一张珍贵照片的故事

这是个令人难以置信的故事，一位先生用了12年来寻找照片里的女孩，为了将珍贵的记忆还给她。在CRI将她的照片公布在网上后，人们认出了她的妈妈，从而找到了这位女孩。

It's as perfect an August day as you could ask for…And on a sunny rooftop patio…

Wang Weiguo is waiting.

His grandfather's old leather suitcase is beside him…And his eyes are on the door.

"I don't know how I'll feel when she gets here. Being speechless isn't good, but talking TOO much isn't good either, so I need to calm myself down before she arrives.

After 12 years, the girl in the photos is finally in Beijing.

"I'm dying to know what Joanna is like now. How tall is she? What does she look like? Of course, I've looked at her photographs countless times before. But those photos are from 12 years ago. What's she like now? I have no idea."

On the other side of Beijing…Joanna Syson is heading back to her old apartment block.

"…And this road didn't used to exist, even. This was the end of the road, this building. And nothing else used to exist around it. I felt like I was at the end of Beijing – and now in fact it's just the beginning!"

When Joanna and her neighbour Astra Holmes were in their twenties,this was one of the only compounds where foreigners could live.

"Yeah, it's changed a lot, actually - this didn't used to be here, Astra, all these shops and stuff.

They were young and single and ready for anything…and they called this place home.

"I spent hours and hours in the paint shop and I finally painted my flat canary yellow which was very unusual at the time – it was well exciting."

"Your place used to glow from the outside in the evening! (laughs)　

But over the past twelve years, visits back to Beijing have been bittersweet.

"It was every time. Every time I came back, you'd just get off the plane and drive into Beijing and all of those possessions that represented Beijing were just gone. It had a feeling of having lost something really important. It was a part of my life here for five years and then all of a sudden it was gone."

Today, that's all going to change. Wang Weiguo is giving her back…her precious memories.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Joanna has brought along someone who's not in the photos – her nine year old son, Victor.

Joanna is shy, and nervous about her Chinese…but she's really pretty fluent. She says she doesn't know how to begin.

Mr Wang agrees, and tells her he feels a bit like crying – but that he already knows her well.He's known her for 12 years.

She asks if he can even recognize her – back then she was a pretty young thing, and now, she says, she's an old woman.

No no, of course not, he says – every phase of life has its own beauty.

Mr Wang opens his grandfather's faded leather suitcase.He's labeled each photo in a manila envelope.

Since all her family's photos burned in a house fire in Norway…these are some of the only photos she has left.

Joanna can't believe her eyes.

"Look Victor, there's me and my mum on my first birthday…"

"And your dog."

"And there's my dog, Zorba! You never got to meet him."

"I wish I did."

"Yes, he was the sweetest little thing…"

And there's the very first picture Mr. Wang saw.The haunting photo of a young girl with long blond hair and piercing eyes.Her mum dressed her as a young Jodie Foster for a costume party.

"I'm five years old and I've got all my mother's fancy boas on and one of these bands around my head, and my mum put a bit of red lipstick on and she drew on eyebrows because, of course, I don't have any eyebrows…"

Watching Joanna pore through her photos is as incredible as Mr. Wang always imagined. But of course…it can't be easy to part with something that has been a part of his life…for over a decade.

"Of course I'll think about them a lot. Because I really worked hard for this for twelve years. But it's just as if I had adopted a child and raised him for years. If that child suddenly found his birth mother, of course I would bring him back to her. So of course in my heart I'll miss these photos a lot…but I'm so happy they have found their rightful owner."

Joanna also has a gift for Mr. Wang.

She's giving Mr. Wang the photo he first saw that day in Panjiayuan market…

The one of her in the feather boa, dressed as Jodie Foster.

It's the only one she has a second copy of. Now one will hang on her wall in London…and the other, in that old Chinese frame…will stay in the dutiful care of Mr. Wang.

For CRI, I'm Allie Johnson.