Los Angeles, CA

San Francisco, CA

Honolulu, HI

Chicago, IL

Boston, MA

Las Vegas, NV

New York, NY

Philadelphia, PA

Seattle, WA

Toronto, Ontario Canada

Many large cities have a Chinatown. If you are visiting a city not listed, do a search–I was suprised to find that Philly had a Chinatown. Your city may have one too!

USA Map with Chinese Characters

I found this map of the United States with Chinese Characters. I think it will be a great thing to bring along when we go to China again, to include in our daughter’s SWI Director’s present (indicating which state we live in).

We can’t wait till someday we can visit the Chinatown in New York. It’s the largest in the U.S. and I’m sure has some awesome things to do and see (not to mention wonderful food). A great time to visit would be around one of the Chinese holiday’s like New Year, Dragon Boat Festival, Moon Festival etc. Check out the events at their website.

As an added bonus, if you plan to go to NYC Chinatown, you may want to book a walking tour with Jami Gong.

TeaSpring.com

This past year after I got back from Yunnan I wanted to order some good tea to send to a Chinese American friend. I ended up ordering the tea from an online tea company who ships their teas directly from China. Well, I ordered the tea for my friend, and also some for our family too, called Cherry Ball or Rising Sun. This turned out to be the coolest tea I’ve ever had. The taste was very subtle and delicious, but the really awesome part was what happened in the tea cup. After I poured the boiling water on the tea the ball of tea leaves began to “bloom”, slowing opening up to look like a beautiful green and red flower. Needless to say I’ve saved the rest of the tea for the soon coming Chinese New Year!

So, for all you tea lovers out there, I can recommend the Cherry Ball tea, but check out all the other cool teas they have too. I’m itching to check out others that bloom as well.

Cultural Revolution History Website Link

This site gave me my first grasp on what the Cultural Revolution was and where and why it happened in China. If you’d rather browse a website than read a book, this is an excellent way to learn about a time that has greatly impacted the modern life of Chinese people today. Great information and cool photos too.

Yin Yu Tang Museum Website Link

Originally built in China, the Yin Yu Tang house (built during the late Qing dynasty period) is now part of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem Massachusetts. This interactive site gives beautiful pictures and diagrams of the house and the way it was built.

New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden Website Link

This looked like a neat place to visit if you are in the New York vicinity. It is part of the Staten Island Botanical Garden, so for those of you who love plants you get an extra bonus.

Artistic Chinese Creations Website Link

I like this site because you can find things there that are differrent than a lot of the products you will find on many of the other Chinese products sites. I especially like the peasant artwork and other works of art.

Cultural Revolution Posters Website Link
This site is so cool. It displays several examples of propaganda posters from three distinctive time periods in the Cultural Revolution between the years of 1970 and 1979. An excellent display and very educational. I was actually able to click on the smaller images of these postersto bring up larger ones and print some of the them on my color printer. They printed pretty nicely considering that they are low resolution.

Maopost.com Website Link

Okay, let me first state that I am not pro-communism, nor do I agree with using propoganda. However, I do appreciate some of the art that came out of the tumultuous time period in China called the “Cultural Revolution” (look into it, too much to explain here). That said, this website is just too cool! You can have your portrait painted into a replica Cultural Revolution poster. I am so tempted–but can’t find just the right poster that I’d like to have done. Anyway, check it out.

Pimsleur Mandarin Website Link

This language system focuses on speaking the language and helped a GREAT DEAL when I went to China to teach English Teachers for two weeks. As we had no guides for a good deal of the time I was forced to use my Mandarin and let me tell you, it came in VERY handy whenever I was able to use it. The thing I like about this system is that it not only teaches you what to say and how to say it, but it helps you understand what the person you are talking to may say back to you and how to understand that! Invaluable! I was able to help our group out often and I’ve only gone through the first 7 lessons! Well worth the money.

Asia Threads Website Link

This company takes photos and DVDs for people who want pictures of finding spots or home towns of Chinese adoptees.

dMarie Time Capsule Website

This page is great for information on a specific date–great information to include in your child’s lifebook. What’s a lifebook?

EMK Press Website

This site has some AWESOME resources under “Parent Resources” dealing with attachment and raising adopted children. They have articles you can download (in PDF format) that are so helpful. I remember reading some during our first few months back with Savannah and they really helped me.

Our Chinese Daughters Foundation Website

This foundation has many benefits. The woman who started this lives in China with her adopted daughter and does heritage tours for groups as well as orphanage tours.

Research-China Website

This site may be able to find your Chinese adopted daughter’s “Finding Ad” (an ad run in local papers in China about where and when your daughter was found). We ordered this service and it will be invaluable to Savannah when she grows up.

Attach-China Website

This site is devoted to helping those who have adopted from China to develop good and strong attachments with their children.

Adoption Parenting Website Interior Page

Some Other Attachment Therapy Websites

Family Attachment Counceling Center–They specialize in Adoption Narrative therapy and sell a book about this too.

Theraplay Website–Good info. There is also a book connected with this therapy that has some great therapeutic play activities to do with your kids.

www.attachment.org

www.Attach.org

Deborah Hage Attachment Specialist–A number of good resources on this site. Some very interesting articles–an especially interesting one about clay sculpture art therapy.

www.deborahhage.com/

Ron Nydam’s Book

Adoption.com Website

This site is a great site for all things adoption. There is a ton of information and resources.

These sites are a staple for us.

Adoptive Parents China Yahoo Group

These sites are great for after you have come home from China.

Adoptive Parenting Yahoo Group

Raising China Children Yahoo Group

MIT Chinese Course

This is a free Chinese Language class! I must admit I have not tried it out yet and I suspect that it will probably be easier for someone whose had at least one basic Mandarin class, it’s worth trying out. It appears that it’s facilited through Quicktime movies–which is awesome! I’ll report back on this when I’ve tried it out. For those of you who have paid for language classes, you know how valuable this resourced is.

This book is one that I have not read yet, but I remember being very excited when it came out. Especially since at that time there were very few of these type resources for purely adoption parenting. But we are very blessed these days with all the resources that are coming out. Ahh, so many books, so little time.

This book is great for those who’ve adopted from any country. It gives great information about what to expect at every stage of development for adopted children. I need to read this one again since we are getting into some new phases of development.

Homa and Sekey Books Website

This site is great because it has a lot of books you don’t normally find in other places. They specialize in books about Asia so there are many books about China. If you’re like me though, you like to see what books other sites have and then see if they’re available on Amazon as a used book. I’ve gotten so many this way because the prices are just too good to pass up.

This site a great source of information about what occurred during the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. The documentary husband and wife team (Richard Gordon and Carma Hinton) who logged over 400 hours of archive video consisting of interviews with student leaders as well as many first hand video clips make this video the only one of its kind. The site also has a ton of information about the events from different perspectives if you are not inclined to purchase or rent the video and would prefer to read instead. I find all of this very fascinating, and maybe you will too.

I recently ordered this book when I remembered that our attachment therapist had recommended it. I see why. It has wonderful activities that you can do with your child to help promote a deep loving relationship between parent and child.

This book is available at most online bookstores. I found a used copy through Amazon too. ISBN: 0688161170

Gregory Keck Website

A few years ago (before we had adopted) we were able to hear Gregory Keck speak at Calvin College. He was excellent and has written some books too. His website has several great resources about attachment. His site also has links to other attachment coalitions around the nation (although certainly is not all inclusive because I didn’t see our Michigan one). Here is a link to his site. Also, if you ever get a chance to see him speak, I highly recommend it.

This site is a frequent one for us since there are so many products there great for Chinese adoptive families. We especially love the Chinese Barbie dolls, which are very hard to find elsewhere. They have a wide range of products from books to fresh Moon cakes for Moon Festival.

http://www.adoptionlearningpartners.org/

This site is so excellent I decided it deserved good long explanation. Last year Mark and I were able to take a course called “Conspicuous Families” training through our agency. It deals with becoming a multi-cultural family (which is what you have become when you adopt a child of a different race).

I highly encourage logging onto this site and taking this free training to anyone who has adopted from China or another country. It is eye-opening as well as enriching. They also offer other courses about a number of adoption topics as well as deciding whether adoption is right for you. This site is very advanced and even offers sound as part of the experience.

I’ve put this into the before adoption category because we were SO happy that we learned a little Chinese before we went to get Savannah in China. This school is located in Grand Rapids, but also offers audio products as well as flipalbums to hear and practice with. Any amount of language you can gain before you go (even if it’s just thank you, hello, and my name is Melissa) is very appreciated by the Chinese people. I (Melissa) am currently in one of their language classes and we will be enrolling Savannah in the preschool class in January.

We made a trip this summer to Chinatown in Chicago. They have some wonderful restaurants (especially when you need a GOOD Chinese food fix). Our favorite is called Lao Sze Chuan and specializes in spicy dishes. The owner also owns two other restaurants in the area that are less spicy if you prefer.

You can check out the Chicago Chinatown website for lists of businesses, restaurants, driving directions, etc. A wonderful getaway for a short weekend if you live in Michigan.