Craft production is an old Cebuano tradition. Most Cebuanos are expected to learn a craft as they grow up. In fact, rural children usually make their own toys. As they mature, the rural men participate in the building of their own houses, or mend fishing nets, always conscious that the craftsman makes objects that are sometimes for his own use, or in other times for sale. The tradition of working with the hands has served Cebu well. The high quality of Cebuano craftsmanship is a source of Cebuano pride. Locals love showing off "Made in Cebu" items with a flourish.

Cebu is more than economic center of the south. It is the center of the Cebuano soul. Literature, drama, and the theater in Cebuano exist but wait for a rebirth. There has, however, been a musical renaissance in Cebu in the past few years. Religious music written by unknown musicians is being discovered in dusty church archives. The Missa Baclayana, a 19th century Mass written in Cebuano specifically for the choir of Baclayon Church in neighboring Bohol was discovered in 1997, transcribed and premiered the following year at a Music Festival in Bohol. In its few years of existence, the Cebu Youth Symphony Orchestra has become one of the primary orchestras in the country and the only one outside of Manila.

Cebu offers more that the usual beaches and resorts, beautiful that they actually are, that it has become known for. However to experience Cebu it takes leaving the planned environments of hotels and resorts and to wander among its people. Then an understanding of what Cebu is all about will cone.

So the way to experience Cebu is to mingle among the people, and to wade into the city and province in the same manner that history, trade, and influences have all waded ashore to Cebu, "sugbo" in the Cebuano language. The Cebuano historian Resil Mojares said that "The name sugbo means to "walk on water," a reference to how those who came to the settlement by seacraft had to wade ashore as the shallow waters prevented boats from reaching dry land. The name is evocative of arrivals, of the island as a destination, connected to points beyond its shores."

There is more to the Cebuano lifestyle that what appears on the surface. It takes digging under the covers to discover what Cebu is really like, and Cebu really is like no other.

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