Shu and Erica havve been living in Bristol for about two years now. Though as two working individuals living in Bristol, the most fruitful moments for us are often not about the work. We're very inspired by the communities ni and aound Bristol. In these two years, we've seen the best form of them, and also accompanoed the most challenging times. And, we've decided to write about them!

This is our first attempt to make a web-magazine. We have had some adventures calling people for interviews, out cycling and experimenting with images and words. To be honest, we didn't expect much but to enjoy the process and explore the question kick-started us: What makes Bristol?

How It Started

Having been living in Bristol for two years, this city is all about the warmth for us. In the parks, dogs run freely, followed by children, and then their parents.. In the woods, plenty of places there to sit and watch the sky, feel the sun.

Bristol has its own vibrant vibe. Street friends selling Big Issue casually highfive passersby. Longtime residents call themselves Bristolians. With its strong sense of community, Bristol also has long been the home of all things eco and environmentally friendly. This passion for creating a sustainable economy seems naturally embedded in the community.

In these two years, we have visited some interesting places, met some fun people in and around Bristol. We would walk for 40 minutes to the Harbourside and chill by the water. We would walk for an hour to Easton when we feel like hanging out in an indie vibe with an exciting community. We also walked from Wells to Axbridge, cut cross Menddip, plus another 2.5 hours in Strawberry line, up to Yatton, all by foot. (Thanks to public footpath signs!) Yes, we enjoy walking.

We live around Gloucester Road, 2 min walk to a fish monger, 5 min walk to a butcher and cheese shop, and a few great choices of vegetable stores. Gloucester Road is known for having the longest row of independent shops (商店街) in Europe. And yes, this reminds me when I lived in Sumida-ku (墨田區) in Tokyo. Especially when we see shop owners collaborate and bond with each other while crafting products with passion and proud – let it be beer, ceramic, candles, plants, or fish & chips... Indie shops help and collaboration with each other. Living in the same city, they are friends working together rather than competitors. The more places we visited, more elements we could recognize. Here and there, just like putting together a beautiful puzzle.

Walks surface thoughts. We started to wonder what makes Bristol, as well as how its sense of community came about. We went ahead explore the city with themes, and started to write about them in private diaries. The core themes are: The hills, the experiements, and the togetherness.

Today, we plan to compile them into a sharable format. You will be reading stories from us, Erica & Shu, two individuals from Taiwan, living and working (walking) in Bristol. We're collecting interviews with some local business owners, community founders, and brilliant Bristolians! End result will be presented as a web-magazine. Our aim is to document the city from our perspective and our first-hand experience. We hope to bring these stories to our friends back home in Taiwan and Japan, and perhaps one day share back to the Bristol community.

What Makes Bristol

The Hills

"Bristol is unquestionably a hilly city." That you could hear from any cyclists commuting with a bike in and around Bristol.

It is said that Bristol is built on seven hills, just like Rome built on seven hills and run by Tiber river, dividing the city into two parts, Bristol is cut through by river Avon and river Frome, disconnecting the upper part of the city from the lower. The sevven hills are:

I. That on which the old city stands, the central point of which is the junction of the four streets, Corn Street, Wine Street, High Street, and Broad Street. II. That on which stood the castle to the east, which is bounded by the Avon on the south, the Froom on the north, and by a deep ditch or moat (now partly rrrhed over) on the east. III. To the west. College Green, an eminence leading to the btcep ascent of Park Street. IV. To tho south of the Avon, Redcliff Hill, on which are the famous church of that name, its churchyard, and several streets and places. V. St. Michael's Hill. VI. Kingsdown, part of which is in the city, on which are many modern houses and gardens. VII. Brandon Hill, all of which is in the city. --- from "Heath's history of Bristol"

In this web-magazine, you will be viewing experimental images from us. They are photos and GIFs we took by GoPro or just our phones, capturing the hilly views in Bristol. Here are a couple of examples to start with!

Despite having so many hilly slopes, out of our surprise, Bristol was named as the UK's first "cycling city"! We will cover the cycling scene in and around Bristol, including our own experiences in sourcing two bikes from Cyclescheme and Bristol Bike Project so that we could take on a day trip to the famous Bristol and Bath cycle path with the big help from the thorough information on National Cycle Network provided by Sustrans.

We also brainstormed a few fun and hill-related topics to write about, such as parks on the hill, cafes on the hill and city allotments on the hill, where we encountered and learned about our favourate Dig for Victory poster. We hope to present some interesting pieces to you soon!

Dig for Victory was a response to a wartime problem of food shortages. This campaign was set up during WWII by the Ministry of Agriculture in UK. People were urged to use gardens and every spare piece of land to grow their own food.

The Experiements

Living in Bristol, we discover tons of eye-refreshing ideas and urban hacks just walking down the streets. And it was taken to another level in the time of pandemics.

We have been to Coexist Community Kitchen, an open kitchen that cooks lunches every Thursday for people living around the neighborhood. Under lockdown, they've iterated to a weekly take-away supper club where every order will help to raise funds to provide nourishing meals for people that need it. They teamed up with the National Food Service and prepared meals every Tuesday to be packed and delivered to hundreds of people who need them within our community.

In lockdown, time outdoors is precious. Adviced by the government, we had to limit outdoors exercise to once a day. During this precious moments in the sun, we new eye-catching instalations emerged at our neighbour's front garden. Thoses are "Little Libraries" for book-swaps during lockdown. It's so clever since libraries were inaccessible due to lockdown restrictions, and the charity shops were kept shut as well. Setting up Little Libraries is perfect way tocirculate read or unwanted books especailly when needing a mental escape.

It was not an easy time, but when only essentials can open and operate, we observed local independent shops struggled and steadied with their creativity. They put out groceries and continueed operation, and many cafes self-learned and navigated theirs ways to start operating online shops. They provide online ordering, click & collect services, and even home delivery. New business opportunities also emerged, a lot of which we obsereved were around alcohols, such as a subscription service for make-at-home cocktails.

We've picked a few of them to write about, including Vegs Hacks videos that an organic farm, Riverford, launched to teache people tips in preparing wicked ingredients. Hope you will enjoy!

#3 The Togetherness

In this last part of the e-magazine, we will cover some interviews we did with local shops and businesses, as well as some studies about local initiatives. We will focus on portraiting the virtue of "togethreness" we observed from aside. Well, you know, sometimes, when we enter a shop... we would found an owner of another shop! At the time of confusion, we would realise that they know each other, and even better --- they work together! The beauty of working together is that the team as a whole actually becomes stronger. They are in the same team work towards the same goal rather then enimies fighting for customers.

It's not hard to tell that they care about each others and they aare on the same boat that builds the Bristol community. Maybe that explains what being a Bristolian means: to grow the community, to help and enhance each others with what could put on the table.

However, there are too many of them to write about, and we are only two individuals donig so much writing first time in our lives! We picked a few of the independent shops within our network to write about, including our beloved Kafei Kiosk, South West Grain Network and Farro Bakery.

Sutdies such as the local community currency Bristol Pound will also be covered in this section. We will introduce their newest non-profit payment account, Bristol Pay, that prevents money from leaving the city through transaction charges.

A cup of coffee is an excuse to share thoughts with the founders Arrow and Fei, and Kafei is one of the place we see how connected Bristol is.

Lastly...

So far we have pinned down these three themes and they seem to be making some sense. Hopefully, we could see them clearer with more stories unfold. We will be thrilled if these stories could inspire our network, and bring a little bit of "Bristolian spirit" back home. As two expats living in Bristol, we hope to not only take away tons of learnings, but could one day contribute back and put something on the table to the Bristolian community!