| | It has been a full on week working through our to-do list before we have our annual getaway for Spring Festival. It’s the time of year when the largest human migration in the world takes place. Nearly two billions worth of journeys will happen as Chinese people move all over the country, back to their respective hometowns to see in the new year.
Having already experienced the start of the new Chinese lunar calendar before, I didn’t fancy days of non-stop fireworks and all the noise (day and night) that accompanies the fanfare. So, Lezil and I are ditching China in favour of some much needed summer sun in Western Australia to spend time with her family | Currently, Australia is experiencing some of the hottest temperatures on record and so, the first thing on my pre-travel action list was to shed the hair. I had been keeping my long strands for the last four months, but knowing the furnace we were about to enter into to, my winter coat is now gone. Next to tick off was a previously postponed visit. My friend Kevin had invited me a number of times to his Church, but we couldn’t quite co-ordinate our timetables to make it happen. I had a window Sunday morning and so, up early, I made my way to central Jing’an area. | Grace Baptist Church was originally established in 1910 making it one of the oldest Churches in Shanghai. However, it moved a number of times from its first premises and in 1942 found its way to where it stands today on Shaanxi Bei Lu. Service started at 9am and I was outside the Church’s gates at 8:45am calling Kevin but the automated China Mobile message kept telling me his phone was powered off. Strange. Thankfully he just happened to come out of the Church building when I spotted him.
Following him up to the balcony area, I was shocked to see the Church completely full with 10 minutes to go until the official start. I was handed a battery-powered radio receiver with a pair of white in-ear headphones. The service was entirely in Chinese, and the foreigner that I am, I still needed assistance with the language. |  With Kevin outside Grace Baptist Church Shanghai. |  A choir leads the congregation in traditional hymns. | I was one of ten other non-Chinese seated and it was a sizeable congregation with easily over 1,500 people present. Proceedings followed a more-traditional format with hymns led by a choir and piano accompaniment.
The youngish Chinese Baptist pastor delivered a lively sermon based on Matthew 7:12 “…do unto others what you would have them do to you…”. I managed to keep up with what was being said (even though at times the translations I was listening to boarded on the more Chinglish). State-of-the-art flat screens were dotted about the Church hall transmitting a live broadcast of the service.
| | And in little over an hour, I was reading the final benediction in Chinese along with the rest of congregation.
Afterwards, I was introduced to a few of Kevin’s Church friends who made me most welcome. Touring the main downstairs area, I noticed on the wall a cluster of black antennas sticking out of metallic boxes. Kevin explained that the Church had installed mobile scramblers to cut off any phone reception. I took out my mobile and true to its functionality, I had no signal at all. That explained why, when I tried calling Kevin earlier, I couldn’t get through.
|  Equipment used to block mobile phone signals in the Church. |  Slurping our spicy beef Taiwanese noodles! | Personally, I think more Churches should install them. To take a measly two or so hours out of your week to not be able to access calls, text or go online and focus on faith is not asking for much.
By the time early afternoon hit, Lezil and I were in a taxi zipping our way through the back streets of the French Concession area in Shanghai. We had a lunchtime meet-up with Miranda – our adventurous Shanghainese mama. Slurping our spicy Taiwanese noodles like pros, we laughed, we debated and made the most of each other’s company for we were going to be away for a month and Miranda was travelling back to her adopted country of Canada during the holidays.
| | It was a surprisingly mild day as we walked off our big bowls of soup. Nearby, a number of local shops were in full Spring Festival mode selling all sorts of red-themed trinkets. We picked up a couple of items. After all, we may not be spending the actual day in the country itself but China has become huge part of our lives. And therefore to not acknowledge the most important national holiday of the year is like turning our backs on something like Easter or Christmas back in the West.
|  Shopping for Chinese New Year goodies! |  Outdoor coat 'store' down a French Concession lane. | After a bit of haggling, our plastic bags were brimming with Chinese New Year items. We wandered our way down another French Concession side street and came across a makeshift street ‘store’. That’s what I love about China. People are so resourceful and will try what they can to squeeze out a living anywhere. The entrepreneurial man had used a side lane’s railings to create a grand display of woollen and faux-fur coats. As it was a sunny day, there was no chance of the weather destroying his open-air bazaar.
| All the coats were Woolmark branded – probably sample stock and surplus supplies. And charging between RMB 100 – RMB 300 a coat, needless to say he was selling his items fast. Miranda picked up a three-quarter length purple coat which, for a bargain price, can be adjusted by any number of street tailors to be found in Shanghai.
China has truly become home for Lezil and I in the most unexpected of ways, so much so that I am actually curious if we are about to experience a type of reverse culture shock going into an all Western environment…
 Outside one of Shanghai's oldest Churches - Grace Baptist.  The stained glass window inside Grace Baptist Church.  Shanghai gets ready for Chinese New Year!  Lezil and Miranda surrounded by new year trinkets.  Hunting for a bargain at this coat street store.  Miranda finds her match - a woollen purple coat!
 A packed Hengshan Communty Church for Christmas Day service. | The 25th itself was a very different affair for us. There was no turkey, no Christmas crackers with terrible jokes, no Brussels sprouts (thank God!) and definitely no Queens speech broadcast live on CC TV (China Central Television).
There was, however, one tradition we managed to uphold and that was attending a Christmas morning service at Hengshan Community Church. Usually there are two English-speaking services on a Sunday, but on Christmas Day there was just the one at 11am.
| Combining the normal Sunday attendance plus the expected seasonal extras – the main hall and overflow areas were filled to capacity. Led by Pastor Dale Cuckow from the US, we enjoyed singing a number of traditional carols surrounded by an indoor winter wonderland of twinkling lights and a grand Christmas tree with a bright yellow star perched on top. There was a heart-warming segment where a couple of Sunday school teachers dressed up as Old Testament characters Abraham and Sarah with many of the congregation’s children sat up front listening to the Christmas story unfold. | In just over an hour the service had finished. Slowly, one after another, we spotted various friends who we greeted with hugs and kisses. Everyone was in a festive mood as we took photos and chatted about our plans for the rest of the day. By the Church’s entrance stood a short elegant lady in a long winter coat with her hair kept up in a stylish clip. It was Miranda, our Shanghainese mama (as we call her), who was hosting us for the day. And so, our Christmas got a very Chinese makeover.
|  (left to right) Lezil, Graham, Christal, Shanae. | In addition to Miranda’s friend Connie, we also had two of our friends join us – Sunni and Lee, both who are Chinese but of Swedish and Norwegian nationalities respectively. Miranda had decided to avoid the overly priced western restaurants opting instead for a locally run Chinese joint for lunch. It was already 1pm and as most Chinese love to have lunch early (11am), the place was pretty empty by the time we sat at our circular table.
 Random TWA poster in a traditional Chinese restaurant. | One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the randomness of some of the décor choice of Chinese restaurant owners. Inside, you had the usual Asian good luck signs dotted about. But among the paw-swinging cats and money-bringing charms were destination airline posters including one advertising New York City by bankrupted airline TWA. Glimpsing at the menu, we left it to our Chinese friends to order as the entire selection was in Chinese characters (still haven’t got the hang of it yet). Miranda pointed out, that there are very few other cultures in the world which can rival the Chinese when it comes to food variety. And as if to hammer home the point, over 15 dishes of meats, vegetables, sauces and cold entrées were ordered.
Fitting together like puzzle pieces, each plate was squeezed on to an elevated round glass platform in the middle of the table.
| | Steadily, we moved it around as we all helped ourselves to delicious morsels of bites which ranged from the very spicy to the tastefully sweet. There something about continually eating with small bits of food using chopsticks that fills you up quickly. Unlike the western way of one plate to the one person, where we shared and ate to our heart’s content and still at the end of it, we couldn’t finish it all having to dao bao (takeaway box) it for later. Total bill RMB 320 (£32) for six people including unlimited Chinese green tea. No Western restaurant’s Christmas menu would come close to that amount. |  Our magnificent Chinese Christmas feast. |  Setting up the mahjong tiles for the next game. | The traffic outside was at its normal midweek tempo and we had to wait a good 15 minutes until we eventually hailed an available taxi. A half an hour ride to the west of the city and we arrived at Miranda’s two bedroom apartment located in a neat urbanised complex. There were plenty more guests to arrive later that evening. To wile away the hours, out came a box of newly bought mahjong pieces – a popular Chinese pastime. With traces of the game rummy, mahjong and its 136 tiles was a lot more intricate as we had to learn and remember Chinese characters for the numbers and the four winds – North, South, East and West. Not to mention using terms like ‘pong’ (three identical tiles) or ‘chow’ (sequenced tiles)
| | Even the start of the game had a specific process. Tiles facedown, everyone used both hands to mix them up before creating four two-tiled walls all starting from each corner of the table. A roll of the dice determined who went first and then picking the tiles had to run in a pre-determined order. There was a kind of ceremonial finesse that you don’t ever see in Western games of this nature. Connie was our teacher and very quickly, Lezil seemed to catch on to the strategy involved in winning. “This one, very smart,” said Connie with her thumbs up as she grinned at Lezil.
|  Lezil on a winning streak in mahjong! | Despite the obvious linguistic disadvantage, Lezil rapidly transformed into a ruthless player even beating Connie – the master – at her own game. Both skill and luck are honourable elements in Chinese culture and that afternoon, Lezil combined the two taking home eight games in the five hours we played. No one could quite believe it. I joked with Connie telling her that I will be grooming my wife to be a champion mahjong player, ready to win us some big bucks.
 Incredible Christmas Day host and our wonderful friend, Miranda. | Whilst we were busy outdoing each other on the mahjong table in the living room, Miranda had coordinated a feast even greater in variety than our lunchtime experience. It was already 8pm and the rest of Miranda’s closest friends had arrived. Most of them were from the south and therefore Cantonese speaking which was a stark difference to the Mandarin that Lezil and I were used to.
Huge steaming pots of food were laid out, centred around a rice cooker. Each person grabbed a ceramic bowl and chopsticks, thus beginning the second eating-fest. A truly memorable way to spend Christmas in China. But the night was far from over for us. We had one more item to tick off the to-do list. Thanking Miranda for an awesome time, we jumped in another cab speeding back towards the city centre.
| A table spread of Caribbean dishes awaited us at our friend’s place. Camille, a teacher from Jamaica, has long been our partying buddy, especially at every party organised by the Caribbean Association in China. It was already late but Camille was gracious enough to have kept some food aside for us. Having stuffed ourselves twice that day already, all we could muster was a nicely seasoned vegetable broth and homemade apple pie courtesy of the lovely Christal who is also renowned for her Caribbean Banana Bread.
The other guests left shortly after we arrived. So it was just the three of us – Lezil, myself and Camille. Making ourselves comfortable on her large furry rug, we talked about the year that was 2012 and expectations for the coming year. Personally, I am more of a fan of one-to-one or small group conversations. I find you get to really experience more depth and insight into a person’s thinking. Camille is one such person who is so vibrant and positive that you can’t but help feel inspired to grab life with both hands and get the most out of it. And that had to be one of the best gifts she could have shared with us. Plus, we left Camille’s apartment with enough Jamaican dishes for lunch and dinner the following day. What a Christmas Day!
 Outside Hengshan Community Church.  With our friends (left to right) Sunni and Lee.  Lezil with friend Snow.  With my buddy Vova from the Ukraine.  Friends at Christmas Day service.  Christmas Day lunch - Chinese style!  Back at Miranda's - opening our Christmas gift.  Getting into the serious business of mahjong.  I manage to win just the one game!  People enjoying Miranda's incredible cooking.
 Coming together at Alex and Kwandi's apartment for Christmas Eve dinner! | Christmas as an actual holiday in China is non-existent. Most of my colleagues actually had to work on Christmas Day, but I thankfully had the one day off. This year, we were honoured enough to have been invited to a number of places to share in the festivities.
Most foreigners who stay in Shanghai for the holidays are away from their families and so it only makes sense that people would gravitate towards one another to re-create that feeling of belonging. For our friend Kwandi this couldn’t have been more relevant. “God’s love at Christmas has always been real for me through the love of my family. This year it was through the love of my friends…,”she said.
| Together with her French flatmate Alex, they had organised an intimate Christmas Eve dinner for eight people. And it was a right multi-cultural mix of nationalities from Spain, Italy, Indonesia, Haiti, Zimbabwe, USA and of course Lezil and I.
 Opening presents at the table. The warm heating in their spacious apartment had hints of oven baked potatoes wafting from the kitchen. Dinner was in the last stages of preparation and as an appetizer, bowls of avocado mix with tortilla chips were washed down with bubbly cups of champagne. The dining table had been decoratively laid out in Christmas-themed colours and snowmen napkins. And on each plate was a neatly wrapped present with a personalised tag. “Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without opening some presents,” laughed Alex as we sat in our appointed places.
Suddenly we had all become like kids excitedly opening our unexpected gifts. Each gift had been thoughtfully chosen - they couldn’t have got it more right. For me, I was given a bright neon-green tie (yes, I like my bold colours!) and Lezil a blue and grey shawl. Then followed a hearty meal of: chicken stew, broccoli and cauliflower pie, roast potatoes and pork and chestnut stuffing. Adding in the continental touch, Alex put together an excellent cheese board accompanied by freshly baked pieces of French baguette. I was in total cheese-heaven! A fridge-chilled raspberry Pavlova was the ideal dessert to round off the meal.
 Delicious dessert - Pavlova. | With such a broad selection of identities around that table, conversation was thoroughly enlightening. But it was Spaniard Haritz's recount of his near-death experience in Tibet that had us all gripped like teenagers around a camp fire listening to a spooky story. Having adapted badly to the high altitude, he ended up passing out in his hotel room only to be discovered 24 hours later barely alive and unconscious. Eight gruelling days of hit and miss had his friends on tendon hooks wondering if they would ever see him back to his former self, let alone speak. Much to the doctor’s amazement, he made a remarkable recover and a couple of weeks later he was making his way back to Shanghai.
If there was ever a time to be thankful for good health and loyal friends – Haritz's story definitely encompassed all those sentiments.
| Being so far from all that is familiar, it could be easy to complain about what seasonal traditions might be missing. But just the simplicity of having good people around you to share experiences with, despite not being obvious family, does make the feeling of gratitude all the more vivid. I’m thankful for life, thankful for my wife and thankful that I do have such wonderful people both physically near and far. Thank you Lord!  Saying a prayer before eating. |  Around the Christmas dining table! |
 The New York Harlem Singers in concert in Shanghai. | The New York Harlem Singers rolled into Shanghai as part of their winter 2012 Asian tour. Billed as ‘Tribute to Whitney Houston’ I was surprised to see the Shanghai Centre only half full. Admittedly, there wasn’t really much promotion leading up to event and only heard about it because of a couple of close friends invited us to get a group together to go see the show. Everyone had already got their tickets beforehand expect for Lezil and I. And on the day, the box office only had the higher-end priced tickets left. But as with most things in China, you can rely on the good old black market to try and pick up a bargain. Accompanied by our friend Sandy from north China’s Dalian, she was confident that we would strike it lucky. I wasn’t so sure. Outside the venue there were only two lone Chinese men fanning tickets in people’s faces. We decided that Sandy would be best suited to haggle for the best price. .
| Originally at RMB 480 (£48) they were asking for RMB 300 (£30). Still way above what we wanted to spend. We had our sights set on a RMB 100 (£10) budget.
The concert was due to start at 7:30pm and it was already 7:25pm. The rest of the group of friends had gone in. It was cold, damp and my patience was wearing thin. A group of 15 very loud middle-aged Chinese ladies walked past and by some miracle I overheard one of them saying they had some extra tickets to hand. I grabbed Sandy by the sleeve and soon we were in the centre of a lot of hand waving and over-expressive chatting. It turned out the ladies were teachers from a local public school which had been allocated some complimentary tickets of which they had a surplus.  The six singers on stage at the Shanghai Centre. Matching their hyped conversation, I expectantly said, “Wo yao san ge!” (I need three). This then spurned off into series of questions of where was I from, what did I do in Shanghai and having to hear their mini life stories. Inside me, I was stomping impatiently with a precious few minutes (and seconds) until kick off. The ladies reconvened and the petitioned three tickets were presented to us. They were good seats officially priced at RMB 280 (£28). “Duo shao qian yi ge?”(How much for one?) I frantically asked them in my messed up Chinese. “Yi bai” (one hundred). Sweet! Bang on budget.
 Clare Bathe showing her strong jazzy influences. | There was still one more hurdle to jump over. Fake goods are rife in China and that includes tickets for high-profile concerts. To ensure we weren’t being duped we had to travel with our newfound fan club to the concert hall’s entrance. Handing over the three tickets in question, the door attendant revised them and ripped off the stubs. We were in. Thanking the ladies and handing the money over, we bolted to our seats literally as the lights were dimming for the performance. As attendance was low that evening, we had a direct view of the stage from our third row balcony seats.
| The New York Harlem Singers have been going since 1996 with a number of members, coming and going. That night the six singers, one percussionist and a director-cum-piano player entertained us for two hours. The main billing of Whitney Houston songs wasn’t the attention grabbing item I was expecting. All the ballads were there: ‘I Will Always Love You’, ‘Run To You’ and ‘Greatest Love Of All’. Plus extras like ‘Saving All My Love For You’ and ‘Didn’t We Almost Have It All’. But somehow, despite the emotional interpretations by the singers, the crowd was somewhat unresponsive.  The NY Harlem singers signing autographs. The artists managed to get more of an audience participation in their Christmas medley of songs, especially on ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’ where we suddenly became one mass choir being led by our energetic hosts on stage. There were other musical genres featured with Negro Spirituals and Gospel songs sounding richly vivid with incredible harmonies. There was also an excellent tribute to Ella Fitzgerald on ‘You’ll Have To Swing It (Mr Paganini)’. “Oh Happy” closed out the entire night by which time the majority Chinese crowd had got the hang of clapping gospel style – on the off beat! The Harlem singers then did a CD signing and photo op. It was great to chat with them in person and I particularly enjoying stealing a few minutes with vocalist Clare Bathe. It turned out this was her first tour with the group, having already carved out a career doing other shows and performing as a solo act in her own right. She exclusively mentioned that she had her first solo album out in January. Which then begged the obvious question: “Do you have a copy with you?” In no time, copies of ‘I Met A Man’ were handed over and signed.
The venue where the Harlem Singers concert took place was a short 15 minutes walk from another musical place – the Penthouse Bar at the Hilton Hotel, otherwise known as Lezil’s old job. So it made perfect sense (pushed by an overwhelming sense of curiosity) to drop a sneaky peek. We hadn’t stepped foot there since Lezil’s very last performance at the end of August.  Same setting, a new band at the Hilton’s Penthouse Bar. | Everything pretty much looked the same when we entered the expansive marble hotel lobby. Getting out of the lift on the 39 floor, the familiar low red lighting from the stage could be seen streaming out of the bar’s doorway. The staff immediately recognised Lezil and I settled us in one of the front window tables by the stage. Three musicians had replaced Lezil and her band mates and the speakers had been taken off their stands and were now firmly fixed to the ceiling. The three performers were all Shanghainese – a pianist, an electric bassist and a female lead. The sound was completely stripped down with only the grand piano providing the melodies. The lead singer, who we later learned was called Jo Jo, performs at the Hilton four nights a week and one night at another five star hotel The Peninsula Hotel. She had punchy edge to her singing and carried the jazzy numbers well, but of course she was no Lezil!
| The sound was completely stripped down with only the grand piano providing the melodies. The lead singer, who we later learned was called Jo Jo, performs at the Hilton four nights a week and one night at another five star hotel The Peninsula Hotel. She had punchy edge to her singing and carried the jazzy numbers well, but of course she was no Lezil!
During the band’s break I had to slip into the conversation that we had recently celebrated a special someone’s birthday and immediately, the next song the band performed was “When I fall in love” (Nat King Cole) which was publicly dedicated to my darling wife. The rest of the Hilton staff got wind of the birthday girl and surprised us with two complimentary glasses of champagne. It was very strange sitting there – being on the ‘other side’. Here was a place where I had admired my wife’s musical talent for more than three years. But somehow it felt like closure as if to confirm that the baton had been passed on. Who knows where 2013 might see Lezil perform once again…  With Clare Bathe from the New York Harlem Singers. |  Extending Lezil’s birthday celebrations with glasses of champagne. |  With new Penthouse Bar lead singer, Jo Jo from Shanghai. |
 Enjoying our 3D movie experience. ‘Lee Ang’ has been the buzz name in China for the last four weeks. The Academy Award-winning director has had his latest movie, ‘The Life of Pi’, released nationally on the mainland. For a country that only provides 34 authorised foreign movie slots per year, it’s a big deal to get your international production into Chinese cinemas. And those prized screened movies, Chinese or foreign, are vetted and even parts deleted if they are deemed not suitable for Chinese viewing audiences.
‘Lee Ang’ has been the buzz name in China for the last four weeks. The Academy Award-winning director has had his latest movie, ‘The Life of Pi’, released nationally on the mainland. For a country that only provides 34 authorised foreign movie slots per year, it’s a big deal to get your international production into Chinese cinemas. And those prized screened movies, Chinese or foreign, are vetted and even parts deleted if they are deemed not suitable for Chinese viewing audiences.
Here was a boy who so open heartedly wanted to experience God and by doing so ended up actively seeking three faiths – Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. There was one very poignant moment in the movie where just before going to bed he thanks Krishna for introducing him to Jesus Christ. Lezil and I chuckled loudly but all around us, nobody so much as breathed audibly. The movie may have been produced by a talented Taiwanese filmmaker, but considering its content and geographical setting – ‘The Life of Pi’ couldn’t have been less Chinese.
EnjThis was made glaringly obvious when, during the following days, the topic of the movie came up in conversation with local friends. Without fail, the single most mentioned comment was that the God-references were confusing. One Shanghainese buddy went as far as pointing out: “You see, in China we don’t believe in God, so I didn’t really understand why the boy wanted to find God.” It then spun into a very interesting chat about world faiths and if one person could really adopt elements of different God-concepts and be spiritually-fulfilled.
In China, Lee Ang’s Academy Award is widely celebrated but not the movie which brought him that crowning glory – ‘Brokeback Mountain’. Aside from progressive cities like Shanghai, homosexuality is still seen as an uncomfortable taboo and as a result the cowboy gay-tinged romantic release could only be accessed via pirate DVD when it came out (no pun intended) in 2005. In contrast, ‘The Life of Pi’ is everywhere. Mass media outlets have covered its release, advertising has gone into overdrive and online Chinese sites are amassing incredibly positive viewer reviews.  Sharing premises Eco & More and Sprout. And I would have never expected that a story of a young Indian boy shipwrecked at sea with a slim selection of left over Noah’s-Ark animals would put faith into Chinese dialogue.
It turned out to be a week of double-screenings. Interestingly enough, it was another holistic subject. To quote the Bible: “Do you not know that your body is a temple…” (1 Corinthians 6:19) and to be good stewards of any dwelling, you have to look after it. Sprout is a newly launched lifestyle centre in Shanghai which focuses on eating and living well. Opened last month it shares a slick-looking premises with environmentally conscious household brand Eco-More at the trendy Surpass Court in the former French Concession.
Aside from stocking a number of healthy food options like chia beans, organic teas and cacao powder, the Sprout team also host a number of monthly workshops and events. We attended their screening of the 2008 documentary ‘Food Matters’. Three rows of neatly placed chairs faced a dropped down screen where Sprout co-founders Kimberly Ashton and Chiara Squinzi were busy brewing a pot of organic peppermint tea for the 16 attendees.
 With Sprout co-founder Kimberly Ashton. Living in China is not without its health scares. I don’t even have to mention that fact that we live in a city with one of the highest air pollution rates in the country. Over the last ten years there have been various food scandals to hit the headlines from poisonous baby powder milk to exploding watermelons, fake eggs and glow-in-the-dark pork. It’s scary. Many of us want alternatives to ensure we try and at least feed our bodies with relatively healthy stuff.
During the hour and a half movie a number of experts were interviewed from the fields of medicine, nutrition and alternative therapy. The crux of it was the ever-increasing clash of the pharmaceutical industry versus the use of natural vitamins and nutrition to heal and maintain the human body.
 Cacao - a number of 'super foods' stocked by Sprout. The two slogans went head-to-head: “A pill for an ill” or “You are what you eat”. It was extremely insightful and there were many challenging ideas including one advocate for raw food dieting saying that as much as we see it necessary to spend money upgrading our cars and houses, why not see good eating as a must-do investment also?
Lots of facts and figures were presented and the one that stood out to me most was that in order for the body to be functioning at its optimum, we should ideally be eating a raw food diet 51% of the time. Looks like we’ll have to double the lettuce orders!
The movie concluded and both Kimberly and Chiara held a relaxed Q&A afterwards offering advice on various vitamins and their benefits, the definition of ‘superfoods’ and their own personal lifestyle changes when it came to eating. It was so totally doable.
And despite that there are often many misconceptions and mistrusts about Chinese food production, Kimberly pointed out that many of the international brands of healthy food products actually are originally grown in China for export. The very fact that Sprout is a mere 15minutes walk away from where we live, Lezil and I have no excuse but to adopt a more concise approach on how we consume food. Plus you can’t really go wrong with workshops like 'Healthy Breakfast Eating' and their often over-subscribed 'Raw Chocolate Demo & Tasting' session. My mantra for 2013 is that 'food does matter'! Web: www.sproutlifestyle.com Visit: Sprout, Surpass Court, 570 Yongjia Lu, Ground Floor, Unit #412. Xuhui District, Shanghai 200031 Tel: 021 3250 9103 Metro: Hengshan Road (Line 1)  Lezil and Kimberly discuss products. |  More health food selections at Sprout. |  Slick design and layout at Sprout’s open demo kitchen. |
|
RSS Feed