China woman, 47, shares civil servant life in Iceland, appreciates culture that respects choices

A 47-year-old Chinese woman shares her idyllic life as a civil servant in a remote town in Iceland, igniting interest and spirited discussions on social media in mainland China.

The woman, known as Megan, hails from Beijing. In 2020, at the age of 42, she decided to pursue a second master’s degree in Iceland, a few years after her divorce.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting and her first master’s in business computing in the UK before transferring to a new energy major at a university in Reykjavík, the capital and largest city of Iceland.

After graduating, she came across a job listing from a town in southern Iceland, close to Europe’s largest glacier, Vatnajökull, which aligned with her field of study.

She applied and secured the position, becoming the first non-Icelandic speaking employee in the town’s government.