Before the end of the school year we managed to squeeze in a wonderful weekend in Ningbo. We took the first metro of the morning to Hongqiao Railway Station and travelled (2 hours) to YuYao Bei (YuYao North) where we were met by Rofoam and his wife Dani. Readers of this blog will remember that he is one of the students who we hosted at Christmas back in 2015.

We hadn’t seen Cathy since NouBei’s wedding back in October 2019. Since then she had married but we had been unable to attend the wedding due to Covid restrictions. Rofoam also hadn’t seen Cathy since then so it was a good catch up weekend for us all.

Rofoam drove us a further hour to Ningbo where we met up with Cathy, her husband Bei Ning and their 2 year old little boy, jiuTian (which means 9 days). This name is to wish that he has longevity as 9 (Jiu) is a strong Yang number and Tian means day. So it literally means to have many days or a long life.

Cathy is fortunate to have her parents and parents in law on hand to help with her childcare so both she and Bei Ning are able to work full time. After we met the cute little one we were taken out for what would be the first of several sumptuous meals.

In the afternoon we went to the old scenic street which gave a flavor of old China intermingled with market stalls lining the narrow streets selling food and plastic toys

Off one of these lanes was Cathy’s grandparents house. This house is quite rare in China as it is 60 years old and it was a pure delight to see such a rare historic dwelling.

The house is so unique that it has been used in a Chinese movie. Here you can see JiuTian having his nap.

The local speciality fruit is called Aborutus or more commonly known as wax berry.

After that we walked up the lovely old street to a tea house where I was able to put some of my tea ceremony skills to good use while we ate lots of snacks! I am now a fan of sunflower seeds.

Our evening meal was in a restaurant where we had not only a private room but also a private bridge to get to it! Our very first private bridge! We were impressed.

On Sunday we went to a park where we chanced upon a dragon boat festival parade. We don’t see this sort of thing in the metropolis of Shanghai. It was a very hot day but the costumes were spectacular in the sunshine.

A short walk up the hill and we found a stunning lake which I think was actually a resovoir.

But is was a good place to practice some Qi Gong moves

Beside the lake was a new temple complex which smelled of the gorgeous teak pillars.

We chatted for hours about everything and anything. Cathy and Rofoam both have excellent English and we were treated royally. It was Chinese hospitality at its finest. we are lucky to have such good friends.