国家地理:China's Lost Girls 被抛弃的女孩 -1

Not too far away is a little girl who has never known a mother, and she's never known a father, and she's never known a big sister. And today she's gonna get out of that.

Hi, welcome to Ultimate Explorer, I'm Lisa Ling. Tonight, a story I've been wanting to do for a long time. Over one quarter of all the babies adopted from abroad into this country come from China, and most are girls. It's a consequence of one of the biggest efforts to control population growth in history, China's so-called "one child" policy. It limits millions of families there to having only one child. Now traditionally baby boys are preferred, and as a result, girls are often abandoned, aborted 1, or hidden, sometimes they are even killed. Where do they end up and what does it all mean for China? Take a look.

China, one of the world's oldest civilizations, with more than 4,000 years of history and culture. Today, China is booming 2. With over a billion people, it has the world's largest population. One in every five people on the planet lives here. And for China, that is a big problem. So the Chinese government has put limits on how many children people can have. When combined with the centuries-old preference for boys, this means that untold 3 thousands of Chinese girls are being aborted, hidden, or abandoned every year. Where do some of these abandoned girls end up?
Marissa, whatever you do, don't touch the tits...
Places like Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Ready?

Richard and Denise Holler adopted their daughter Marissa from China three and a half years ago. Today they are taking Marissa to her Chinese dance performance.
Can I give you a hug. Ok. Oh, that's sweet.
Not long after, they'll take her back to China.
Marissa, why do you close your eyes when you take a picture?
I'm going with Richard, Denise and Marissa who frankly 4 looks more like me than her parents.
I just smiled.
That's the way you smile?
In every way Marissa is an ordinary American kid. But this American kid was abandoned in a park in China when she was three days old. Now her parents are headed back to China because they want to adopt another baby girl.

"Well, actually, sometimes my parents say that, like I was meant for them, and sometimes I really do think that. But sometimes I think it's just a miracle, or sometimes I just think it just happened."

As soon as we arrive in Beijing, we meet dozens of families from all over America who are also adopting little girls. Some of them have never been out of the US.

"And these are the Knives. They are also gonna be adopting a baby girl."

Orson and Tracy North Ross from Alabama. Donna McPhillips and Gary King from North Carolina. Richard and Lisa Foaken from Texas who are also going back to adopt their second child.

"It's not about us getting a daughter, it's about her getting a sister, you know"

The adoption 5 process has taken more than a year for most of these couples and cost them upwards 6 of $18,000. (First time you get the picture of your new child. How is, it's real...) They've waited anxiously for the Chinese government to approve them and then assign them a baby whom they've never even met. The couples are given little more than a photo which many of them carry everywhere. Now in three days they'll meet the babies for the first time.

So what do you do for the three days before your life changes forever? How about take a tour of Beijing?

"This is Chairman Mao. OK? Chairman Mao lighter 7."
"OK. First, let's look at this building."
"Is that a temple over there?"
"One, two, three, cheeeeeese. Thank you."
"This is a bald man."
"Do you know who that is? It's in the big picture right there."
"Chairman Mao."
"Chairman Mao. Chairman Mao Zedong. We have his Little Red Book at home."

Under Mao in the 50s and 60s, China's population exploded. By 1980 Mao's successors 8 began limiting most families to only one child, or in some cases two. It's been called the largest population control effort in human history.