Joseph Shi believes it was a trail of miracles that led him to where he is today.
He was arrested in China nearly 30 years ago for leading a counter-revolutionary group and spent seven years in prison before fleeing the country and overcoming multiple hurdles en route to Canada.
He is now a Canadian citizen and owns a restaurant with his wife in Cremona where he is also a municipal councillor.
Shi was arrested in the middle of the east coast of China, in 1989 at age 25. He was sentenced to eight years in prison for leading a counter-revolutionary group.
He published an underground newsletter to educate people that China wasn't a communist country.
As a believer of communism, he felt the Chinese government was brainwashing citizens by appearing communistic but not following the communism theory.
"Communism or socialism means everybody's equal and the country should at least serve justice, but in China there is no justice. And the government made it like a classified group of people ó one class had more power over the other, that's not equal at all," said Shi.
He was released from prison seven years later at age 32. His sentence was reduced because he said he bowed to the government's demands to admit he was wrong.
"So in the fifth year, I couldn't endure the life like that anymore, so I told them ëOK, you get what you want now' and they reduced one year for me. I became weak at that time, so I gave in."
He said the first two years in prison were the worst and was like living in "hell".
"In the prison you're forced to do brainwashing. They want you to confess to them you are wrong everyday. They force you to read something and write about the article that you don't believe at all," he said.
"And you have to condemn yourself everyday, that's required."
He would eat two meals a day, which was usually old rice and poor quality cabbage, and says other criminals would beat him.
In 1991, the U.S. Department of State showed concern for 105 prisoners and Shi was one of them. After that, his life in prison got a little better, he said.
"That's why when I came to Canada I always told people ëshow your concern, if you have concerns over some political prisoner's treatment, show your concerns, show your support'," he said.
"The Chinese government does think twice when they know the outside is concerned."
While he was in prison his friend brought him an American book called Pretty in Pink.
Shi had learned English while he was in school, so he was able to read it.
He read it and translated the story into Chinese for other prisoners, but they didn't believe he was telling the real story because one of the characters was poor but was able to drive a vehicle and drink beer.
"In China, that's luxury life," said Shi.
"From that book I knew that we were cheated by the Chinese government. From that book I knew the outside world was not what the Chinese government had been telling."
After Shi was released from prison, he bounced from job to job before fleeing the country.
Government officials would approach his employer and tell them to fire him, he said.
They made it so he had no income and he said he became homeless.
"They didn't want us to survive. They wanted us to struggle to survive so we wouldn't have any energy to do anything to continue what we thought was right," he said.
"At that time, I realized I could not live in China anymore, so I ran away and walked through the border through Burma to Thailand."
He didn't think he would be successful, but he felt like he had nothing to lose.
His girlfriend at the time, Christina, who is now his wife, gave him money to leave the country. He said she was an "ordinary woman".
"At that time, ordinary girls wouldn't even get close to me because of my background. No girls would even look at me or think of me as a good man," he said.
Christina was a successful accountant and made about 10 times more money than ordinary workers.
"I told her if you date me, you might lose your job. The government might go to your company and make you suffer too," he said.
"But she didn't care. She paid for my rent and gave me money to buy food, supported me for three months, but I knew that for her I needed to run away too."
Shi walked 50 kilometres through a jungle and didn't have anything with him except for $300 U.S. from Christina. But that was when his first miracle came.
"It was a miracle. I didn't make any mistake. After 24 to 25 hours I walked out of that jungle," he said, adding he came across dangerous animals including poisonous snakes along the way.
He met a Burmese military officer at the other side of the jungle and that was when his second miracle came.
He gave the money to the officer, who arranged transportation for him to get to the border between Burma and Thailand.
"That's a miracle again. Later on I heard from other people that most of the time the military officer would keep the money and also keep me there for ransom and ask for much more than $300," he said.
The driver took him to the Thailand border and when he arrived in Thailand he ended up back in jail for illegal entry.
Chinese diplomats went to the jail to take him back to China, which was a rare occasion, he said.
That's when his third miracle came. On that same day, a Canadian missionary was visiting prisoners there.
The missionary asked the guard why the diplomats were visiting Shi, and the guard told him Shi was a Tiananmen Square student, which wasn't true.
After the missionary realized the diplomats were there to take him back to China, he decided to help.
He brought Shi two loaves of bread a couple of days later but told him not to open it in front of anyone. When Shi was alone, he opened it and found money inside that was equal to $200 Canadian.
The money was meant to be used as a bribe for guards to release him, he said.
He offered the guard the money, but the guard wouldn't release him because arrangements had already been made to fly him back to China.
But that's when his next miracle came.
"It just happened that three days before my flight the guard who was guarding me got sick and another new guard came in," he said.
"I just took the chance, I didn't think I could succeed, I just offered him the money and he let me go."
After he was released he called the Canadian missionary who drove an expensive car to pick him up from where he was hiding and drove him to the train station.
He said police wouldn't check for prisoners in expensive cars in Thailand. The missionary bought him a first class train ticket to Bangkok for that same reason.
After Shi arrived in Bangkok, he was protected by the United Nations.
From there, he said United Nations officials provided him with a job as an interpreter and he applied to go to Canada as a refugee. He was approved in March of 2000 at age 37 and became a Canadian citizen in 2004.
Christina met him in Bangkok and they were married there before moving to Canada together.
Life in Canada
When Shi and Christina arrived in Canada, they started a life in Vancouver where they lived for six years.
Shi received special admission to Langara College where he studied accounting. He dropped out of high school in Grade 11 while living in China, so he felt privileged to go to college.
After he graduated, they moved to Rogers Pass and Shi worked as a manager at the Glacier Park Lodge.
He admits he became greedy and wanted more money. He was offered a lot more money at a hotel in Lake Louise so he transferred there, but ended up quitting because he didn't like the way things were managed.
He was ashamed with his decision so he wanted to move to a small community where no one knew him, which led him to Cremona.
The Oriental Kitchen restaurant was listed for sale. He and Christina bought it and have been running it ever since.
"After four years of running the restaurant, we became friends with everybody here (in Cremona), so I won the most votes in the last (municipal) election," he said.
He wanted to become a councillor in 2013 when there was turmoil in the village. He also didn't agree with some of the decisions made by the previous council.
He and Christina never had children of their own, but recently adopted an 11-year-old boy from China who had immigrated to Canada about 10 months ago.
"I want to give him a long-term family life."
Although Shi wasn't religious before coming to Canada, he has become a Christian because of his journey.
"I think my life has some purpose, not by me, by creators," he said. "I like to be involved in politics and I like to serve the people and I like to make the world look better."
"At that time, I realized I could not live in China anymore, so I ran away and walked through the border through Burma to Thailand." Joseph ShiCremona
