She will then travel through Asia to Phuket, Thailand, where she will be involved in the reconstruction of tsunami-devastated communities.

Gillian, who attended Lawside Academy, intends to study languages at the University of St Andrews but decided to take a gap year after finishing school.

Her aunt had previously visited the Langfang orphanage and this, combined with her involvement with St Clement’s Church and admiration for Oriental culture, gave her the inspiration for her journey.

In preparation for the trip she has been learning Mandarin with the help of a Chinese friend and hopes it will stand her in good stead when she arrives in China.

“Everything on Chinese television is subtitled because of the number of different dialects there, so if I can manage to read it I should be able to understand most things,” she said.

Gillian has been involved in a number of fund-raising projects related to South East Asia and was the brains behind Cento, an evening of poetry, dance, art, music and fashion, which was held in the Hilton Hotel in Dundee at the end of February.

As well as her missionary work, Gillian is also hoping to further her artistic aspirations.

She is chairwoman of youth arts charity KenART and will be recording her experiences in Asia in both audio and photo format for later use.

Gillian will also be running art classes while she is at the orphanage and is hoping to learn from Chinese children’s stories. Her travelling companion on the trip, Sarah Waine, is also an artist and they will be hoping to put their talents to good use.

“I’ve recently been involved in the BBC Blast Project which aims to help teenagers across Scotland make the most of their creative talents and we produced a video called Message of Hope as a tribute to tsunami victims.

“I’m going to be continuing the work we did and record my journey through Asia to make it into a kind of diary of the trip. I’m also planning on working with friends to produce and illustrate children’s books in the future and we’re hoping to be able to use our experiences with the kids in China to help us with that.”

It’s sure to be an eventful and busy trip and Gillian will have little time to recover from her four-month voyage of discovery — a week after returning home her university course begins.