Bring in the Year of Rabbit with a hand-made toy rabbit

For guests who are staying with us during the holidays this year, we have prepared a small gift in the form of a hand-made stuffed rabbit.  Next year (2011) is the Chinese zodiac year of the Rabbit, so we thought our guests might like to take home a little token to mark their visit.

We found these cute rabbits from a cute shop called Ru-Wa, which is located in the JingAn Villa neighborhood.  The owners Season and Halei are interested in preserving and reviving the traditional Chinese toy crafts, and opened this workshop/store where they also offer classes on making traditional Chinese kites, lanterns, and other toys.  They work with old masters who are still knowledgeable about the traditional construction methods.  The old masters cannot be rushed so the items they produced are limited in quantity ;-)