Why I Love China
By Damian Harper, Author
A passion for Chinese martial arts saw me enrolling for a four-year degree in modern and classical Chinese at university in London back in the 1990s. They were fun days, when travelling China was testing but exciting in equal measure. Must-see hotspots like Píngyáo were unheard of and Shànghǎi’s Pǔdōng was a cocktail-free flatland. I could say it's the fantastic food, the awesome landscapes, the fun of train travel, the delightful people or pitching up in a small town I’ve never been to before, and I wouldn’t be lying. But it’s the Chinese language I still love most of all.