Life of Guangzhou - Korean Backpacker: The Journey of a Lifetime

With short curly hair and a sweet smile, Korean Kim Hyejin speaks fluent Mandarin. She has developed deep roots with the land and the language.

Three years ago Hyejin was still a Chinese-language student in Shanghai, attending the prestigious Fudan University. Whilst backpacking though Yunnan, in the peaceful town of Dali she met her boyfriend – a young Chinese man today living in Guangzhou. He was considerate and humorous; they shared the same interest in traveling and quickly fell in love. At the end of 2007, she finally decided to settle in Guangzhou and give their relationship a future.

Hyejin is a backpacker and she loves to travel on her own. "I used to go with friends but I found I prefer strolling around places with no fixed destination. I don't like "self-mistreating" voyages. People, scenes and food are what attract me the most."

She has ventured in the heart of Hualien, considered "the last pure land in Taiwan." "People there are quite plain and generous. Once, when I missed the last bus, they helped me reach my destination, driving me there on their motorbike. I have explored almost every part of the island but I want to return. I can not forget the pig's blood soup in eastern Taiwan."

Now living in Guangzhou, Hyejin works as a Korean teacher in a university and has no difficulty communicating with her students thanks to her fluent Mandarin. But with the number of Koreans in Guangzhou increasing rapidly, she soon wishes to start teaching them Chinese.

(By Jessie Hwang, David Keyton)