A teacher from Addingham is enjoying a new lease of life in deepest China - just when most of her contemporaries are thinking about taking it easy in retirement.

Veronica Schmitt, who turns 63 this month, left her home in Chapel Street in February to head for the Xian region of the world's most populous country.

After an introductory sight-seeing spell she has now begun a two-year contract with international volunteer group VSO, teaching English at a college in Babu Town.

Communicating via e-mail, she told the Gazette why she had decided to swap the stress-free benefits of retirement for an adventure of a lifetime.

She said: "I have lived in Addingham since 1986. I love the village, you couldn't find a nicer bunch of people and a more beautiful setting.

"But I decided to retire whilst I still had some stuffing left in me and applied to VSO in the autumn of 2001, was interviewed in December of that year and accepted and told them when I would be available.

"During 2002, I attended two preparatory courses, the first to ensure you knew what you were doing and the second about globalisation. Then there was a China Course in early January this year, focussing specifically on teaching English in China and the particular issues this raised, such as very large classes, limited equipment, and so on."

A practising Catholic, Miss Schmitt was a Reader at the Catholic churches in both Addingham and Ilkley and also attended Methodist Church functions in the village.

During her first days in the country she and her VSO colleagues visited Beijing and the Great Wall of China in between making the 30 hour journey south to Babu and squeezing in Mandarin language classes.

She also toured the walled city of Xian itself, spending three weeks there sight-seeing and being introduced to local academics and families.

Her itinerary included a trip to the museum which has been built around the excavations of the famous armies of terracotta warriors.

She said: "Unlike at the Great Wall the people here looked a lot poorer, there were little children and very old people trying to sell you postcards and reproductions of the warriors for pennies."

While admitting to being impressed by the three buildings at the site, which house huge collections of model warriors, horses and treasure, she had decidedly ambivalent feelings about the centrepiece - the huge tomb of the emperor Qin Shihuang.

She said: "All you see is a very large hill outside the museum complex. They say it took 800,000 people to construct, many of whom died and were buried alive as part of the process of burial.

"Needless to say yours truly wasn't impressed. Although I suppose it is a 'must see', I am not that keen on museums and it just seemed such a waste of people and talent.

"Although, I guess, the irony is that whilst the emperor is forgotten the art of those who were sacrificed for him, lives on and, therefore, so do they."

Enjoying her "spacious" campus office at the college and getting used to her new teaching duties, Miss Schmitt's mind is still reeling with images and sensations she has encountered in a new culture.

But while enjoying different foods and customs, she is also learning when to be cautious.

After tucking into a duck pancake in Xian she suffered five days of diarrhoea and had to pay a visit to hospital for some antibiotics, and then stick to a rice-only diet while recovering.

She has also grown wary of using public toilets, where privacy is practically non-existent, and has indulged in a particularly Oriental, and painful sounding, form of massage.

She said: "You go in to the bar and young women seat you on recliners, remove your socks or stockings and put your feet in wooden vats of boiling water with herbs in.

"Whilst you are scarcely able to contain your screams, they wade into your shoulders and back, kneading and pummelling until all the knots are out.

"Then you are seated in the recliner whilst they have more than a go at your feet. The end result is bliss."

Born in Bradford, Miss Schmitt caught the travelling bug when she was a student staying with a family in France during the summer of 1957.

She loved the experience so much that she didn't come back - and went on to improve her French at Montpellier University.

She later enjoyed spells working as a nanny in Italy, an English teacher in Germany, and then a bi-lingual secretary in the wool trade back in Bradford.

After emigrating to the United States where she worked as a tri-lingual secretary for two French businessmen, she returned to Yorkshire to take up a career in the Probation service.

She retired from that post last August, determined to resurrect her interest in China, which came through her love of languages, with the VSO.

Now settling down in her new home and job, Miss Schmitt promises to keep her Wharfedale friends and family up-to-date with the latest news from her Oriental adventure.