It was a rainy day in February when Esther Frederick and her family drove south from the city of Changsha, China. After a few hundred miles, the roads became narrower as they roped around the mountains and through villages hidden by clouds. Esther’s mind was racing. She was on her way to meet her birth parents and identical twin sister for the first time.
Source: Esther Frederick Photography / Twitter / The Times, Liu Hongbin / Facebook / Esther Frederick Photography / The Times, Liu Hongbin / Los Angeles Times, Barbara Demick
What would they think of her? What would she think of them? As the car approached the Gaofeng village, they saw a girl standing in the middle of the road. Esther’s heart began to race. She knew in her gut that it was her twin sister, Shuangjie.
This is the story of how a set of identical twins, one American and one Chinese, reunited after nearly 17 years.