Wagga man Fred Delshad calls for stronger sister city ties after many years abroad in Kunming

Fred Delshad, 74, first visited Wagga's sister city of Kunming in 1992 with the aim of building stronger ties with our Chinese counterparts.

"[At the time] I did a fair bit of promotion of the sister city idea to the various functions I went to," Mr Delshad said.

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Fast forward to 2008 and he decided to venture back to foreign shores and live in Kunming, the capital of China's Yunnan province.

"I left Australia because I felt there was too much materialism here," Mr Delshad said.

"I thought China would be a great opportunity to explore something different."

Before leaving he gained qualifications to teach English as a second language, and spent the majority of his time imparting this knowledge to the people of Kunming.

"Over the 14 years [in China] I taught more than 3,500 students at university, college, language schools and [independently as well]," Mr Delshad said.

While at first, life in the city of more than six million took a big adjustment, over time, Mr Delshad became more accustomed to the different culture, and really came to appreciate the "nature of the Chinese people."

In particular, he said a number of common street practices really stood out to him, including people washing their hair, washing clothes, spitting in the street, and even having a haircut.

Mr Delshad also found customs like drinking soup out of a bowl was particularly useful.

"People over there don't use a spoon, they drink the soup out of a little bowl, the same one used for eating the rice," he said.

"I found that very convenient and I don't consider people uncivilised because they have these practices.

"Because when you get to know them better, you realise they have aspects to their culture which are much more civilised than we are.

"These people have lived together for 5,000 years as a civilisation and in my opinion, they have really mastered the skill of live and let live."

Mr Delshad recalled one poignant example when he was sitting in the square opposite his Kunming apartment block watching a line dancing performance.

"A young man came up and threw his cigarette in the flower bed and continued to walk away," he said.

"I went up to him and said this is not the rubbish bin.

"He walked away and after a few seconds he came back, rummaged through the cigarette ends, found one, came to me and shook my hand, said thank you and walked away.

"If you do that in London, Sydney or New York, people might abuse you, especially if you are a foreigner.

"They might even shoot you. But this man realised what I did was for the sake of his country and he responded in a very civilised way in my opinion. Much more so than what I have seen in other capital cities.

"So I got over my problems of somebody spitting in the street. These are just different aspects of civilisation."

During his many years in Kunming, Mr Delshad also came to appreciate the people there, who he found are "very hospitable, friendly, but also shy too."

He said the people there have a keen interest in foreigners and with the recent rise in tensions between Australia and China, believes it is good to invest in strengthening ties with Wagga's Chinese sister city.

"We seem to take America's side on issues in many ways, so China is not very happy with us," Mr Delshad said.

"Working at this relationship with Kunming is one way to help [improve] a bad situation.

"Anything that is positive is commendable and worthwhile when things are as they are in the world right now."

Reflecting on his return to Australia, Mr Delshad said he went in to renew his visa one day when everything changed.

"I went to the police station to renew my 30-day visa... and when the officer handed me the visa, she suggested I buy a ticket and go home because there was no guarantee I would be able to renew my visa the following month," he said.

While Mr Delshad had originally gone to China on a working visa, after the age of 65 he was moved onto a six-month tourist visa that was shortened to 28 days as a result of the pandemic.

As such, he believes the government did not see him as a "good tourist", because he was not highly qualified and wasn't spending much money there.

As a result of this and after being stranded in China during the pandemic he chose to return to Australia and is now back home in Wagga.

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