Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@163.com

FOR some people, there are places that once they set foot there they don’t want to leave. For Beatrice Szkaluba, Shenzhen is the city with such magnetism.

Beatrice and her husband have been living in Shenzhen for three years and three months. She is a French teacher at Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School and her husband is an architect at an architecture company in Futian District.

“We discovered China 20 years ago and we’ve traveled to China nine times with our sons. Each time we would stay for a month in China and every day we discovered something new,” said Beatrice.

Beatrice said her husband found a job in Shanghai at first. However, when her husband received an offer from a Shenzhen company, and they actually came here, Beatrice didn’t want to leave.

“I think it’s the best city in China for foreigners. I like the climate so much. It’s near the sea. We like to go swimming in Dapeng or Dameisha. It’s also a very green city and I like to ride bicycles on the greenways,” said Beatrice.

Beatrice is also an enthusiast of Chinese culture. In her apartment, there are a lot of Chinese elements, such as a wooden cabinet painted bright red, a Buddha ornament, Chinese calligraphy and pottery.

In addition to studying Chinese at Shenzhen University, Beatrice takes calligraphy lessons twice a week and makes pottery. Before she came to China, Beatrice had studied tai chi in France for five years. Recently, she began learning how to play mahjong.

Beatrice said her interest in Chinese culture was kindled 15 years ago when she was in France. “We have a Chinese club in our town, which provides Chinese lessons and organizes many events, such as exhibitions, for the local people.”

Beatrice and her husband are fond of traveling and enjoy visiting old towns and museums in different cities in Guangdong.

“It’s funny that we travel a lot on holidays and now we feel at home when we come back to Shenzhen. We feel that we belong here,” she said.