In the spring of 2018 our first group travelled, on our Vegan Lingnan journey. Eight guests: three from Shanghai, two from Beijing, one from Hong Kong, one from Taipei, one from Singapore.
Over six days they ate morning tea together in the old streets of Xiguan, listened to the bell in the Guangxiao Temple refectory, and shared a pot of tea under the banyans on Shamian Island. Nobody expected that the first two to become friends would come from completely different worlds — a private-equity partner from Shanghai and an illustrator from Taipei.
At the last morning tea the partner said something we later used to open our brand story: 'I have worked in finance for twenty years, and this is the first time I have felt that slow is not the opposite of efficient.'
Eight years on, six of those eight have booked at least three more journeys with us. People often ask what a vegan travel company actually sells; the first Vegan Lingnan group is probably the answer.
We still take out the photograph of that first group. Some of the eight have moved city, some have changed industry, but every Spring Festival the group chat comes alive again. In this line of work the greatest satisfaction has never been the itinerary itself, but which people it brings to the same table.