Beijing Orientation

[hadolphs]

Can any of the BTDT families fill us newbies in on the orientation that Holt families go to when they first arrive in China? Is it required? What exactly is it?

[DivaMamma]

It is mandatory if you are 1st time adopted from china with Holt. I definitely recommend it. They go over your trip and what to expect (or if there have been any changes). They give you a book with the itinerary, information about your child and sometimes a new picture. Then you have a wonderful lunch with the Holt staff and your group. After that you all take a tour of Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City together. it is very nice.

[nancyvnjourney]

We were there just last month. To be honest, it wasn't time well spent in my book. The info presented there, although good, was the same info that all our adoption classes and our SW covered, general adoption and attachment/ transition stuff. The new info on my child was wonderful, but I assume families that were nor present, and there were a good handful of them, t got that same packet eventually. Both the group lunch and the tour of the Forbidden City, through Lotus, were pricey for our budget and we opted out of them as did many families in our group.
That being said, I wasn't going to go all the way to China without seeing Beijing, The Great Wall, and the Forbidden City. So while we were there we knew we might as well go to the meeting too. It was nice to meet the families.
Yes, Holt says this meeting is required for 1st time families.

[ask]

We did not attend orientation in Beijing and it was our first adoption.

[Sturgie]

Like the others have said, I do think Holt requires it. I would recommend it for no other reason than it allows you to (a LITTLE bit) adjust: to the time difference, the culture, etc. For us it was nice because there were four other families adopting from the same province as we were, and we got to meet in Beijing and travel to Xi'an together. It was a little "bonding" time for us families! We really liked the tour of The Forbidden City and Tiannamen Square. We actually went a day and a half earlier than required so we could go to the Great Wall and the Summer Palace (as well as having more time to acclimate). If this was our first time, we'd do it the same way again. In fact, we haven't entirely discounted Beijing this time around, too.

[SoCaliGirl]

We did not attend orientation in Beijing and it was our first adoption.

How did you get out of it? We are on our third adoption (first from China) and I would rather use my time to see Beijing or even better, to go up to province and shave a day off. I have literally taken 25 hours of adoption classes through these adoptions. PM me if you'd rather.

[elfkin]

GO! Beijing is awesome. Orientation is an hour. You meet the people in your group, your guide, and get VERY, like hours old photos of your child and a fancy brocade book, with updates. Then you get to see all the AWESOME, and VERY HISTORICAl sites that are part of your child's history. Beijing is an amazing city!

[cle]

I was at the same orientation as Nancy (March 3) and it was a complete waste of time. Yes, it was nice to meet the other families and have the opportunity to see Beijing, but if our daughter wasn't in Beijing for us to meet, I would have been rather irked to have been required to be there.

[nancyvnjourney]

I think it would have been a more worthy webinar just prior to travel, followed by an optional meet-n-greet in Beijing for those that chose to come to BJ.
I so wish I would have known that it was possibly optional for Holt clients, (as ask refers to.) Our budget was incredibly tight and finding the money to travel to Beijing (both hotel and extra days travel) could have helped us immensely.

[elfkin]

How can one say seeing the Forbidden City is a waste of time? These are huge links to our children's heritage. I LOVED every second of Beijing. It's just part of the process and wonderful too. I understand it costs $ to be there, but it would cost $ in your child's province too....

[elfkin]

It is mandatory if you are 1st time adopted from china with Holt. I definitely recommend it. They go over your trip and what to expect (or if there have been any changes). They give you a book with the itinerary, information about your child and sometimes a new picture. Then you have a wonderful lunch with the Holt staff and your group. After that you all take a tour of Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City together. it is very nice.

Agreed. It's not so much general info, but child specific info you get at the Beijing orientation too. Which is a great "heads up" on your child, what they are like, and how they are right now. Plus the splendor of Beijing is really unexplainable. We took in the Beijing Zoo, Peiking Opera, Tienamen Square, the Forbidden City, and got on Chinese time before we met our son. Beijing is magnificent.

[SoCaliGirl]

How can one say seeing the Forbidden City is a waste of time? These are huge links to our children's heritage. I LOVED every second of Beijing. It's just part of the process and wonderful too. I understand it costs $ to be there, but it would cost $ in your child's province too....

I don't think that the Forbidden City is a waste of time, in fact I would rather use my day in Beijing to soak up that sight and that of the Great Wall, Hutongs, etc. I don't want to sit in another class ever again, much less pay for a $500 day to do so. If it really is only one hour and then we get awesome books and go, then I'll do it without trying to fight it. If it's 6 hours then there's going to be an issue.

[nancyvnjourney]

Agreed. It's not so much general info, but child specific info you get at the Beijing orientation too. Which is a great "heads up" on your child, what they are like, and how they are right now. Plus the splendor of Beijing is really unexplainable. We took in the Beijing Zoo, Peiking Opera, Tienamen Square, the Forbidden City, and got on Chinese time before we met our son. Beijing is magnificent.

The info presented in the 90-ish min meeting was not about my child. It was solely general adoption/attachment/transition stuff. The folder with updated info on my sweetie was handed to me and never mentioned. If I could have "gone over" it with someone, it would have been great. It would have been wonderful to have the option to have that info (in a very pretty fancy folder) handed to me in province, offering us the option of saving over a thousand dollars by not going to BJ, or enabling us to see more of Beijing and experiencing our daughter's culture.

[gaylors79]

Personally, even if we go for a sibling I would still go to Beijing. Almost our entire travel group was there, so it was great to meet other AP's and everyone there was first-time AP's so it was good to meet everyone ahead of time and then re-met in GZ (all but 3 families went to different provinces). It also turned out that our whole group EXCEPT for us was in country a day early, so they all did the Great Wall...I do regret not getting to go but I had no boss/coworkers at work and basically left the US at the last possible second. I also loved Forbidden City, the garden there was so peaceful and I got some fabulous photos of the architecture and native plants. I wish we could have spent more than 10 min there!

I had asked for an update before TA (not knowing we'd get our TA so fast) and all the same info was in that fancy folder, and the pics were taken that same day but were different. So the info may not necessarily be new, but you will get new pics.

Sara

[DivaMamma]

It is mandatory if you are 1st time adopted from china with Holt. I definitely recommend it. They go over your trip and what to expect (or if there have been any changes). They give you a book with the itinerary, information about your child and sometimes a new picture. Then you have a wonderful lunch with the Holt staff and your group. After that you all take a tour of Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City together. it is very nice.

Agreed. It's not so much general info, but child specific info you get at the Beijing orientation too. Which is a great "heads up" on your child, what they are like, and how they are right now. Plus the splendor of Beijing is really unexplainable. We took in the Beijing Zoo, Peiking Opera, Tienamen Square, the Forbidden City, and got on Chinese time before we met our son. Beijing is magnificent.

I also thought it was nice meeting some of the staff in Beijing as well (so sad that Les retired ) as the other families over lunch. As far as adoption and transition stuff it was nothing new but we did get new info on our child (likes, dislikes, eating and sleeping habits and more about her personality) which was VERY helpful when we met her a few days later.

Also, this is the capital of your child's birth country!!! This is a country that will be a part of your life forever. Embrace it, explore it, get to know it! The touring is great for helping you develop a sense of connection and pride for your child's birth country that will hopefully carryover to them.

And, while you are there. Eat a Peking Duck... the WHOLE duck!