About this site

About TongShan

TongShan Social Welfare Institute is an orphanage and social welfare institute located in TongShan, Hubei Province, PRC.

In researching information to share concerning Tongshan, one must be careful. There are at least 5 other Tongshan cities. The biggest is in neighboring Jiangsu Province, with others in Liaoning, Fujian, Shenzen, and Taiwan. There is also Mount Tongshan in Henan Province, a Tongshan River, a Tongshan Expressway, Tongshan Highway, and even Tongshan Street in Guangzhou! I have found many reports of an Earthquake in Tongshan in 1976, although to date, I have not been able to figure out WHICH Tongshan City it occurred in.

“Tongshan” is also found as TongShan, Tong Shan, and a few times mentioned as Tongyang. It appears that these different spellings can be used interchangeably, but refer to the same place. On the other hand, a neighboring Hubei orphanage is in a town called Tongcheng, which, of course, is NOT the same place as Tongshan.

My husband and I adopted our daughter Faith (Jiao, Zi Cheng) from TongShan on Dec. 2nd, 1999. We (along with another family also adopting with us) were able to take a 2 1/2 hour trip via taxi to visit the city of TongShan. There, we were royally treated, and given a wonderful banquet in a restaurant atop a mountain overlooking the city of TongShan.

This appears to be a small orphanage (though we saw a fairly large complex when we visited, with many buildings. The grounds were clean and well-maintained.) It appears that they only had a few children adopted internationally each year, and have no record of any new adoptions in the past two years.

Many families reported similar experiences:

	Most families were given a bag of soil from TongShan at the adoption ceremony.
	Many of the girls had a bright red or pink dot placed in the middle of their forehead on their referral photo.
	Families were given a map of TongShan as well as a gift... usually a wooden framed plaque.
	Children adopted have all been girls, usually 1-2 years old.
	It seems most, if not all, of the girls had been in foster care, and many families were able to see or meet the foster mother.
	Most every child was reported to be in good physical condition.
	Many reported that the children seemed obviously well cared for, and that the caretakers were very attached.

To our knowledge, no other adoptive families have been able to visit this fairly remote orphanage. Instead, the orphanage director and caregivers travel to Wuhan to present the babies to the adoptive families. The adoption, itself, is completed in the capital of Hubei, the city of Wuhan. The adoption office is located in a room of the LiJiang Hotel.

About this website

If an adoptive family would be interested in photos or short video from our visit there, please send us an email, and we will contact you.

I am currently keeping a list of families with children from TongShan, and only have 10 families located... some in the Netherlands, and some in the U.S.A.. The earliest adoption from Tongshan that we have knowledge of was in November of 1996 and the latest was in March 2000.

I am searching and hoping to one day find the address for the Orphanage, so that I can mail a small album of pictures, as well as a letter for our daughter's foster mother. If anyone would happen to have (or be able to get ahold of) the address, I would be SO happy, and we could include it here on this website.

I will not post TongShan families names/ addresses for privacy reasons, but maybe each adoptive family would be interested in posting a referral picture (or adoption picture) and one recent picture? (You would not have to include the child's current full name, for security reasons, but we could include the Chinese name, and perhaps the child's new adopted First name, as well as an approximate birth/adoption date?)

Please let me know if you have any ideas you'd like to see implemented, or suggestions to improve, as well as any correspondence or information that you may have gleaned from your own search for information on TongShan (including web links).

If you send information to me, please designate the source of your information. I will then have the information put onto the website if you desire.

Personal TongShan adoption stories are welcome!

Here is a list of Tongshan Families (and year of adoption) that we are aware of:

Tom and Lynn (1996)
Noreen (1996)
Kristin (1996?)
Lyle and Paula (1996)
Carol (1997)
Alex and Margreit (1998)
Frank and Manon (1998)
Victor and Marlou (1998)
Hans and Elza (1998)
Gary and Diane (1998)
Frank and Tami (1999)
Philip and Terri (1999)
Vincent and Christine (1999)
David and Janet (2000)
Linda (2000)

It is my prayer that this site will be helpful, informative and healing for us and our children in the years to come. It may also be a place where future TongShan adoptive families can learn a little before they travel to adopt their child. Future adoptive families may be able to gather additional information, ask specific questions, and even present letters and photos to the director on our behalf to encourage goodwill and communication between adoptive families and the orphanage.

Thank you for visiting!! If you have any information to add, suggestions or comments to make, please email me (Terri) at tongshantoomuchblue.com.

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