SOUTH POINT — A Chinese foreign exchange student who went missing but returned to the area voluntarily a little more than month later, has now reluctantly been sent back to her home country, according to her host family.

Xinyan Lin, 17, a junior at South Point High School, came back to her host family safely recently after being in New York City since March 3, when she was seen getting into a van at the Solida Road Speedway, according to her host father, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Lin had come to the United States in late December for one semester.

The teen was reportedly in the downtown area of New York City with a friend from China and possibly her friend’s family, though details of her time in the city are sketchy. She was not harmed or injured in any way during her time away, according to her host father.

The father said she was comfortable being around people with the same cultural background and found the city exciting, but was more than eager to return to South Point.

“She knew that she could not go to school or have an opportunity to go to college because her visa was valid only through the foreign exchange program,” her host father explained.

The day of her disappearance, Lin left a note saying that she was going to New York for a week with a female friend, but would be back. Her host family became extremely concerned when she did not come home after that time and brought in several law enforcement agencies for their help.

The family had correspondence with Lin during the time she was away and after a few weeks the teen said she wanted to come back to South Point.

He had feared that the girl was taken against her will and was in situations she was not mature enough or familiar enough with American culture to handle.

“I guess this is the best case of a bad scenario,” her host father said.

Just a few days after returning to South Point,

Zin was sent back to China by the exchange student program she was enrolled in— the Academic Year in the United States of America — because she violated the program’s rules.

Her host father said Lin was extremely distraught about having to leave the country and did not want to return home to China.

He said the teen did not realize the seriousness of her actions and was surprised that so many people were concerned about her well-being. Lin thought she would come back to South Point and not be reprimanded by the foreign exchange program, her host father said.

“When I showed her the article in the paper, she just started to bawl,” her host father said. “She didn’t know about what we were going through or that it was this serious.”

He said the teen’s departure for China was difficult for his family and more heart breaking for Lin.

“She didn’t want to go. It was painful to see her bawl for an hour-and-a-half,” he said.

If she wanted to come to the United States to escape conditions in China, his family would have helped her, he said; the family would have helped her graduate high school, even college, and would have helped her get the paperwork needed to remain in the country.

Because her visa has now been revoked she was made to leave the country. In the Communist country of China, her host father said a person who comes back into the country after leaving cannot obtain another visa for two years.

The host family has offered to take the teen in again when she is able to return to the U.S. For now, they are happy to get the sporadic e-mails they get from Lin.

“Her family was not aware that she was going to do this (go to New York), so I’m sure they are very upset. I don’t know if they have grounded her. She might have limited access to the computer, so we get about one e-mail a week,” Lin’s host father said.

He said Lin has not returned to school in China because she has missed too much of the academic year.