The small town that sparked a lifelong love of China: memories of teaching English in Anji, Zhejiang, where Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was filmed

One of my most vivid memories is of riding a fixed-gear bicycle through the streets of Anji, a town in northern Zhejiang province. It was 2006 and I had moved to China to take a job as an English teacher at a public vocational college. It was my first time living in China and I was completely hooked.

I had been given the bike by my school. It was painted ice blue with the words “Royal Voyager” written on the frame. It had a basket on the front, which I often filled with vegetables or groceries, or sometimes fast food, which I ate during severe bouts of homesickness. Most mornings, I pedalled a few streets from my apartment to the school, where I was the sole foreign teacher.

The scene was always a chaotic maze of pedestrians, cyclists, motorbikes, mopeds, tricycle rickshaws, taxis, cars, microvans and truck-like contraptions that came in varying shapes and sizes, often sputtering thick, black smoke.

Small towns are wonderful everywhere in the world – in part because a quality of life and a closeness to other people and nature can be, indeed needs to be, maintained – but I’ve never felt so connected to a community as while living in small-town China.