It is 8,045 miles, which is roughly a 15 hour and 40 minute nonstop flight, from Hong Kong to New York.

Po and Laiping at the airport in New York

Even though they had support from family, moving to a foreign country with a baby was a challenge that Sze and Po could not prepare for. The biggest challenge they came across was the language barrier. They came to America only knowing how to speak Cantonese; this barrier would prevent them from being able to take full advantage of the opportunities around them. First, they were not able to get high paying jobs because those jobs required English communication skills. Many immigrants had jobs that were manual labor and very low pay because those were the only jobs that did not require them to speak much English; this also caused money to be a major issue. Sze got a job in a Chinese restaurant as a cook, and Po got a job as a seamstress. Both jobs allowed them to earn money without needing to speak English. Additionally, when going around the city they had to figure out directions on their own because they could not communicate with the English speakers around them. It was troubling having to figure out different signs and directions to where they lived. They memorized many paths to where they needed to go so they wouldn’t rely on the English signs. Another huge adjustment they had to make was adapting to the food. They didn’t know anything about American food, so when they would go to the supermarket they couldn’t find any of the food that they were familiar with.