On 30^th June 2019, we squeezed all of our necessities into eight suitcases and boarded the plane from London Heathrow to Zhengzhou international Airport. We put all of our other belongings into storage. After two months of planning and anticipating, we moved our family from UK to China.

Some people thought it is crazy to leave behind a settled life in UK and move our girls out of a good private school in West Sussex. For me, it has never been so liberating and exciting. Here are the main reasons we decided to make the move:

Reuniting with my family in China and having their support. I have been in UK for over 11 years. It seemed the right thing to spend some quality time with my parents, both for myself and for us as a family. It is also a great opportunity for our girls to connect with the Chinese side of the family. While I really enjoy business travel, I feel uncomfortable about leaving the girls with someone other than our own family (it might just be my over-worrying mother instincts). It feels unreasonable to ask my parents to stay in UK with us as they don’t like traveling and can’t speak English. Going to them seemed a more workable plan.

Spending more time on myself. Glennon Doyle (the author of <Love Warrior> – a highly recommended book) says: “When women learn how to please, we forget who we are.” I carry a lot of roles in life most importantly being a mother and wife. Both roles tempt me to please all the time. But trying to please other people without looking after yourself is a recipe for disaster.  Sometimes, we lose ourselves and end up complaining about how hard it is just to be alive. The real problem lies within us as we forget who we are, what we enjoy doing, and what’s the anchor for our life. It takes time to rediscover and be happy with ourselves. Afterall, happy mother, happy kids! Happy wife, happy life! My parents’ support for our household would enable me to spend more time on myself.

Uncovering the mystery of doing business in China/APAC region. I wanted to have first-hand experience of what’s happening in the Chinese business world. I was also eager to experience and learn what’s like doing business in China at this very moment. What’s the Chinese business culture now for foreign businesses? What are the opportunities for a British business like ours? how difficult is it to set up a business presence in China? What are the processes involved? Who we can partner with to better service our international clients and partners? Meanwhile, setting up a China office to meet the demands of our clients and associates in APAC region is the next right thing to do for our business.

Improving our children’s Chinese language skills. It is a challenging task for me to teach my kids to learn Chinese in UK. Speaking is not the difficult part as I have been speaking Chinese to them since they were born. However, their Chinese speaking has been gradually declining since they started their formal schooling in UK. We hadn’t even touched writing and reading Chinese yet. For me, it is important for our kids to learn Chinese as this is the only way they can communicate with my parents and other Chinese family members. Foremost, they are both British and Chinese.

If you have previously relocated your family to a different country, what were your motivations? And if this is something you considering for the future, what would make you want to do it?