My exposure to the Asian region came from a girl from Thailand that sat next to me while taking English and History courses at the university.  She was gorgeous, and every guy except me will hit on her to no avail, she will not date anyone.  One day she asked me why I never asked her out, and my replied was I had a GF, so we became friends, and she told me many stories about her life in Thailand.  So, I always dreamed of visiting Asia,  and in 1996 finally managed it after acquiring a travel agency and getting large discounts in air fares and hotels.  Since 1996 I have visited many Asian countries, and in 2009 decided to live in China the rest of my life.

Funny do, I have tried many times to locate that girl from Thailand, but never could.

I saw that my university had just began offering Mandarin courses, and I wanted to take one. The book made it so easy to learn basic Chinese, I thought about going to China. After taking a trip there, I decided I wanted to spend more time in the country. I hope this is just the beginning of my journey, but I guess you could say a book triggered my curiousity about China.