In early March this year, she had stood in front of the Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications in China in the rain, holding two umbrellas and some Vietnamese specialties.
She was waiting to meet Patrick Zhong, 31, her pen pal whom she had written to for more than five years.
When he arrived, she was surprised by his youthful appearance that contrasted with the mature tone in his messages. Meanwhile, the pilot from Shenzhen was impressed by her thoughtfulness at seeing the umbrella she had gotten for him.
The two then spent a few hours talking about work and life.
“I felt a spark back then, but chose to stay silent because I thought we live in two different countries and it would be hard to have a long-term relationship,” he recalls.
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Ngoc Anh, 24, and her boyfriend, Patrick Zhong, 31, at a wedding in Vietnam in 2026. Photo courtesy of Anh |
The two first knew each other in November 2020 when she was a freshman majoring in Chinese Language Studies at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
Wanting to find a native speaker to practice conversational reflexes, she registered an account on the international friendship platform Penpal World and posted an open letter.
Zhong, who was preparing to go to the United States for flight training at the time, got her email. Having been helped by many foreigners when he was learning English, he agreed to correct Anh’s Chinese homework as a way to repay that kindness.
For years, their emails only included pronunciation practice recordings, grammar exercises, and detailed correction notes from Zhong.
He initially viewed Anh as a younger sister due to their seven-year age difference. As she became more proficient in Chinese, they started emailing each other less frequently, but still followed each other on social media.
From afar, he followed her journey through every milestone, from graduating to starting work. Occasionally, he would message her, asking: “Have you been studying well lately?”
“I was always grateful to have a friend from afar who patiently cheered me on and followed my journey,” she says.
In September 2025, Anh went to Chongqing for her master’s degree. Half a year later, once her studies stabilized, she finally scheduled a meeting with her teacher to thank him in person.
Six months after their meeting in the rain in Chongqing, she went to Shenzhen and invited him out for dinner.
In a soft music lounge, they played “Truth or Dare”, a game requiring players to choose between truthfully answering a question or taking on a challenge. The questions gradually delved deep into their perspectives on life and love.
Sensing that they had the same outlook on life, he asked: “If you knew in advance that a relationship would be full of challenges, would you dare to start it?”
“I would still choose to start. I won’t give up on someone worth loving for fear of things that haven’t arrived yet,” Anh replied, looking straight at him.
Her answer helped him let go of his reservations about their geographical distance and cultural differences. He later asked her out on a date, to which she agreed.
Despite living 1,000 kilometers away from one another, the two agreed to meet at least once a month.
On days when he had a heavy flight schedule, he would land in Chongqing in the morning and leave the same evening. Knowing he was busy, Ngoc Anh would take a 40-kilometer car ride from her university to the hotel near the airport where he was staying.
“Every time he came to see me on his own, he always said he wasn’t tired. But when I traveled a long distance to be with him, Patrick always appreciated my initiative. It made me believe I had chosen the right person,” she says.
Since they could not be together often, during Vietnamese holidays, he would send flowers and handwritten cards in Vietnamese to her university. Whenever he ate a delicious dish in Shenzhen, he would find similar restaurants near Anh’s school in Chongqing to order food for her.
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Anh and Zhong at a friend’s wedding in Vietnam in 2026. Photo courtesy of Anh |
In early October, he traveled to Vietnam to attend Anh’s best friend’s wedding and meet her family. Before the trip, he taught himself basic conversational Vietnamese words like “xin chao” (hello), “cam on” (thank you), and the chant “do” (cheers).
While sitting with her parents and relatives, he shouted “do” but mispronounced it, causing the whole table to burst out laughing and breaking the initial awkwardness.
During this visit, he brought a traditional Zisha tea set from Jiangsu, China, as a gift for her paternal grandparents. He personally rinsed the tea set, brewed tea to serve the family, and showed her grandparents how to keep the tea warm. His meticulousness put Anh’s family at ease and won their support for the relationship.
She currently has two years left of her master’s program. After she graduates, the couple plan to move to the same city before getting married.
They video-call each other every evening. Now that she is proficient in Mandarin, she has begun learning Cantonese, the dialect of her boyfriend’s hometown. Zhong is once again her “teacher,” correcting each syllable for her just as he did six years ago.