A 'Chinese Cinderella'

The abandoned baby has grown into a bright child

Like many baby girls who were abandoned under China's one child a couple policy, Hua Chun Rui was left on a doorstep. Now she's five and starting school in London, writes BBC Chinese Online's Alan Nie.

Hua Chun Rui spent the first 17 months of her life in a state orphanage.

No-one knew whether her birth parents had chosen a name for her, so workers at the orphanage picked her Chinese name.

Hua Chun Rui was found on a doorstep

No-one knew when she first came into the world, so they guessed her birthdate as 1 October 1996.

And no-one knew exactly where she was born. According to workers at the orphanage, she was found on a doorstep, wrapped up warm with 50 yuan (less then £5) and a bag of milk powder underneath her.

Her adoptive parents, Judi Bevan and John Ray, first saw Hua Chun Rui when she was brought to them in a hotel room in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

"She looked fat and bloated in her seven layers of clothes," says Judi, of Hampstead, north London.

The baby was running a temperature from chest infection but seemed to be "well fed in terms of quantity, if not quality".

She gazed up at me earnestly with her black, black eyes and my heart melted

Judi Bevan

The couple fell for her on the spot, and gave Hua Chun Rui an English name - Josephine.

"Josephine has always known what she likes," Judi says. "Within two days, she had abandoned congee -the bland rice porridge we were told she ate for breakfast - in favour of tasty Western milk formula."

Antibiotics quickly cured her chest infection. "By time she smiled on the third day, she was already transformed."

'My heart melted'

Judi believes it was fate that brought Josephine into her and John's life.

Happy together: Judi, Josephine and John

"In those first early mornings when I would give her milk, she would gaze up at me earnestly with her black, black eyes and my heart melted."

But the adoption process was fraught with problems. Social workers in the UK initially turned the couple down for adoption as being "too work-oriented, lacking in warmth and having no sense of joy at the prospect of having a child".

They were told that children from institutions should be regarded as having "special needs", and warned that they typically had difficulty bonding with new parents.

But Judi says that Josephine had a "desperation to bond" with the couple.

"She clung to John and me for the first three days, and by the end of the first week singled me out in an airport crowd at 50 yards."

Centre of attention

Josephine quickly adapted to her new life when she was brought into the UK. But the family often became the centre of attention.

"Passers-by don't realise we are her parents"

"When I walk through our local shopping centre with Josephine toddling a little behind, I often hear a cry: 'Whose baby is that?'

"'She is mine,' I say proudly. Because she is Chinese, and John and I are European, passers-by do not realise that we are her parents."

Having adopted a child of a different race, they don't have the dilemma of whether or not they should tell Josephine that she's adopted. "It is obvious," Judi says.

While sorting through photos taken during the trip to Hangzhou, Josephine points to one picture and announces that that was where she had been "found" - the doorstep of a courtyard.

First day of school

Monday is Josephine's first day at South Hampstead School for Girls, one of the top 50 schools in the UK. Just one in seven four-year-old applicants are successful.

"Josephine just went into the assessment and passed it and got a place," Judi says.

"It shows that you can pluck a child who had very little stimulation at the age of 17 months and three years later, she can get into a highly competitive school in the UK."

It also shows, she says, the wasted potential of children who weren't as lucky as Josephine.