I made a lot of poor decisions in college in my personal life that led to me being severely depressed around the time of graduation so I really wanted to get away from it all, see the world and do some teaching as I had always thought my personality was suited towards teaching. I initially wanted to go to Korea but the process of criminal background checks, having my diploma apostatized  and such would have taken 3 months. I didn't want to sit around mom and dad's house after graduation so, wanting to come to Asia, I chose China instead. I intended to go back after a year but I've moved into a good gig in the teaching field and am now looking to pursue a career in education by getting a master's in America within the next couple of years.More importantly, I've recently married in China and have moved past the personal issues that were holding me back emotionally. So China was not my first destination, Korea was but China had less red tape. 

When I was a teenager, I got more and more interested by Vietnam : history, culture, the people. I kept dreaming about Vietnam, with the idealism of a teenager. In my home country, Vietnam have a strong appeal.

I reached my 19 years. I ended-up preparing a bike trip : from Hanoi to the Chinese border, by bike, alone. I took Vietnamese language classes, for the trip. I ended-up meeting other Vietnam dreamers, mostly half-blood kids, and Vietnamese students. And that summer, I did that trip. It was a very intense experience : alone, 19 years old, with all my stuffs in a small bag, and a bike. In the mountain, during the rain season. It blew my mind, the shy nerdy kid grew up a bit and came back home with stars in the eyes.

I kept learning Vietnamese. I managed to do a long summer university internship in a Vietnam, living with a Vietnamese family. The more l learned about Asia, the more questions I had. I idealized Asia, and everybody was saying it was were the future is. I started to fancy living in Asia once my studies completed. I felt in love with ... a Chinese student.

I was in love with a great, sweet, smart Dong Bei girl, and Vietnam. Being young, idealist and stupid, I thought I had to choose. I managed to repel the time to choose for a few years. But one day, I felt bring torn between the two was too hard to bear. I went for Vietnam. A few days after my graduation, I was off to Vietnam, with all my stuff. I felt it was destiny call.

My first year in Vietnam was very intense, amazing ... However, the pay was terrible, the career prospects close to hopeless. A 1 month road trip / trekk in Sichuan convinced me to give China a chance. I got a research fund in Hefei for year.

And it went very well. I missed Vietnam, a love story.... I went back there, but the same issues hit me again. I loved Vietnam, but I felt like fighting a up-hill battle, swimming against the flow of my life. No way I go back in Europe, it would feel like a defeat. I came back to China, my career took some momentum, I met the girl that would be my wife...

Why I left ? I decided to follow the white rabbit down his hole. And I arrived in China.

Long story short, Canada would not let my wife in the country, so I came here. Very likely if I attempted to get her there again, after 5 years of marriage and 3 years of my being here with her, Canada would let her in. 

But I am comfortable here now and, really I have little desire to go back to Canada. They pissed me off and China and Chinese have welcomed me. 

I am thinking about another country for the 2 of us. Maybe in a year or 2, we will go somewhere else. Open to suggestions.

For adventure and freedom.  Found both.

I'm here for no other reason than I was treading water at home in the U.S. and an opportunity arose to teach English in China. After comparing the money I was making working seasonally at $11 an hour with no benefits to working fulltime at a legitimate education company in China, I chose the latter. The original plan was to work hard for two years, save as much as possible, and then return to the States. Didn't happen that way. Almost seven years later, I'm still here. But ready to return home.

Asia had never really caught my fancy. Europe and South America seemed a better fit back then, but alas few well-paying jobs on those two continents. So, here in China I am. No great mystery: work brought me here.

Like DrMonkey, i too felt the appeal of Asia's promise, mystery and alleged culture. I also had a weakness for Asian girls' beauty, though there are beautiful women all over the world. My first 3 month experience was an internship in Thailand. A lot of it was good, but i got my first hints of backwardness there too: stubbornness, 'respect-my-culture-while-i-disregard-yours', strange foods, prostitution, poverty, desperation...
My 2nd experience was multiple vitits to Philippines (I collect shells, and PH has the world's highest mollusk biodiversity), where a girl systematically took my savings over the course of 2 years, and cheated on me 6 weeks after the wedding, with some millionaire BF of her close friend. She was quite proud of beating other pinay friends, who were also competing to get him behind their friend's back. Catholic, you say? Starving farmer first, appearances second!

Divorced and humiliated, i doubted I'd ever be a family man, with around 7 years' of savings gone to waste. but I met a Chinese girl who was crazy about me. Despite having been cheated and manipulated, this girl managed to make her adoration for me quite obvious. she didn't care that i wasn't rich; the nervousness in her voice was clearly love, not greed. In fact, starting out poor may even have been a boon for my relationship: With a nothing-to-lose attitude, I felt much less need to protect myself, so many arguments concerning money and trust were avoided.

I wasn't prepared to live in Thailand or Philippines, and though my reluctance for China was tempered by curiosity, we first wanted to try going to Holland.
Alas, immigration was more than difficult, as they were using my previous relationship as alleged evidence against me, claiming i was untrustworthy. The pinay ex took residence in Holland with her BF, all perfectly legal, but immigration simply stated: "Your invitee failed to return home upon her visa expiration."
I was making an appeal with a lawyer, but my newly wedded wife got tired of the wait, and made an ultimatum: "Come to China, or break up."
I thought it would work out OK, and although it ultimately has, I had no idea what I was letting myself in for at the time. Now, my famiily (2 young sons and a MIL) is hoping to finally move to Europe, once the house and school are sold.