How China changed my life

It was 2005 and I was planning a fun and scary summer in Beijing.

What happened that summer can only be described as the best and most strange phase in my life. I left knowing nobody and I made some of the best friends I have until now. I met a philosophy student and I was riding the oldest bicycle everyday through the crazy traffic in Beijing. I got something called spring conjunctivitis, making my eyes color yellow and I got as tanned as never before in my loved 40C Mexican beaches.

The author poses with her husband in an undated photo. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]?

We used to go to Wangfujing and Houhai lake to eat and visit the still new bars and we were all crazy competing to see who could buy the complete season of "Friends" the cheapest. As well, all the kids in my school were wearing the same "Abercrombie" and "Polo" shirts that they got for 20 rmb at the fabric market.

On the plane back, I was already missing China, and in my arrival, right at the airport I broke a 5-year-old relationship, convinced it was the best, but with no available logic explanation.

I founded my consulting-trading company on 2006. Since then, I traveled almost 30 different times to China. The first year was chaotic, visiting the Canton Fair for the first time, trying to explain my dad why I wanted to be there, sharing an apartment with 6 friends, and a dog.

Going to Hong Kong, Shanghai... every city was so beautiful, even with the rain, the shifus, the lines, the smells... Seeing China's development this decade has been a great honor. I rode the maglev before many other foreigners and I got to see how they finally installed a taxi stop, and how they closed so many markets...

When I was able to travel to Hangzhou by fast train, instead of the unforgettable bus. We worked for the Mexican government and some media agencies in 2008, for the Beijing Olympics, in April I was making a break to visit the Canton Fair, as usual.

One night, I did something I always forbid myself to. I was feeling that I made to stay in China, maybe alone, because no person I knew, understood what I was seeing everyday. Then, I went to a boat party with a rugby guy, he was a French guy, who rented his apartment to us for the fair. I was always scared of him, after all, rugby players seemed drunk and partying all the time for me. After a great tepanyaki, we went to this party and we kissed. I have no explanation yet, even to myself, but I ended staying with him for more than one year before we decided to get married.

I thought I was crazy before going to China, but now I am only thankful for all the crazy decisions. I have learnt to change and endure, and trying to imitate the Chinese. It's a culture I admire now, and I believe we got much to learn from each other.

Now my husband and I moved to Mexico, but I still travel to China very often, I moved my office to Guangzhou and I got a great Chinese manager taking care of everything. I cannot see a day when I will stop travelling there, China was the agent that changed the way of my life and I'm very happy it was so.

The author is from Mexico. She now lives between Mexico and China, she has got a great Chinese manager since she was looking forward to start a family and might need to travel a bit less to her beloved China for a little while. She will keep traveling to China with her husband hopefully all her life.

[Please click here?to read more My China stories. You are welcome to share your China stories with China Daily website readers. The authors will be paid 200 yuan ($30). Please send your story to mychinastory@chinadaily.com.cn.]