In January 2004, Steve Carpenter arrived in Jingshan, Hubei Province in central China, with his wife and three young children, where he was going to open a new chapter in his life. He was to work as the general manager of Diamond Power Machine (Hubei) Co. Ltd., one of the first foreign joint ventures in the province.
Life in Jingshan was full of fun. As almost the only expats in the city, the Carpenter family was popular among locals and many wanted to get pictures with the Carpenter children when they walked through