I moved to Vietnam and play poker here

China. Day 4
I’m 30 years old, and I realized I knew absolutely nothing about China.

Get ready.
When I was a kid, I watched Jackie Chan movies, and like many people, I had stereotypes.
Factories, conveyor belts, people building machines all day, living in an endless work cycle.
Now it’s my 4th day here, and I can say — I was completely wrong ⛔️
Our first city in China was Guangzhou, and honestly, it surprised us.

We expected a typical loud megacity, where everything is overbuilt and nature is slowly destroyed.
But it feels different here.

Even in the city center, there is no constant pressure.
No feeling that the city is pulling you from all sides.

After Da Nang, this difference feels huge.

When you live in a megacity, you can forget what silence really feels like.
When your ears can finally rest, your mind also starts to rest.

For me, silence means a lot.

Constant city noise and endless раздражители overload my nervous system.
Living in Da Nang, I often feel that overload.
And to reset, the first thing I need is silence — something I honestly can’t fully get even on the 22nd floor because of poor sound isolation.

Because of this, I keep thinking more and more about one thing:

BALANCE
How is China connected to silence?

95% electric scooters
50% electric cars
The rest are mostly quiet hybrids

I walk with my girlfriend near a wide road, and we don’t need to speak loudly just to hear each other.

That alone says a lot.

China also seems to care more about green spaces, and these small details matter to us.

For the first time in a city, I catch myself not feeling that usual urban pressure that slowly drains energy.

BIG PARKS here feel amazing.

No city noise.
We walked for 2 hours and explored maybe only 30% of one park.

And during that walk, I already imagined:

After a heavy morning poker grind…
I leave my phone at home and just go there.

Maybe this feeling is only because of vacation and new experiences.
Maybe.

But I’m writing what I truly feel.

Around 70% of this trip is nature.
We took a train to Yangshuo — mountains I had never even heard about before.

And now I’m writing this post with those mountains around me.

Poker is constant cognitive pressure.
Decision after decision.
Money pressure.
Mental overload.

For many players, especially MTT grinders, this happens multiple times every day 🤯

And whether you feel it or not — your brain needs recovery.

Especially if you play formats with endless decisions every session.

Everyone has their own opinion about balance between poker and life.

But I believe your environment affects that balance more than many people realize.

Especially when things go wrong.
When tilt starts.
When reality doesn’t match expectations.

Sometimes changing your environment — even something simple like going to a quiet park instead of staying home — can seriously change how you process stress.

Not vacation.
Not escaping life.

Just changing the space around you.

Maybe then you recover faster.
Maybe you think clearer.
Maybe you stop obsessing so much.

For the last few years, I’ve been trying to understand myself better.

This trip to mountains and fields was not random.

We really needed this.

And maybe, like me, some of you also have a problem:

You simply can’t be alone with yourself.

What surrounds you every day?
How do you feel in the evening?

Think about it.

My blog is not only about crushing limits and pushing maximum performance.

✅ It’s also about keeping a healthy relationship with the game and not losing yourself.

I try to resist today’s obsession with nonstop productivity.
These are still just first impressions.
To really understand China, I think you need to live here for 3–6 months.

Maybe one day I will.

But even now, I already see one thing clearly:

Silence, green space, and less constant pressure can seriously change how I feel.

Nice read, good luck mate.