In 1992, 9-year-old Lin Dan successfully entered the Fujian Provincial Sports School, traveling from his hometown of Shanghang County to Fuzhou, a distance of 600 kilometers away. His first semester at the provincial sports school was spent largely in tears. Arriving in the winter, Lin Dan, who was always sensitive to the cold, found it extremely difficult to adapt to dormitory life. After his parents left him in Fuzhou, he began to cry almost every day out of homesickness. Even during training sessions, the thought of home would often bring him to tears. His coach would notice this and let him stand aside to compose himself before resuming practice. Back in the dormitory, he would frequently stare into space, only to find himself crying again before he realized it. To cope with his longing for family, Lin Dan began writing letters home, often one per day, with the recurring theme: "Mom and Dad, I miss you. Please come see me soon." To this day, Lin Dan's mother still keeps some of these letters. Fortunately, his grandparents and uncle lived in Fuzhou, which helped alleviate his homesickness somewhat. On weekends, Lin Dan would visit his grandmother's house for a good meal and call his mother, returning to the sports school on Sundays. When he first arrived, having never been away from his parents before, Lin Dan had no self-care skills. He did not know how to change his clothes, make his bed, or change his sheets and pillowcases, leaving him looking quite unkempt. During his first week at the school, distracted by staring into space and crying in the dormitory, he completely forgot to bathe, going an entire week without a shower. It was not until the end of the first semester, when he returned to the school from home, that his homesickness began to subside. He no longer cried as frequently as before, and the frequency of his letters decreased to one per week.
