A trailblazer's love for China continues for decades

Editor's note: China Daily presents the series Friends Afar to tell the stories of people-to-people exchanges between China and other countries. Through the vivid narration of the people in the stories, readers can get a better understanding of a country that is boosting openness.

For the past four decades, David Edgren and his family from the United States have found themselves closely tied to Taiyuan, a city in North China's Shanxi province.

Their link with the provincial capital can be traced to a day in 1984, when 13-year-old Andy Edgren of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, returned home from summer camp.