Home Away From Home

Name: Hanna Originally from: Seoul, Korea Years in China: 17 Occupation: Opera singer, vocal trainer, music and Korean language teacher How did your China journey begin? My first time in China was 18 years ago. I visited Xiamen as a tourist with my mum, my aunt and her daughters. Not many tourists came here at

Name: Raj Years in China: 21 Years Occupation: Interior Designer Country of Origin: Singapore, of 3rd Generation Singaporean Indian How did your journey in China begin? The first time I step foot on Chinese soil was in 1997 when I went to Beijing for a work trip regarding the design of a hotel there. Coming

Name: Jenny Liang Country of Origin： Philippines Occupation: HR & Training Supervisor for Sealand Maritime Service Co. Ltd. Years in China: 16 years and 1 month How did your journey in China begin? After my college graduation, I met up with my high school friend, Renelyn, who was at that time working as a foreign

Name: Biba Urška Originally from: Slovenia Years in China: almost 10 Occupation while in China: Student Biba’s unique China story, written by Biba Urska: My husband and I lived in Xiamen for almost ten years, but apart from colleagues or friends in groups involved in saving animals, we didn’t meet that many other foreigners. The

Name: Jennifer Gunter Originally from: Huntsville, Ontario, Canada Years in China: 4 Occupation: Teacher, department chair, college counselor and voleyball coach! Written by: Jennifer Gunter When I tell many people that I live in China, they ask me questions about crowds, traffic, and other problems that they’ve heard exist in China.  I’ve been living internationally

Name: Alonso Quijano Originally from: Ecuador Occupation: Economist / Ocarina musician Years in China: 5 How did your China journey begin? My journey began in 2011 when I started studying at the Confucius Institute of Ecuador. I fell in love with the language right away and committed to studying Mandarin Chinese until I could speak

Name: Graham Faulkner Originally from: The United Kingdom Occupation: Translator Years in China: 18 People often ask me why I came to China. To be honest, I’ve never really had a quick and ready answer to that question, other than simply saying that I was curious. I didn’t know much about China before I arrived

Name: Atul Verma Occupation: Yoga Instructor Country of origin: India Years in China: 13 years How did your journey in China begin? My journey started in 2008 in Xiamen. It all started with when my previous employer came to India that year and saw what I was capable of. I had been offered an opportunity

Name: Andre Country of origin: Germany Occupation: Former Technical Manager in Construction and current Gelato Master Years in China: 14 How did your journey in China begin? I used to work in the construction industry in Germany and in 2006 I got the opportunity to interview for a job as a Construction Manager for the

Name: Lucía Fajardo Country: Uruguay Occupation: Sales Representative Years in China: 11 years (on and off) How did you journey in China begin? It all started with a phone call where a friend told me about scholarships to China to study the language back in 2010. Without hesitation, or being very aware of what I