Ryan's called China home for nearly seven years now. A short time to some, a long time to others, for him it's just right.
In addition to creating Lost Laowai, he also runs Hao Hao Report and China Blog Network. Follow him on Twitter @ryanmmclaughlin.
Nicki's lived in Hainan with her husband Erik since 2005. She hangs out in Haikou these days with her two pet dogs, Baozi the Dingo and Mocha the Mutt, reading the internets and pretty much anything else she can get her hands on. When there's nothing else to read she figures it must be time to write something instead...
Michael has lived in China on-and-off since 2007. After having spent the past twenty odd years as a student, he is now starting out life as a teacher. He can currently be found in China’s other spring city of Jinan, Shandong.
Marian may not know where she is, how she got there, or how her current location relates to where she wants to be, but she never ever gets lost.
She initially came to China as an English teacher in 2002. She's still here.
Last year she stopped being a freelancer and registered the first wholly foreign owned translation agency in Hainan Province.
Becky came to China in 2009 with her husband expecting to stay for half a year. Three years later they have no plans to leave. In addition to teaching English, she spends her time studying Chinese, traveling and drinking as much tea as she can get her hands on.
A relative newcomer to China, Tom lives and works at a university in small-town Henan. As well as being a teacher, he's also a writer. Together, that tends to mean lazy. In his case though, sitting around qualifies as 'thinking time' and is actually hard work. Honest.
Gabriel has been living in Beijing for three and a half years. He originally came here to get a master's degree, then studied Chinese for a year, and now he works. He doesn't feel "lost" at all in China, at least no more than anywhere else in the world.