About this Site

On February 18th, 2003, an approximately two-day-old girl was found at the Zhongshikou Market in Gaoyou, and taken to the Gaoyou Children’s Welfare Institution (CWI), where she was given the name Gao Jian Pu (高建朴). In March of 2004, my wife and I traveled to China to adopt this beautiful little girl from Gaoyou, now known as Sarah Jian Day.

At the time we received Sarah in Nanjing, traveling to Gaoyou wasn’t an option, and it probably would have been a challenge with a new child. In the year that followed, I became increasingly interested in what Gaoyou was like, but also frustrated by the lack of available information about the city. Searches of the web and libraries turned up almost no useful information about our daughter's birthplace.

When I was presented with an opportunity to travel to Gaoyou with the Half the Sky Foundation (HTS) I jumped at the chance. In April 2005 we spent a week in Gaoyou working at the Gaoyou CWI, helping HTS to get their programs established there. While in Gaoyou, I spent much of my free time, walking around the city taking pictures, and trying to soak it all in. You can read more about that trip here.

Upon my return home I built this website to share information and pictures of Gaoyou with other families. My book "The Guide to Gaoyou City" is an outgrowth of this website and a companion to it. The book is currently sold out, a third edition may come out in 2008.

In November 2006 I returned to Gaoyou with my family for a three night visit. As part of this visit Gaoyou Vice Mayor gave us a personal tour of Gaoyou's historic and cultural sites. You can read more about it here.

Many people have contributed pictures and other information for this project. Their contributions have been invaluable, and I appreciate them very much.

I have made a large effort to be accurate in my descriptions; however, I have often found it hard to verify information, and sources often differ. Street and place names, wherever possible, have been translated from the Chinese characters on maps and signs to pinyin, and then to English. Translations also differ, and the English translation may not be 100% accurate.

My hope is that families can use the information presented here to get a better understanding of their children’s heritage. I also hope that this site and its companion material will encourage the reader to visit Gaoyou, and will help them get more out of their time there. I have enjoyed my visits to Gaoyou, and I hope to return soon.

Charles Day, 2007

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the following people for their important contributions to this book. My wonderful wife Leslie, who has been very patient in allowing me the time to write this book; Mike Mann, who got up at dawn to join me in walks around Gaoyou, and took some incredible photographs of the people of Gaoyou that I still marvel at every time I see them; Jeremy Schreifels and Constance Downs, who supplied pictures and helped with information gathering and translations; Vera Ringer, who supplied pictures, editing help, and encouragement; Cindy Cicalese, Bob and Tammy Gore, Lucas Feininger, Steve Harnsburger, Carrie Hayden, Julie Jones , and Lori Melton who all contributed pictures; Pat Houden, who provided valuable advice on the book design; and Lily Ni, who has become a source of information in Gaoyou. Special thanks to Susan Berrey, for her editing help. Thanks to all who contributed. This book would not have been possible without you.