Unexpected gift opens possibilities of China

Philadelphia Inquirer, The, November, 2006 by Kate Small

This summer, standing on a bustling street corner in Beijing, not quite believing I was there, among bicycles wheel to wheel with cars and buses, horns honking and lights flashing, I was brought back to moments as a child at the Wanamakers Christmas show, where each year I stood beneath the lights and wondered at the magic unfolding before me.

With money that I inherited, unexpectedly, from an aunt who worked all of her life in the hosiery department at Wanamakers, I boarded a plane in July with my 16-year-old daughter and flew to China, a place I'd only dreamed of seeing. Standing on those streets in the traditional neighborhoods of the Hutong, the walled courtyards and passageways opening before me, every part of me tingled with anticipation. Yet there was this strong connection to Wanamakers, to what I'd known as a child, and to a sense of possibility that ...