Born in China and raised in the US, Columbia University student Joey Zhang returned with a China-US youth exchange – and found both new friendships and a new connection to his roots.

He recalls two new friends taking a taxi to the Great Wall after missing the bus, swapping WeChat contacts, discovering they liked some of the same music and talking about the same worries over school and the future.

Different backgrounds, familiar feelings. For Joey, the trip became a reminder that beneath the labels, "we are all just humans."