Kindred neighbor

From where he can see, there are more Chinese who go to Thailand for jobs than Thais who come to China for that purpose "maybe because the Chinese language is too difficult for them". His grandfather hailed from China and his father can still speak the Chaozhou dialect, but "Putonghua is really hard even for them".

Swaisomseekun, who speaks Chinese with some hesitation but little accent, communicates with his colleagues in Mandarin. He considers that and traveling his hobbies.

Since his family is not with him in Guangxi, he flies back home for summer and winter vacations, a flight of merely two hours from Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Two decades ago, Swaisomseekun toured Beijing with a group, and he found northern China's cold and dry weather intimidating. He is eager to discover the wintry landscape such as Heilongjiang province, but fears that his health would not permit it. The Chinese place he is most eager to set foot on is Yunnan province, partly because of its bright sky and tropical weather.

Traveling around

Last year he had his children come to China and showed them around. Normally he Skypes with them, an 18-year-old and a 14-year-old who are planning for college in North America. Their second foreign language is Chinese, he adds. "I love Chinese and they may have come under my influence."

Swaisomseekun says he is grateful to China for the opportunity "to learn the things and to know the wonderful people".

"Our feelings and traditions in Thailand and in China are almost identical. My stay here has been very happy because I don't feel much difference or alienation," he adds. He has a Chinese name and everyone on campus calls him "Teacher Cai".

The most important piece of advice Swaisomseekun has for Chinese who visit his home country and for Thais who visit China turns out to be the same: Do not just stay in the glittering cities and sightsee the tourist hotspots. Venture outside to small places, to the countryside for instance, and mingle with the ordinary people. You'll be rewarded with such amazing discoveries about the "spirit of the countries" that you'll have a whole new understanding and appreciation of them.