Category: Yiwu

Cycling in the Sunshine

6/12/2014

There we were, vouchers in hand, excitedly entering the basement level of the hotel in order to commence our spa day:

But: RUBBISH! Apparently they do not offer this any more!! We were too late!! Admittedly, it had been last year that these vouchers were given to us after a particularly awesome session there (where we paid about 10 bucks for this excellent experience, well worth it). They did, however, offer an extensive list of other options and treatments for us to enjoy (if we wanted to fork out a fair bit of our teacher's salary, hmmm). have a look:

Now, we weren't really feeling in the mood for any scraping measles, the fire pot, or even the noble physiotherapy treatments offered (what a shocker hey), so we did what we seem to do best here in Yiwu: went cycling and exploring in the sunshine interspersed with eating and drinking:

So, my day turned out to be more of an active recovery day than I had thought it would be, but that's way ok. I was definitely enjoying every moment and appreciating the day.

Check it out, all over our city (and possibly all over China too) they have painted murals and pictures on all the many walls separating different residential areas and on the side of bridges/roads. They are amazing, and so many of them, this selection of them doesn't really do them justice (I will try to take more photos of them over the next few days/weeks), but you'll get the idea:

It kind of makes me wish I could paint or draw hey. How about you? Any artists out there??

Have a Fabulous Friday Folks!! :)

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The Best Time of the Day...

5/29/2014

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…is without a doubt early morning, just on first light. Ahh, green tea, sunrise, then a nice, easy riverside run (just over 12kms). Most of the city must share my sentiment as it was a busy little riverside park this morning: walkers, joggers, TaiChi’ers, hula-hoopers, ballroom dancers, you name it, they were there. Just one of the many, many aspects I’m going to miss about Yiwu when we leave (in just about 6 weeks now!): the beautiful parks and the active park-goers.

It’s been on our minds a lot lately, I suppose, the whole ‘we’re leaving’ thing, as we’ve started to say our goodbyes to some of our students as after the final exams we’ll give them next week, we won’t see them nor teach them again (and are, effectively, finished up for the year). I was getting a bit choked up on a couple of classes hey! I will miss the students, and the other teachers here. We often comment that it’s ‘the best job in the world’, or ‘good gig’, and we will be really sad to say goodbye. However, we came to explore China, and not just one city or part of it, and so, after almost two years here in this lovely, friendly, ridiculously laid-back city, it’s time to move on.

But (in no particular order) we’re also going to miss:

Our friends. But we will keep in touch with everyone, and our best friends here are actually going to move to Australia soon! (One of their family already has.) So, I know we’ll see them in the near future, which is awesome.

The people: the local shopkeepers and restaurant staff, some amazing chefs, people we meet at the parks etc. Some of the friendliest, warm-hearted people we’ve come to know.

The food. I’ll leave it there with this point, or else I could ramble on and on about the amazingly delicious, fresh, tasty food we’ve had the pleasure of living on for the last couple of years.
The lush trees, plants, flowers. This city is amazingly colourful and GREEN, with such a massive array of different plants. I’m no botanist, but the many different trees/plants/flowers are pretty impressive and beautiful. Maybe making it worth it for all the rain that occurs here.
The relaxed, chilled, completely stress-free lifestyle.
The short distance to bigger cities, and transport hubs like Shanghai and Hangzhou (by bullet train).
Cycling around on our ‘workdays’ (and weekends) and exploring yet more and more of this city and its neighbouring villages and countryside.

I think the only thing we won’t miss about this place, is the occasional apocalyptic style pollution. Oh, and maybe the traffic sometimes.

Is it REALLY Friday already?? This week has flown by, truly. It’s a holiday for us over the weekend (well, it usually is, but hey-ho) as it is Dragon Boat Festival here over Saturday, Sunday and Monday. So, that long weekend that many of you had that I was coveting last week? Amazingly we get ours here this week instead. What a wonderful universe we are a part of: put it out there and it happens yeah?

Have you moved house/towns often? (Think the longest I have stayed in one place since leaving home back in the day has been 4 years in Newcastle, Australia, but I moved house several times there.) Recently?

Do you like moving to a new place? (I love moving to a new place, but don't like working out the logistical 'stuff' issues with moving. )

How long have you lived where you are?

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Cycling in the Sunshine

The Best Time of the Day...

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