Ting & A Bright Place
Dear friends,
I’m your home retreat host, Ting.
In 2022, at 38,
I made the most unexpected and risky decision of my life.
I left everything behind and uprooted myself from Singapore —
a comfortable place I had called home, to this remote mountain village in China.
Full of uncertainty, I built this house from scratch, on a slope no one was interested in back then.
Over time, it became A Bright Place — the home I am now sharing with you.
The full version of this story is shared below.
Thank you for being here.
With a one-way ticket, and following a strong call from the heart,
I arrived in the mountain village of Shaxi in 2021, during the time of Covid.
What began as a short plant-dye learning journey quietly became something else.
Instead of returning to Singapore,
I chose to stay.
After 22 years in a place
I once called home,
I uprooted myself from a familiar life
and began building a house here —
from scratch, with no prior experience.
What I left behind was not a life in crisis.
It was a comfortable life.
A sustainable photography business.
A stable six-year marriage.
A peaceful home of our own.
And everything I knew and loved.
People often asked,
“What gave you the courage to walk away and start anew?”
Over time, I realised —
my life had been slowly preparing me for this choice.
There was a quiet wish to live in a way that felt truthful to myself.
A wish shaped by growing up well protected,
and by watching my father create stability for our family
while setting aside his own passions.
There was also a need to look beneath what appeared fine on the surface,
to see whether it truly aligned underneath.
And perhaps, simply,
I did not want life to become as predictable as it once seemed.
A Bright Place is a gift I gave to myself —
and now, to friends like you
who feel a resonance here
and are exploring your own way of living.
It is a gentle space
where the body can rest,
and the heart can find its voice,
through simple, everyday moments.