Leaving is hard after China worked its way into my affection

These are sad times - or at least, they are for me. After two years working in China, circumstances dictate that I must leave and head back to the United Kingdom.

I regret having to say farewell to this country, and that in itself is quite remarkable because before I came to China I didn't have any particular fascination with the place at all. Shortly after I arrived at China Daily, I was asked to write a column about my first impressions of the country.

That was a tough one because my first impression of Beijing was that it looked very much like any other city - lots of tall buildings, congested roads, concrete everywhere and not too much that you could call distinctively Chinese.