The Great Wall at Badaling

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. Being a Saturday, 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. Papa let me drink some shandy :-)

Our stay in Beijing

Today, we went to the Natural History Museum and the Paleontology Museum. In the evening, we ate in a famous Peking Duck restaurant. It was very popular; 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.

Duncan and me outside the Paleontology Museum

The day before yesterday, we went to the Beijing Zoo, where we particularly enjoyed the penguin house, and looking at the stone animals. I took a picture of a huge stone turtle, and a stone croc with Papa's camera.

My picture of the stone turtle

Slow train to China

This afternoon, we got off the train at Beijing West Railway station: Mummy and Papa decided to take Duncan and me 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 a bunk bed on the train. I wanted to sleep in the upper bunk, but didn't feel safe. I made Papa promise me to buy me a bunk bed with a fixed ladder for home.

3 days in Panyu, Guangzhou

Took the hydrofoil to Panyu two days ago. It took one and a half hours. Duncan got sea-sick. The shuttle bus took about an hour to get to our hotel.

We arrived just in time to have a quick dinner, and we rushed to the Guangzhou Chime-Long International Circus (长隆国际马戏团). We entered the arena 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. What I liked the most were the clowns who jumped off diving boards.

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.

Insects were busy while we slept last night. Despite Mummy's precautions, Duncan and I woke up in the morning to find ourselves covered in mosquito bites:-( We headed for the CrocPark this morning after breakfast. There, we saw a host of reptiles: snakes, crocodiles, turtles, and we saw a show starring sea lions. I got to shake the star's hand!

a hug from the star of the show

In the afternoon, we went back to the hotel for our bags, then took the boat back to Hong Kong. Everyone except Papa was sick.

My brother Duncan

The big news last week is that I have a little brother, who was born in Paris Wednesday last week at 8 in the morning. Papa says he is much heavier than me at birth, he weighed in at almost 4kg (8lb 12oz) ! Papa named him 'Duncan' because I like the sound so much. Since then, I sometimes refer to myself as "gege", or big brother in Chinese.

My weight has been stable at 30 lbs, but at 92.5cm, I continue to grown taller. I still enjoy my lie-ins in the morning before getting up for breakfast - I am allowed to wake up slowly and get to practise vocalisation and singing. It's getting warm, so Grandpa couldn't resist giving me another haircut. I will soon be able to go swimming outdoors.

Gugu says I am developing purist tendencies: I don't like mixing up my building blocks of different colours; when given a bowl of vegetables, I like to separate the peas from the corn. I like comparing things and remarking when they are the same. Green locomotive Percy has never been a favourite since Santa gave it to me for Christmas, but when Gugu bought Duck, the two locomotives are both getting some attention because they are the same colour.

I go to the park more and more because it's warmer and because Gugu says I need to run around outside more, and learn to kick a ball. I still have lots of fun around the house: I am mastering my jigsaw puzzles, and enjoy wearing big peoples' shoes. The grown-ups now get angry more often because I'm doing things they thought I grew out of long ago: throwing things, standing up in my chair, emptying cups of water on the floor or carpet. I occasionally throw tantrums too! Thankfully I didn't invent the "terrible twos";-)