My six loyal readers will, by now, be wondering why the China Diary has been completely inert for the last month. I can't spare too much time for the details, but I can explain a bit, and promise that more is coming.

First, since the last instalments were published, I have been hired by a the Beijing office of a major public relations consultancy. The interview and hiring process consumed a lot of my attention during my last two weeks at Worldlink.

I had to be back in Beijing to start work on September 13th. That meant that I had just over two weeks in Singapore to help my wife prepare for a move to Beijing. As you can imagine, an overabundance of free time was not one of my problems.

But the long and the short of it is that I am now back in Beijing more or less permanently. That means that the China Diary will continue, now from the persepctive of a transplanted professional rather than a language student. Three further instalments are already planned. All I need now is a weekend or two to write them.

Keep checking!