Nationality: Philippines

Birthday: 1951/04/05

Email: jaime.florcruz@cnn.com

I am Jaime FlorCruz, Jimi to friends, also known as in Chinese.

I first arrived in Beijing in August 1971. Only 20 years old, I was one of the 15 Filipino youths who were invited by the China Friendship Association for a three-week study tour. By a strange quirk of fate, I stayed on and, 36 years later, I'm still here.

Through the years, I have had some very interesting experiences in China. In 1972, I planted rice, picked tea leaves and fed pigs in a farm in Hunan Province. A year later, I worked on a trawler for a Shandong fishing company.

In Beijing, I learned Mandarin at the Beijing Languages Institute (1974-76) and earned a degree in Chinese history at Peking University (1977-82). I love sports and singing. I used to play basketball on Peking University's varsity team and, along with Ms Peng Wenlan, taught English songs on CCTV's weekly program "English on Sunday". I also taught conversational English to students at Beijing Normal College and to teachers at Peking University who were preparing for their post-graduate studies overseas.

Beijing has brought me countless blessings. I met my Filipino wife and raised my two children here. It was also here where, 25 years ago, I started my career as an international journalist: first as a reporter for Newsweek and later as a correspondent and Beijing bureau chief of TIME Magazine.

I covered the 1988 Seoul Olympics for TIME Magazine and Sports Illustrated. Now I am looking forward to covering the Beijing Games as well, this time as CNN's Beijing Bureau Chief. It would be fun not just to report on it but to actually participate as one of the torch bearers during the relay.

My daughter Michelle and I are both aspiring to carry the torch. We would be thrilled if we could join the relay and carry the Olympic torch in the city we call home.