Right on Maxx....
To "flesh-out" this debate a bit, I would add that we have no choice but to spend a year or more, communicating with our Chinese Wife, on QQ or such, with email, phone and all, and every so often we get to spend a few precious weeks together in person, before we are able to take up life as a married couple. This is a very fundamental contrast with the sort of relationship we may have with a local woman.
During this time we have the ever present language issues, the difference in culture and tradition.
When you have got through these hurdles, you get to realise that you have both invested heaps and heaps in your future relationship, and if you were not serious, it never could have survived the journey !!!...and having survived and grown during the journey, is the stronger because of it.
I never considered myself much of a patient Man, but over the past year I have learned and learned and learned to be both patient and sensitive as I watch my lovely Lady bust her ass to learn a new language, prepare herself wholeheartedly to leave job, friends and family to come to live in a foreign land that is completely alien to her previous way of thinking and living.
At the same time, she is always supporting me and giving me heaps of encouragement and accolades for being the best LG (our Chinglish...she is LP and I am LG)
This woman will only have me in the future, to be the one who will be responsible for her transition to this new life...it is a sobering, humbling and at the same time delightful responsibility.
I never before put anything like the effort into a relationship as I am doing with this one...and it feels good. I cannot honestly say I could be bothered to do the same for the average woman I might meet locally...it would not be appreciated, understood or valued !!!
So do I cherish this relationship above all else....you bet!!!, and that is why in some way it is safer and more real than any other...and I know it will last. We will go through a very hot fire...to be together, but we will make it work...because we want to do it...together.
Those Bros who went before have prepared the way for the rest of us with knowlege and support. Those of you starting out on this journey...know you are not alone and there is always someone here to help...with both real practical advice when needed...and sometimes with advice you dont want to hear.
Either way, it makes it all a bit more doable
David