In 1998 I successfully applied to the non-profit charity The Project Trust, securing a place on their gap year programme and a positionas an oral English teacher at Xijiang University, Zhaoqing in the southern province of Guangdong.
Between August 1998 and August 1999, while I was 17 years of age, I lived, worked and travelled while teaching daily classes to first and second year students. This was barely one year after the handover of Hong Kong back to mainland China and proved an intersting time to experience the start of what would be many changes to the country and its political structure.
My biggest regret is that digital photography had not yet emerged and my photographic record of such a significant year is consequently limited to what I was able to afford on ¥800/month, and eventually carry home via 24/36 reels of analogue film.
