Tiananmen Square

We went to Tiananmen Square today. It was very cold.

The Great Wall of China

In Beijing, we stayed in a flat belonging to Mummy's friend. It was warm, comfortable, and there were lots of toys to play with. It was cold outside, but fortunately there was central heating in the flat. Gonggong and Popo (grandpa and grandma) were also in town to see us.

We also had a day trip to the Great Wall at Badaling today. We took our time getting ready, so had quite a late start. The traffic was awful, and it took us ages to get there in our hire-car.

Once there, we climbed a long way to the top. We got back into town just in time to have dinner with some of Mummy's relatives who live in the city.

Our stay in Beijing

Today, we went to the Paleontology Museum, and spent the rest of the afternoon at the Natural History Museum. In the evening, we ate in a famous Peking Duck restaurant. It was very busy place, with many people waiting for tables; my Grandparents arrived at 6, but we still had to wait until 7:30 to be seated. Luckily, they had cooked up some dumplings so we had something to nibble on while we were waiting.

The day before yesterday, we went to the Beijing Zoo, where we particularly enjoyed the penguin house, and looking at the stone animals.

Theodore and me in the penguin house at Beijing Zoo

Arrived in Beijing

Mummy and Papa decided to take me and Théodore to Beijing for Easter.

We took the sleeper train all the way from Kowloon, via an inland route. The trip took 24 hours, and was a new experience. Papa had brought along some snacks, but we still had our meals in the dining compartment. I slept in both upper and lower bunks on the train. This afternoon, we got off the train at Beijing West Railway station.

I have been to Beijing before, when I was littler.

Panyu, Guangdong

Took the hydrofoil to Panyu two days ago. It took one and a half hours. I often get motion-sickness, and the boat moved too much for my liking. The shuttle bus took about an hour to get to our hotel.

We had a quick dinner, and we arrived at the Guangzhou Chime-Long International Circus (长隆国际马戏团) just as the show was starting. There were plenty of bright lights, loud music; there were trapeze and other stunt performers, bears which rode unicycles.

The next morning, after breakfast, we went to the nearby Guangzhou Xiangjiang Safari Park (广州香江野生动物园). We took a trolley-bus ride through the inner park compound, and came into close contact with many types of animals. In the outer compound, we fed some parrots and some giraffes. We attended a show in the white tiger compound, with performing elephants, monkeys, and birds.

a friendly giraffe

Insects were busy while we slept last night. Despite Mummy's precautions, I woke up in the morning covered in mosquito bites:-(

We headed for the CrocPark this morning after breakfast. There, we saw a host of reptiles: snakes, crocodiles, turtles. Someone wrestled with a big big crocodile, which we had our picture taken with. There were other performing mammals too at the park: we saw pigs; and a show starring sea lions. We sat in the front row, and I took a picture with him after the show. I was so happy to see the star so close!

In the afternoon, we went back to the hotel for our bags, and an early supper, then took the boat back to Hong Kong. Everyone except Papa was sea-sick, but he did not look well when we got off the boat.

Trip to Shanghai

Mummy and Papa took us to Shanghai. We were invited to Uncle Jack's wedding, and we also did some touristy things, like going to Zhou Zhuang (周庄), and going up the Jin Mao tower (金茂大厦), the tallest building in China at the time.