Life

Finding her way around most of China

By Mike Peters (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-01 15:49

She didn't know it at the time, but 10 years as an airforce doctor would launch Dr Robyn Searl into what has become her life's work.

"It was a natural progression," says the Australian physician who has since spent 15 years with International SOS, eight of them in China. "Besides taking care of the military pilots, we were on call for all sorts of evacuations and transporting patients by air." 

In her eight years in China, Dr Robyn Searl has pursued travel, culture and crickets.

Those are key functions of her current employer. Heart attacks, strokes and major vehicle accidents are the most common calls to International SOS — a company that helps organizations manage the health and security risks that face their travelers and expatriates. But if a hiker falls from a rural mountain or a stroke victim isn't near a big-city hospital, the company can arrange to transport the patient to an appropriate medical facility.

Her years in China have taken her all over the country — she's set foot in all but five provinces and municipalities. At the top of her list of places still to see: Changbai Shan, the massive peak on the border of Jilin province and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"I've loved the chance to travel around the country, whether for my job or on holiday," she says. "I am a big fan of the China Culture Center (based in Beijing and Shanghai), and I've taken quite a few trips through its travel program."

She also visits the center's Beijing headquarters for all kinds of classes. "Cooking, water colors, chop-making, fabric dyeing, cut-paper crafting, I've tried it all," she says with a grin. "Some more successfully than others."

CCC's annual class on cricket culture was so compelling that Searl attended three times.

"I didn't actually buy a cricket until this year," she says. "I finally got brave — before that I was afraid that the neighbors would complain that it annoyed them.

"The crickets make an amazing sound. Mine sounded just like sleigh bells."

And how is life with her cricket?

"Well, he's dead," she says, quickly adding that the insects only live for about 100 days and generally go to cricket heaven once cold weather arrives.

But Searl is so cricket-keen, there may be more in her future. "It was so interesting to go to the cricket market here and see all of the paraphernalia, the feeding dishes and so on."

Her only cricket of the moment is an app on her iPhone — a creature that once surprised her with a life of its own.

"Somehow, it was activated by motion or sound one time when I was in a taxi," she recalls, "and the taxi driver had a cricket in his pocket. Suddenly, my ‘cricket' and his cricket were talking to each other. It was kind of hilarious."