He wasn’t joking. Heavy snow blanketed swathes of north-eastern China on Monday, shutting schools in the country’s first substantial snowstorm of the season.

Pat had an important message for his fellow Corkonian. He wanted more support from the Irish Government for organisations like his in Northeast China. Pat, originally from Clonakilty, runs the Ireland-China Institute, where he helps local children master English. 

He said the two cities the Tánaiste visited during his tour — Shanghai and Beijing — are developed.

“There are more underdeveloped areas; growth should be equal,” Mr McCarthy said.

Mr Martin agreed and said it was a topic that emerged during his visit to the university, one of Mr Martin’s final events of his four-day stint in China.

“It’s great to hear a voice from West Cork,” Mr Martin said. 

I’m not surprised a family from West Cork would come through blizzards because West Cork was the key location in the struggle for Irish independence some 100 years ago.

It appeared both men forgot they were in a room full of Chinese students and professors as they discussed the beauty of Ardfield. Martin told the crowd how he spent many summers in the area and said the best swim in Ireland is at Red Strand beach.

It wasn’t the only Cork connection that emerged on Mr Martin’s final day in China. While officially launching Ireland House in Shanghai, he told those attending that soon after diplomatic relations were established with China in 1980, former taoiseach Jack Lynch visited Shanghai. The consulate learned this when they recently discovered, in a second-hand bookshop, a book which Jack Lynch gifted to the then head of Shanghai FAO, Mr Lin Deming.

“As big as China is, the world is still small sometimes,” Mr Martin said. 

“Jack Lynch was a proud Cork man, and those connections have continued, with Cork city twinned with Shanghai since 2005, signed by the lord mayor of Cork at the time.” 

Wrapping up his visit, Mr Martin said his four-day visit to China was worthwhile politically, culturally, and for building back relations with China. 

China has certainly given us a message this week that they’re open for business and they want to retain that open global trading framework.

Mr Martin said the visit had given him “food for thought", signalling perhaps a softer approach towards China than previous comments.

Just before departing to the airport via motorcade for an 18-hour flight back to Dublin from Shanghai via Dubai, his attention was quickly refocused on issues back home, while being quizzed by journalists on issues such as the ongoing controversy at RTÉ, and the horrific case of Emily Hand, believed to be held hostage by Hamas.