The number of American families adopting children from China is rocketing, according to figures from the US department of state. In 2005, immigration authorities issued 7,906 visas to Chinese orphans beginning new lives with families in the US, up from 4,681 in 2001. Most are girls, unwanted in a society in which men are traditionally the breadwinners. More than 30 million babies are born in China each year and hundreds of thousands are made available for adoption. The cost varies, but most people adopting spend up to $25,000 (�13,000) plus travel expenses.

Comments: "hundreds of thousands are made available for adoption." This is false, China limits the number of legal adoptions out of the country because of the intense paperwork and screening process required for each adoption, they can not keep up with the high number of families that want to adopt from China. Hundreds of thousands of babies may be abandoned but only a selected few are actually placed into the adoption process.

Most abandoned babies are from low income rural areas, because of the one child rule, a son is the only source of retirement plan a rural family has since daughters leave the family when married. However, in the city areas, the Chinese have a different attitude and have no particular preference towards having a boy or a girl.  I was under the impression that almost all girls are abandoned in China but after talking to many of the local city dwellers in China I found out this not to be true, just an unfortunate practice done in the poor rural areas of the country.

More and more families in China are adopting now that the government has made this open to them which is quite wonderful. Most Chinese families will sacrifice a year or more of their annual average household salary to pay for an adoption.