The overwhelming sense of Deja Vu I found myself experiencing on the 28th of December had less to do with traveling to the Chinese Visa Office in London, than the recognition that it was exactly the same time of year in 2019 I harried officials for my permission to travel then. A circle is about to be completed. After almost exactly three years since having embarked on an odyssey to the Orient I find myself preparing to return to China, not as an errant traveller revelling in the chaos of adventuring across the world, but with a new purpose, a love and a job. Taking all my cards and throwing them in the air to see where they landed in January 2020 had changed my life in ways that I had never anticipated. One of those being a burning desire to find a way back to a land where the rigid rules of Covid prevented any hope of return. The 18 months since leaving China had been filled with finding a way to achieve that goal. One had been presented to me in the shape of an acting job with Universal Studios Resort Park who were looking for actors to play roles in their Harry Potter world. It had been a slow process since submitting an audition tape in July to finaly handing in my passport, with work permit and additional documentation to the officials to ‘rubber stamp’ my journey back at the end of January 2023. I arrived in China in 2020 as the early throes of a pandemic was beginning its dramatic grip on the world. I received messages entreating me to come back to England and not go to China as people were ‘dying in the streets’ and as I now prepare to embark on my trip back similar warnings, echoing the cries to halt my plans, are being heard as the recent dramatic change in China’s hard line zero tolerance policy have precipitated a wave of the virus sweeping the land. As before, my eyes are firmly fixed on the goal and with unwavering confidence in my health and China I go forth. If I learned one thing from my18 month stay in the country the representation of China in the world media was negative and bore scant veracity with what I experienced. I am excited to be returning as part of the culture opposed to being an observer as well as returning to resume a relationship which had withstood the trials of a long separation. As I handed in the completed paperwork the thrill, the fresh insights of working and living in China again would bring, filled my spirit and not even the inclement, persistent rainy weather, losing my rail ticket and a row with rail guard could dampen the joy I felt.