Our own Jiaojiehe House:

• Home page

• From the west

• From the north-west

• From the south-east

• Interior shell

• Breakfast room

• Master bedroom

• Wooden heart

• More of the interior

• The garden
  (updated 6th Sep 2009)

• The original house

• Adding the personal touch

Jiaojiehe environs:

• Jiaojiehe valley and the Great Wall

• More local views

• Winter to summer 2006

• Dream Village House
  (updated 6th Sep 2009)

• The Phoenix
  (updated 6th Sep 2009)

• Paradise Lost
  (10th Sep 2007)

• Money talks (2007)
  (30th Nov 2007)

• Beauty and the Beast
  (26th Oct 2007)

• Blot on the Landscape (updated 30th May 2009)

• Money talks (2008)
  (20th Nov 2008)

• Jiaojiehe Awards 2009
  (30th May 2009)

• Private Great Wall Hike
  (9th Aug 2009)

By September 2009, my modest UK pension had 'shrunk' considerably owing to the decline in the value of the pound sterling and we decided we needed to realise the value of our two smaller houses. We sold them both to a young Beijing couple who appeared sympathetic to our way of doing things in Jiaojiehe, at least they haven't dug up the grass lawns (yet).

When another house in Jiaojiehe village became available at a sensible price in July 2006, we decided to buy it and develop it as a guest house. The decorator who finished our main house was again commissioned. Both time and our budget were limited.

The result was absolutely splendid, delivered on time and on budget.

The garden is grassed, runner beans are doing well and next year there will be masses of strawberries. 

And for a while in the Spring, we thought we could make the business plan work.