Jiangxi - Our Journey - Part 1

Situated in Southeastern China, north of Guangdong, lies Jiangxi province (江西). Nanchang, the capital city, is located in the northern central part of the province and is well-known to adoptive families as this is the city in which most parents who adopt from Jiangxi will meet their children for the very first time.

Northeast of the Nanchang city center is Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in all of China. Into it flows one of Jiangxi’s major rivers, the Gan Jiang (Jiang means ‘river’) which traverses the entire province from the south to the north. Poyang Lake also drains into the Yangtze river.

Abundant in mountains, forests and wildlife, and rich in natural mineral resources, Jiangxi is still among China’s poorest provinces. Its main crops include rice (we saw many rice fields and workers in rural Jiangxi) as well as rapeseed and cotton. It is famous throughout China for its quality porcelain, which we brought plenty of home with us – some of it still in boxes waiting for our daughters to be old enough to appreciate.

The people of Jiangxi are primarily Han Chinese, whom are considered to be the world’s largest ethnic group. About 19 percent of the entire world’s population is Han Chinese, and around 92 percent of all people living in China are Han. Nearly 43 million people today call Jiangxi province home. It borders six other provinces: Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong. It has a subtropical climate, and was incredibly hot and humid when we were there in the late spring of 2001.

In Nanchang city the Lakeview, Jiangxi and Gloria Plaza hotels are popular places to stay among families adopting. In fact, it was in the lobby of the Gloria Plaza hotel where I walked past my soon-to-be daughters and commented to my husband at what an ‘adorable little family’ was sitting in the lounge. They had surprised us, of course, as we were not expecting to meet them until the next morning. Looking nothing like their referral pictures taken months earlier, once I realized that this ‘family’ was really my twin daughters and the orphanage staff I could barely contain myself.

Unprepared, sleepless for more than 48 hours and with cameras packed away in suitcases, we met the two little Jiangxi Girls that would change our lives forever…

Introduction

Welcome to the Red Thread Maps Blog! I’m Hendrika (Heni), a very lucky mom to my twin daughters from China, who are the inspiration for all of my work. I decided to start up this blog to show a little more about my work and family than can be found on my main website, Redthreadmaps.com.
Here I will pick different topics and places to focus on weekly, such as different cities, provinces and countries that may be of interest to adoptive and multicultural families; and will also highlight my latest map works and designs. And I may even include some photos and tales of my own family.

Currently I have two websites: www.Redthreadmaps.com – where I feature birth country, province and orphanage location maps and map gifts of interest to adoptive families; and www.Henimage.com which showcases my other graphic design work on a variety of t-shirts and gifts.

My map work is truly a labor of love – something I began years ago to show my daughters their hometown and connection to their home province in China, which has blossomed now into a business where I create unique personalized maps and gifts for other adoptive families. Each of my original maps takes between 100 and 200 plus hours to create, and each begins with a hand-rendering in ink!

One series of my work features China provincial orphanage location maps – showing the general locations of orphanages that participate in international adoptions. Many provinces are now completed, with more being added as I get them done. I also have China and South Korea country maps that can highlight your and your child’s journey. I am working on more countries as well.

I hope you will enjoy visiting here and reading my little blurbs…