Graham Keens

Hi Im Graham Keens, a British National and am happily married with 2 children. My wife Azenith is from the Philippines. She is 12 years younger than I and together we are raising our 2 daughters Jojo and Jasmine whom are 7 and 5 respectively. I came to China a year earlier than my following family as I wanted to experience China first, get settled in and then send the invitation. I was very surprised with what I found, especially how incredibly friendly and calm the Chinese people are; along with the multitude of beautifully manicured parks found in Chinese cities. I Knew that my family would enjoy China, especially meeting the Chinese people and playing in the parks. They took their first ever flight together from Manila to an awaiting and very excited husband and father.

My wife had never before left the Philippines and so before my familys arrival last year I was very apprehensive that she would not enjoy China due to homesickness. My fears however did not come to fruition and my wife has thoroughly enjoyed her stay and made many new friends. She has also spent time learning Mandarin and is streets ahead of me in her vocabulary and pronunciation. I was not so worried about my daughters as they are both at a very flexible period of their young lives.

They arrived in the beautiful month of October and quickly settled in our apartment in Wuxi.   Slowly but surely they have become accustomed to how the Chinese people do things and started to enjoy their experience of living in the confines of a different culture. At first my wife found it very embarrassing that she could not understand the friendly and curious locals. Language has been the only minor problem that we have had and smiles always seem to work. Although conversing has had its difficulties it has also been fun overcoming such barriers. It has really become clear how much body language is used to convey messages, and we have found a pointing finger as the best weapon to feed ourselves. Chinese food is not only delicious, it is also extremely quick to be served. Pleasing my children has also not been a problem as there is a multitude of gastronomical choices to be found.

During the time spent in China my wife and I have been teaching our children at home. My wife teaches in a very practical manner; a hands-on approach with lots of ideas coming from the internet and whatever my children would like to learn for the day. We have not pushed them along any set curriculum rather we have been guiding them to have an interest in learning and find their own way. My wife and children have helped with my teaching props and videos; they have been involved in small stage productions of animal hand-puppets. The have also helped with dialogue making small clips for my amused student audience at the school in which I teach. Outside the house however, is China proper and this is a place of discovery and self-discovery.

Meeting the locals along with becoming accustomed to the culture is without doubt the highlight of being in China and I highly recommend anyone to come here for this reason alone. Another reason for families to come and top of our favorites list has to be the park-life. The parks in China, both large and small are incredible; manicured and beautiful, their is rarely any rubbish to be seen and there are plenty of extremely clean toilets to be found. Parks with water, parks with flowers, parks with amusements and plenty of free exercise equipment make park-life a must. There are parks to be found everywhere in China, the majority are free and are extremely easy to get to.

The transport system in China is not only wonderful but is also incredibly cheap; with the buses being free for children. This has been a great help in keeping our outgoings down whilst enabling us to easily get around. Buses are extremely frequent and the trains are beautifully fast. Even the taxis are very reasonably priced. For me however, the big thing is the bicycle lanes. Not for the faint-at-heart, they are everywhere following the side of roads. They are not the safest of places and cars are often seen entering and parking in the lanes as well as cutting across. I cannot say that the Chinese are the safest of drivers as there is quite a lot of carnage at junctions where road and cycle paths meet. However, we have cycled together without any such disasters.

Another very important factor for our family is personal safety, and we have found ourselves to feel extremely safe whilst living here. In the time spent in China we have never witnessed any crime whatsoever. We have all felt extremely relaxed, day and night, for sure China is an extremely safe place to come and stay. 

China has been a great experience for all of our family. Our eyes have been widened by the immersion in another culture, and we will keep these memories for ever. For me to sum-up our family experience in China in a single sentence, would be as follows: Never a bad moment, the Chinese people and their beautiful parks have made our visitation a sweet and very memorable experience.