7daysweek

Friday, August 27, 2010

Where in the world is Shenyang City?

Okay, so now that I can officially share information, I wanted to show where our daughter is currently living in China. Here is a map of her 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. The climate there gets pretty cold in the winter, which may well be when we travel. It will be interesting seeing northern China and the Great Wall since during our trip to meet Maimie, we only visited the southern Chinese provinces of Guangxi and Guangdong.

After visiting a handful of websites, I've found out a few things about Shenyang 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 7.2 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 site:
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.
One other interesting thing I found is that this area is renowned for its dumplings ("jiaozi"), one of our faves. 



Here is a photo of the front of the Shenyang Children's Welfare Institute:



This particular welfare institute seems to be a somewhat large newer facility built in the 1970s.  It is staffed with doctors, nurses, teachers, therapists, and personal care staff.  It also has had a "Half the Sky" program in place since 2008.  We don't, however, know if Shen Jia Wen has participated in this program.

4 comments:

Paige said...

It looks like a nice SWI. Have you contacted Half the Sky to see if she is one of their kids? It is so exciting to go soon, even if it will be cold!

Anonymous said...

You will have to pack some "warm" clothes for your trip but how exciting that you will be able to tour Beijing this time and see the different things there. I can't imagine that many people in one city! You will have many stories to tell! Looks like her orphanage is very nice! You will get the best of China--north and cold and south and warm on your trip! Praying for you guys and all to come together in His timing!
In Christian Love,
Grandma & Grandpa

sunny smiles said...

Wow! Thanks for all of the info..

Kristi said...

I hopped over from RQ - our daughter was born in Inner Mongolia.