This 16-page Hangzhou Weekly commemorates the 100^th issue of the publication, which falls on June 30, 2008.  As the only weekly source for detailed local information in English, the newspaper was born to be a ‘narrator’ of the city of Hangzhou.  It endeavors to provide the Hangzhou’s expat community with something to read in a foreign language and get a feel for the city in which they are living. The newspaper is now over two years old and is still quite young; but it continues to serve as an important indicator of the enrichment and upgrading of the city’s media power and testifies to the determination of the city of Hangzhou to be more involved in modernization and globalization...

Well, Another Intouch issue is about to be wrapped up. This will be a special issue as we are about to celebrate the Spring Festival. We have tried our best to put together a well-rounded issue with some entertaining and thought-provoking articles. It was my great pleasure to introduce the great Pan Tianshou to you, our readers. And I had some howling good fun explaining the calculations of the Lunar New Year.

Being from the American Midwest, I am enjoying the blasts of freezing air. While I write this, I am listening to one of my favorite Blues songs “Sweet Home Chicago”, by the great bluesman Robert Johnson, and remembering the icy sidewalks along Michigan Avenue. But back home in the Windy City of Chicago, the wintry gusts off Lake Michigan froze my buns off much more thoroughly than the winter winds off the West Lake, so for that I am thankful.

Chuck

Last week, I went to Yiwu – the biggest small commodities market, for an interview with the general manager of Starbucks.

Upon the time when I got off the train at Yiwu, I merely took the city as a quite ordinary county-level city – disordered and chaotic. Afterwards, we took a taxi to Futian market – the largest market in Yiwu. When I reached the market, I was totally shocked. Miscellaneous goods are on the shelf awaiting for buyers, and a very important point is that all the goods are extraordinarily cheap at a wholesale price. It seems that you can make a fortune by selling purchased by bulk from Yiwu. Haha.

It is said that Yiwu boasts an aggregate market floor area of 2.6 million square meters with 53,000 booths and 200,000 persons engaging in business. The market gathers 320,000 varieties of goods of 1,502 categories from 34 trades (there are 500,000 varieties of goods in the world as released by UN). Ha, really a magical place, right'

Tips for you if you want to go there by train:

1.       Train travel costs you nearly one hour and a half.

2.       Price of train ticket – around 20 yuan.

Candice

As an editor of Intouch and the Hangzhou Weekly it is my privilege to work with some extraordinarily talented people. Being an editor gives me insight into the panoply of human events that occur in Hangzhou and Zhejiang. As a writer, comprehension of these events is my bread and butter, and I try to use my instincts to smooth out the rough nuances of language between Chinese and English.

I will try to post regularly to the editor’s blog.

The creative process for each issue is energetic to say the least. We try to deliver a high quality magazine with relevant well-constructed topics, and reader feedback is critical to success. We need you to critique our publications and this website. Send us your thoughts. Don’t procrastinate. Thanks and keep reading.

Chuck

Welcome to the brand new Intouch Zhejiang website. Bear with us as we go through some inevitable teething troubles, and do come back, as we will be updating daily in the news, events and blog sections. We will also be featuring some of the magazine and newspaper articles here in case you are too lazy to go and get yourself a copy! For now, why not have your say and leave a comment in our forum?