Taking a rest to restore health and catching up with long missing friends was how Hong Kong-based journalist Ching Cheong spent the past two weeks since his release from a Guangzhou jail before the Lunar New Year.The 58-year-old Ching said his wife, Mary Lau Man-yee, was by his side the whole time.
Ching told a TVB reporter he lost more than 30 pounds (13.6 kilograms) during more than 1,000 days that he was behind bars in the mainland.
During a few minutes of footage on TVB's evening newscast yesterday, the couple were on an MTR train traveling from Wan Chai to Tseung Kwan O to visit a friend.
It was Ching's first public appearance since he was released on parole from a Guangzhou prison on February 5.
"I feel a lot better now. I still haven't made an arrangement [for a medical checkup]. I have been taking a rest and seeing my friends these days. I just felt a bit tired after coming back. I have lost a lot of weight, more than 30 pounds," Ching said.
He did not disclose his future plans, saying he would talk about it at a press gathering on Thursday.
Ching extended his thanks to the community for the support and concern over the years.
"My thanks to you all," he said with a smile on his face and his palms together in a traditional Chinese thank you gesture.
In the afternoon, the couple also visited their lawyer David Hui Tin- fook, who is also a member of the Ching Cheong Concern Group, in his Wan Chai office.
Hui said Ching plans to return to Singapore to discuss his plans with the The Straits Times.
Ching was detained in April 2005 for providing state secrets to Taiwan and receiving millions of dollars as a reward.
He was sentenced to five years in jail in August 2006.
On his release on February 5, Ching returned to Hong Kong by train in the afternoon and managed to elude over 100 reporters gathered at the Hung Hom railway station and outside his home.
Ching released a statement thanking the central government for giving him parole.
He also thanked Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, the Security Bureau, the The Straits Times and Hong Kong's media for their help and support.
Ching used to work as a reporter in Beijing for Wen Wei Po. He left that newspaper in 1989 after the Tiananmen crackdown.
He owned a periodical which covered mainland issues before joining The Straits Times in 1996.
