Lorena Costoya on CHANGZHOU!

Hello everybody! My name is Lorena, I'm 33 years old and I love travelling. I've visited so many countries and places that I've decided to write a blog with little entries for you to know about culture and things you can do if you decide to try the same destinations as me. Are you ready? Here we go!

In this occasion I'm going to write about Changzhou, which is a prefecture-level-city in southern Jiangsu, China, with a population of about 5,000,000 inhabitants. This city is located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, and I had the great opportunity to stay in a little typical house with wonderful sights of this river. Just look at this picture below and imagine it. Waking up every morning with the sound of birds, opening the wooden door and enjoying the nature itself from your balcony, all in front of you. Unforgettable. A sensation of peace and carelessness will invades you immediately.

Anyway, it depends on the season you choose to visit this place, of course. I went there in spring, for me the best option because I hate the cold weather, and it was wonderful, with 15 or 17 degrees maximum. If you travel in winter, you will support up to7 degrees , and in summer is horrible, with more than 30 degrees, including nights! It's not for me!

Apart from the beautiful sceneries you find from your own room, Changzhou offers a lot of things to see and activities to do, from visiting the Ruins of Yancheng, the four pictures below, to going to the China Dinosaur Park, situated in the Xinbei District of the city. 

This park it a collection of bones and fossils of dinosaurs from all over China. If you enjoy more the religion, you have the opportunity to visit the Tianning Temple, one of the largest Zen Buddhist temple and monasteries in China. As I'm an enthusiast of this religion, it was the place I enjoyed the most. The feeling of peace and relax was really indescribable (sadly, I wasn't allowed to take photos of this beautiful place).

I don't know why a gorilla is in the middle of the dinosaurs, but all the tourists which visits the Park, take a photo of it.

For the least adventurous, there is another place you can go, with or without children.

The Dongpo Park, located in the east part of downtown of Changzhou city, is a typical Jiangnan Garden composed of cultural sites and natural landscapes with 2,667 hectares. If you love taking photographs or you simply want to forget that you are in a city, don't let it go.

The Old Museum of Wisteria is also located in this city, but I don't like this kind of tourism. If you do, you can find a piece of information in this link:

http://www.cultural-china.com/chinaWH/Arts/en/102Arts14217.html

So, friends, that's all for now. If you want, you can send me your comments in the space provided, telling me if you like this blog, if I can improve something, or maybe if you would like to travel but you can't, you can give me some ideas of places I can visit and write about. This way, you would feel as if you were there with me! 

See you soon!

Leave your comment here:

Postcrossing Meetup (Received Cards): MARCEL from THE NETHERLANDS

This is one of the postcards we have received from The Netherlands. It was sent to us by Marcel, who lives in the city of Weert, near Eindhoven, 1448 kilometers away!

The image that appears on the postcard is an old painting by Pieter Brueghel, one of the most famous Flemish painters of all time. It is 'The battle of the Israelites and the Philistines', and was painted in 1562. A brief description of this painting goes as follows:

Marcel's text is quite brief, just wishing us a nice day; the stamp in the top left corner shows the typical shape of northern European housing.

Thanks a lot, Marcel!

Jorge Costoya on RIJSSEN!

Rijssen is a town in the Dutch province of Overijssel. Since 2001 it is part of the township of Rijssen-Holten in the region of Twente. It has more than 28,000 inhabitants and it is easily accessible by car from the Highway A1 or by train. Rijssen inhabitants are known for pride for their city, their self-sufficiency and working ethos. This pride shows in the fact that Rijssen has its own anthem

Downtown is plenty of bars, pubs, restaurants and shops. Because of the proximity to Germany, Rijssen is also well-known for its transport and construction companies.

A must-see is the Windmill Pelmolen 'Ter Horst', which it has been totally restored. There is also a museum dedicated to the history of the fire brigades containing more than 19,000 objects. Another typical destination for tourists is the church, also called 'Big Church' or 'Schildkerk' (Shield Church in Dutch). 

Close to the town we can visit the Canadian War Cemetery situated in Holterberg, where almost 1500 Canadian soldiers who died during the last years of the World War II were buried. If you like the nature, there is a National Park not far away.

RIJSSEN CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY

Postcrossing Meetup (Received Cards): MARY from BELGIUM

Take a look at this postcard that we received from Belgium! It was sent to us by Mary, who lives in the city of Mons, very near the French border, 1288 kilometers away.

The image in her postcard shows a work of art by Anne Geddes, a renowned Australian-born photographer, currently living and working in New York. She specializes in baby photography, as you can see from the picture on the card.

On the back Mary tells us a bit about herself, her cat and her country, Belgium, famed worldwide for being 'The Land of Chocolate'.

Thank you, Mary, for your generosity in sending this card and sharing an intimate piece of yourself in your card too!

Iván Camba on POSTCROSSING!

Have you ever heard about post crossing?

I´ve discovered it last year and in my personal opinion it is like a breath of fresh air among so much technology.

The idea is very simple. It just consists of a traditional exchange of postcards!

Yes! Exactly, like before internet existed.

What do you think? Interesting? Are you ready to use again pen and paper?

Well, Let me tell you about the experience!

I sent my first card last year. I think it was December and the postcard was sent to Brazil. It was written to a girl named Eliane...

It was something strange because when you write a post you don´t know who is the person that you are writing to.....but maybe, that aspect is the most interesting of the postcrossing.

As you describe something or somewhere of your own city...other people describe to you their own

places. 

All these things considered, you could think that it looks so boring Writing a letter, sending it and waiting, waiting..... and waiting that someone writes to you... Wouldn’t it be easier to send a text message?, Maybe..... but, What about the surprise of getting a card into your mailbox?

Yes, that´s the point!. When you are into postcrossing and after sending some cards you´ll receive some others and each one will be a little surprise.

 The best of all will be that feeling, in between curiosity and impatience when you receive new notices..... and at the end you could discover the most singular places around the world because they won´t be shown by guides or travel books but shown directly by personal and subjective experiences.

 Try it! and Join us!

I hope you found this post useful; if you liked it, share it and don´t forget to follow the next entry!

Postcrossing Meetup (Received Cards): OKSANA from ESTONIA

We have received our first postcard from Estonia, and more concretely, from the city of Tartu; this is a place I have a special love for, as I spent one Summer month there, about a decade ago, in a 4-week course for learning the rudiments of the Estonian language.

The postcard came to us from Oksana, a teacher of Russian at the Tartu University, and 2999 kilometers away from us.

Tartu boasts of the oldest university in the country (founded in the seventeenth century), and is a bit like Santiago de Compostela: a proud, old, University city and cultural centre of its country. In Oksana's postcard we can see some of the typical landmarks of the place: the Neoclassical Main University Building, a mural nearby with the same building, the Astronomical Observatory, a boat race on the Emajogi river, that divides the town in two...

Want to learn more of the place? You can take a peek here, here and here, or alternatively, you can read what Oksana wrote for us in her postcard.

Thank you, Oksana, for your generosity in sending this card and sharing an intimate piece of yourself in your card too!

Postcrossing Meetup (Received Cards): LUDMILA from RUSSIA

We've been very busy of late at the EOI with the end of course exams and, as we have mentioned in a previous post, we won't be sending any new postcards abroad till the beginning of the next academic year, in September; nevertheless, we still have a lot of things to share which we will be posting during the Summer: the postcards we receive and the city descriptions that were written by the Advanced 1 students.

The following postcard came to us from Ludmila, who lives in the Siberian region, near Omsk, and 5530 kilometers away.

The image in her postcard shows a big postcard with a Russian inscription (maybe 'I love sending letters?') inside a globe with some of the typical monuments and landmarks of different countries (Russian Kremlin, Tower of Pisa, London's rain and double-decker buses, a Dutch windmill, the Pyramids... and a couple of planes flying around. It is a very apt metaphor of how we travel when we write to other places.

The text isn't too long, but it comes with some niceties: a sentence in Russian and some beautiful stamps, with pictures of Russian monuments.

Thank you, Ludmila, for your generosity in sending this card and sharing an intimate piece of yourself in your card too!