I heard it through the grapevine...

Last visit we made to Huzhou to search for apartments we were fortunate enough to meet a new friend so, on this trip - after we found the aparment we had been searching for all this time, he invited us to his best friends' vineyard.

Yes, our first trip to a vineyard, in China at that!  I was suprised to know that the northwestern countryside surrounding Huzhou is made up of lots of grapes! It was a fun day with lots of new friends that led to a great dinner with homemade grape wines and special grape cuisines.

Seems like our new city will be a delicious one!

See more photos here

Our Next Move... Huzhou, China

Yes, we have decided to stay in China and also to move to a new city. Andrew has upgraded his job from kindergarten to highschool, which should prove to be much more rewarding for him.

Huzhou is a third tier city whereas Nanjing is a second tier city. This means that Huzhou has only 3 million people against Nanjing's 8 million  - yes, they commonly refer to it as a "small town".

We are super excited. To us this means more of a transition into the Chinese culture, a bigger push to further our language skills and understanding. Sure, Huzhou still has a DQ and Louis Vuitton but, it will definitely take us out of the Western comfort zone that we have enjoyed in Nanjing. This is because there are considerably less foreigners there and even less foreign families.We leave Nanjing at the end of August.

The adventure continues...

Road Trip!!

So, we just got our license and thought it was the perfect time to try out driving in China... We rented a van, had a friend tag along and set out to explore a new city.. the city of Huzhou.

Know for it's scenic views and famous for brush writing - we found Huzhou to be an interesting mix of old China and new China.

We saw painted dogs... I asked the seller if the dog was born this way and she had the nerve to tell me yes! haha...

Huzhou also has many rivers flowing through it so we decided to take a boat ride. All in all a nice trip and suprisingly easy drive on the highway.