Personal statements of Avery, Paul, and Robyn Kimberlin regarding the adoption of Avery Kimberlin from the Xuzhou Social Welfare Institute in Jaingsu Province, China. Avery briefly shares her thoughts on adoption, Paul describes the joy he has in being a parent, and Robyn shares some details of her background and how her and Paul arrived at the decision to adopt. There is a photo of Avery on the first page and a photo of the Kimberlin family on the third page of the document.

Personal statements of Charlotte Cotter and Willa Mei Kurland regarding their adoptions from Zhenjiang City in Jiangsu Province (Charlotte) and from Urumqi in Xinjiang Province, China. The statement begins with a brief overview of their trip to China to search for their birth families, then has reproduced their blog posts from their time in China. The blogs, written by both Charlotte and Willa, contain their reflections on the experience and describe the methods they used to search. The last couple pages include photos Willa and Charlotte and links to youtube videos.

Outer Edges of the Middle Kingdom is a narrative by the author about his two years as a teacher in the People's Republic of China. Organized chronologically, the account begins in August, 1985, and ends in June, 1987. The narrator describes meeting students at Tianjin University, Tianjin, China, designing English classes for English majors, daily episodes in the classroom, and interaction with Chinese colleagues. The narrative alternates between life on a university campus and extensive trips the narrator made to various cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Kunming, Guilin, Harbin, Hohot, and Guangzhou. Also recounted are the narrator's reactions to the student demonstrations of December, 1986, and the resulting anti-bourgeois liberation campaign of January-April, 1987.