Hello, my name is Jon. Here's more: http://www.hongkongcupid.com/Member_Profile.cfm?ID=28689 At this time, I've learned nothing! All I have is a burning desire to travel China and to read, write and speak Mandarin with acceptable proficiecy. Perhaps I can contribute by teaching English to Chinese citizens. One of my goals is to drive my 4WD vehicle, from the southern most part of Hainan Island to the northern most point of Heilongjiang . . . and from the east coast of Taiwan to as far west as I can go, in Xinjiang! In my travels, I hope to see many beautiful landscapes and sites of great historical interest, but most of all, I want to meet the people and gain an understanding of China's culture . . . it's customs and cuisines! A definite destination is a town in Guangxi, called Bama, where I intend to conduct research into the longevity of the inhabitants. Surely, I should end this introduction, before you've been bored to sleep. Unfortunately, italki.com has embarrassed me, before I've written my first entry, because I now note below, my entry was supposed to be written in Mandarin. This is not possible, since I can't read, write or speak Mandarin. However, for the last three years, I've been volunteering to assist (tutor) people from several countries to pass their IELTS tests! For this reason, it's been my pleasure to meet many College students in China. Of course, being students they were determined to have me saying something and here's what we put together and being polite and kind as they were, they claimed I did well saying, "Ni hao, wo de xiao peng you?" That's it! The sum total of my knowledge of Mandarin. Oops, I lie . . . hahaha! I suddenly recall, they also taught me a few other words . . . "kuai kuai, le le" . . . "wan an" . . . "xie xie" . . . "ai ni" . . . I think that's it! Certainly, it's all I can remember! Thank you for your time . . . bye for now and please take care of yourself, until we meet?