Name: Tania Branigan
From: Sheffield
Lives in: Beijing

“At the age of 16, my Thai-Chinese grandmother tried to run away to China to join the revolution - her parents discovered her plan and cancelled her boat ticket. Almost 70 years later, I made the journey she planned. So I often think of her; especially when I meet older women here.”

Tania came to China at the start of 2008 as China correspondent for The Guardian – a job she had coveted for years. Since then she has covered stories ranging from snowstorms to the Olympics and from unrest in Tibet to relations with North Korea.

Reporting on the Sichuan earthquake was unforgettable. Despite the devastation, Tania found it uplifting in many ways; the survivors were strong, determined and kind. Two encounters stand out. The first was with a family who had not eaten for days, but refused food or water because others might need it more. The second, with a 17-year-old boy who had been pulled out of the wreckage of his school and seen several of his classmates die – but was worried about Tania’s safety and whether she had eaten.

Other stories have included the opening of the world’s first Barbie flagship store and the crash in the recycling market. She has interviewed yak herders in Tibet, a military missile researcher turned matchmaker in Shenzhen and the 102-year-old “father of pinyin”.  Reporting doesn’t leave much spare time, but what she has is used practising Chinese with patient friends and eating her way round China

For personal and professional reasons she thinks there’s nowhere else to be but in China.  It’s a huge, diverse country full of remarkable people with fascinating stories – and changing at a breakneck pace.