Last Thoughts
In our final meeting with Director Tong, we inquired as to what he is most proud of accomplishing and wishes to study in the future. He responded that the thousands of children they had represented and the families they had helped was all worth the work of creating a legal aid society and a research center studying children’s rights. He is hoping to continue research on whether the Internet should be more heavily regulated, how to protect children from its more sinister sides, and the consequences of such use in the society at large. 
Director Tong also mentioned that he was very happy to have lended so much legal help to migrant workers, who are not in the know about their rights as workers. China does not allow the creation of unions, nor do many migrant workers have a formal relationship with their employer (working day by day off the books). Most cannot visit their family much, nor are they permitted to move their family into a city, and so they take hours of transport to see their families when possible. As such, they do not have many resources in the city, do not comprehend the ramifications of injuries in a nonformal work setting, or have any idea as to where to turn for legal aid with little disposable income. The firm has thus accomplished incredible work representing clients who would not receive any medical insurance or workers’ compensation after suffering injuries on the jobs, nor would their families receive anything should a worker die on the job. As of now, about twenty years after Zhicheng Public Interest Lawyers began representing migrant workers, the migrant workers community in Beijing know them well through personal experience or word of mouth, spreading the news that there is a place to go for help when they find themselves in a legally tricky situation so far from their hometown.
The past ten weeks have been difficult in many ways and rewarding in others. I am proud to have lended a hand in helping research topics that are being debated in both the China and the USA, and hope to continue helping those around me as I watched the lawyers at the nonprofit do every day. 
On our last day in Beijing, our landlord and his 6-year-old son, to whom Sarah and I taught 8 hours of English every week while there, took us up into the Central Television Tower to see the city from its highest point. They dropped us off at Jingshang Park, so we climbed up the manmade hill to also look out upon the Forbidden City from up high. It was a very beautiful and poignant way of rounding out our weeks in China. Though I will be happy to return to what I know and love, I will miss the friends I made, the little boy I taught, and so many other incredible historical, cultural, and gastronomic elements of the country. What an incredible summer I was fortunate enough to have!