .
What kind of tea do you like? _____________________
Here is some Chinese brush
writing that I learned to do.
What I Learned and Liked about Xi'an
The Wild Goose Pagoda has _____________ levels.
The Tang Dynasty Show was a great event. I ate about
________ dumplings! My favorite ones were _________
______________________________________________.
The Terra Cotta Warriors were _____________________
______________________________________________..
They were ordered to be built by ___________________.
What I liked in Xi'an _______________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________.
_______________________________________________.
What I didn’t like very much in Xi’An _________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
.
Here is a paper cutting or picture that I made.
My Visit to Where I Lived
When My Family Adopted Me
家庭内 Family
My family and I went to ________________, where I
lived and to _________________, where I was found.
We traveled there by __________________.
I thought it was going to be _______________________
______________________________________________.
I felt _________________________________________
______________________________________________.
I saw and met _________________________________
______________________________________________.
The best thing about the visit was __________________
______________________________________________.
I didn’t like ____________________________________
______________________________________________.
My favorite things I saw and did in Beijing were _____________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________.
My least favorite things I saw and did were________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________.
What I Learned and Liked
about Beijing 北京
Beijing has __________________people.
When I climbed the Great Wall I __________________.
_____________________________________________
At the Summer Palace I saw _____________________.
At the Forbidden City I saw _____________________.
In 2008, the _________________ were held in Beijing.
This site is built in the shape of a _______________.
My favorite part of the acrobat show was _________
___________________________________________.
__________________ is buried in Tiananman Square.
My Visit to Where I Lived
When My Family Adopted Me
Here is a picture of me in the city I was found.
China Favorites
My favorite Chinese foods I had were_________________
_______________________________________________.
My favorite places to visit were______________________
_______________________________________________.
My favorite people I met were ______________________
_______________________________________________.
My favorite day was when I ________________________
_______________________________________________.
My favorite funny moment was _____________________
_______________________________________________.
My favorite city was ______________________________.
My favorite Chinese word was ______________________.
Facts About China China is the third largest country in the world.
Beijing is the capital of China.
China has 23 provinces (like our states), 5 municipalities, and 5 autonomous regions.
China is home to 56 different nationalities.
Most people are of the Han culture..
Mandarin Chinese is the main language spoken, but all of the nationalities has their own language.
Another language spoken in such provinces as Guangxi is Cantonese Chinese..
There are over 1,500 rivers in China.
The Chinese alphabet has 60,000 characters. English has 26.
China is home to the ‘ginkgo,’ which is most likely the oldest species of tree in the world.
China has 1.3 billion people..