I met her, and her close friend Liao Yun, in 2002 when she spoke little English and I had no Mandarin at all. However we immediately made our first expeditions together around Beijing with Liao Yun translating. By 2004, when I returned, both of us had advanced linguistically and we began a relationship. She wanted to come to Australia to get the university education her parents couldn't afford. I returned in 2005 and the relationship deepened although my visits could not be much more than a month long. I invited her to make a brief visit my home to see if she would like to live there. Our application for a temporary visa was refused on the grounds that she didn't have enough money to support herself in Australia although she was to be my guest.

In August 2006 we married in Beijing and applied for a spouse visa. This was a mistake - we should have applied for a prospective spouse visa and married in Australia but Immigration didn' tell us that. The application process was an ordeal (including questions about our sex lives) and eventually it was refused. Basically we were accused of lying. After my 2007 visit we planned a second application using an immigration agent - but in April 2008 Meixin told me that we would always be friends but she could not face another application process, that she was studying for her degree while working full time - and was thoroughly enjoying it.

In June 2007 it was revealed that The Australian Department of Immigration had, since 1993, illegally detained 247 Australian citizens. What chance did one young Chinese girl have?