Painting Master...

Yup, we visited Chinamum's painting teacher again and he was UBER generous, handing out some of his original works (including one for Mum & Dad which has pandatouchups [and the entire background] done by one of the most famous painters in modern china) - he absolutely fell in love with Maddie of course and she scored quite a cute panda painting!

Jen & Derek got this great tiger painting, which has a different style to his works of late - i like it!

All in all you're just a ...

'nother brick in the wall?

This trip we ended up at a part of the wall i'd not been to before - and oh boy were we in for a treat! At Maddie's best count we covered 1290 stairs during the afternoon's journey... and very little flat ground.

Ah yes they fool you with the approach...
And the deceptively flat doorways...
Looks easy enough!...
And of we go... Sun is coming down in the sky, the view is great, and only a few more stairs to go! The little one raced ahead of course, stopping only to wait as we checked our vision for spots...



Yeah this is pretty much how I felt after the climb as well, however I was the one holding the camera :P

Duckform!
From here one could take a stroll out to the Gazebo (after climbing another 600 stairs or so of course, but whatever)
On the way home there was this outstanding sunset! Had to stop and take a picky...
After that some frogs rained from the sky, but we tried not to read too much into it...

Hutongs!

... these are the little areas close to the Forbidden City where the families of political & influential people lived back in the day. At the moment, it's a bit of a tourist trap replete with pubs!

However, if you're ever IN Beijing, i recommend looking up the Hutongs as a place to stay - a room (like the one Siyu & Maddie are in below) will set you back about US$45/night and that includes some great food, a courtyard atmosphere (including Hanging Dead Fish!), and if you're into it some competitive Mah Jong!

We boarded our flight early morning... took about 2 hours for the tour. We were a little rushed due to our schedule for the day but it was a worthwhile experience nonetheless.

Forbidden City

Wouldn't want to be a Brass Monkey in Beijing during December!
At the entrance to Tianamen Square! They wouldn't let us rent any tanks however, something about them being down for cleaning...

I offered CN$10 to Pinkel if he'd run up and kick this guard in the clackers... bah, he didn't do it.
Teeny-Tiny Emperor! I notice the traditional baseball cap there under his ubergarb...
He was like.. woooaaaaahhhhhh..... traditional baseball!
Good thing we went on a weekday! At least it wasn't crowded...
Forbidden... throne...

Mo Bao Mo

Putting on my best face as per usual!
"Up!" comes the command... "Up!!" and of course, for now while she's light enough and i'm young enough, Up she'll go! Haha this photo scared the wits out of Mum & Jen, maybe all those stories about Killer Fishies were starting to take root...

Bao Mo Park

The day was one of the best for the weather since the Campbell's had landed! So we chuffed off thanks to Arshuay (that's more how you say it, no idea how his name is spelled) and spent the day walking through the park...

Almost immediately the cry of "fishies!!" rang out.. and you-know-who was on the job haha


'twas quite a frenzy, the feeding fish, if only they'd leapt upon a dish
alas the 'tunate fishy knew, and more and more their numbers grew...

Well the fishies never did seem to have enough, but we had things to see! So ahead we did move... straight to the bloody shops hahahaha.

Ah well at least someone got some more pink to add to her arsenal...

A few other trinkets were picked up as prezzies for later... and then more FISHIES!!!


Then we started the layyyzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz strolling. Very nice.The field of lillies... err.. not so healthy ones at that...
Yes, it's a pool! In the summer this thing just gets packed... Siyu calls it a sea of dumplings....
Maddie's pic... followed by a self-portrait of course!


As soon as she saw the boats we knew we were going to end up getting on the water...Yup... getting on and off that rocky little boat was kinda fun ;)