A few photos from our champagne moment

My name is Zhen and I came to Leeds in an aeroplane. I could crawl and I really cried because I didn’t Like baths. Now I go to school. I really enjoy it. I am 6 and this is me with my younger sister Zhou.

My name is Beci and I came to Leeds three and a half years ago to work with a theatre company. For me this city has opened up my creative side and put me in a context of amazing friends. I haven’t wanted to leave yet!

My name is Clare and in September I went to China for twelve days. It was a big deal for me. I left my lovely family behind (L) and as I left Rhea, Lauren and Lee in the car park at Leeds Bradford Airport I wondered, ‘what on earth am I doing. I must be mad.’ For the next two days I travelled on my own to a strange land where I didn’t speak any of the language. And over the next few days I found new depths of living that I didn’t know I had in me. I found new closeness of relationship with God that I have never experienced before – like he was standing at my shoulder the whole time. The best part of the trip was so many different things – being independent, surviving on my own, seeing new places and such beauty – I kept expecting Michael Palin to appear round a corner. The highlight of the trip was to travel up into the Karakoram Highway and have a meal in a Kurgher yurt. The family cooked yak’s meat stew and fresh naan and we drank yak’s milk tea. And the family who cooked our food sold us necklaces, hats and embroidery while we waited for the stew to cook. And the very best part of all… I had a ride on a camel. We rode along the sandy beach of a crystal blue lake surrounded by snow topped mountains. Does life get any better than this?