My Favourite "Spam" of the Year

As regular as clockwork (The Chinese clock ... mother!), I get an email from William Lu, the proprietor of the 7th Heaven Café in Yangshuo, China around this time of the year.

I never signed up for this email list, and there's no apparent way to unsubscribe.

I stayed at the 7th Heaven Café earlier this decade, and I guess I gave William my email address. According to some (including me, most of the time), without explicit permission, a commercial email is spam. And while admittedly there is a commercial component to this email, the personal content, the endearing language, and the pure innocence, naivite and unbridled enthusiasm in the face of life's adversarial odds makes this an email I look forward to, and some of the best marketing I have ever encountered. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Frankly, anyone who says difference is a curmudgeonly scrooge in my books.

Dear friend and family,

We wish you a Merry Christmas and happy new year !

Time is flying! Here we are still live well in this small and beautiful Yangshuo ! Yangshuo is still a small tourism town with a rapidly developing in these years. And this year we experienced a difficult year of 2008 which we except a heavy harvest year!

At the begin of the year, we get a 50 year once cold winter and it last almost a month with the tempreture around 0 degree – 8 degree. The Road was frozed which the transportation was blocked everywhere, a lot plants were died which farmer never except that cold weather.

A lot of Electrical poles were broken down as the heavy snow ice frozen alone the line; later on it was the polical event in Tibet on 14th, March, then the Earthquake in Sichuang wenchuang county that bring us a lot sorrow anddown all the market in china, later on it is the Olympic Game in BeiJing for a month, finaly, when the Game is finished and we are all in peace and get a nice market for the Great second Gold Week – National holiday ! hahaha…

then come the bad news on the financial crisis of all over the world ! So how is the year of next year of 2009 – the Great Buffalo Year ! We are looking forward the buffalo will leading us a picking up year…

Personally, we are doing well and had a quite balance year on Business and built a web with the help from friends peter, Fengzi Ian and Xiao Qiu at: www.snowlionresort.com for the newly open Snow Lion Riverside Resort. Our 7thheaven café has a great improve from the food at western style with fresh bread each day and very nice sweet Chocolate cake and Cheese cake.

Cloud 9 Chinese Restaurant always do a great job at Sichuang and local food, it has been a very popular place to go and the amazing thing that you can learn whatever you eat there – a Chinese cooking class there with an English Speaker, Famous cook Martin Yan was cooking with our teacher Linda! We are going to move the cooking class in the countryside in 2009 at Snow Lion Riverside Resort, Hope we can make it!

For our Family lu, our two daughters are health and smart growing, We are very happy for having them around and enjoying teaching them by books and life skills. Now Christina is still in Kidsgarden and in next term, we will send her for the first grade in primary school. Sarah the little one is a strong girl and she could walk at 10 and half month old and now almost 14months, she only can speak few words clear.But she is stout and smart ,walking like Panda bear;, Christina can walking and speaking at same time when she was 12 months old ! We love them very much and here comes some photos in the website about us for sharing the happiness with all and really hope you can keeping in touch update recent news from your side! We miss you and really hope to hear from you and possible to visit you soon !

We wish you all fine and have a Great Year of Buffalo of Chinese! Of course we are not forget to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy new year !

All the best to you and family with love!

Yours

William, family lu and teams de 7th heaven, Cloud 9 and Snow Lion Resort

www.snowlionresort.com