End of China

Before we continue I have some funny toilet picturers.
When we left of we were in Xi’an and on our way to Beijing
While going to the train station we made a small detour to the stage of a famous movie called “Raise the red lantern”. Before the communist rule it belonged to the emperors of China so it was very beautiful (even more after the film makers came). After an hour of looking at a film stage and historic monument, we got back in the car to go to the train station. When we arrived it was dark, so we had dinner in Dixons (the Chinese version of KFC). After dinner we sat in the waiting room till nine for the 10 hour journey to Beijing. But wait, you cry, you cant sit right through the night. Well we didn’t, we were in a sleeper train. It had compartments for four and in our carriage were a monk and a general.
We arrived and were whisked of in another car (we must be polluting so much on this trip)to our hotel. It’s called the Red Capital Residence and it had five rooms only!!! Mum and Pup stayed in the Mao suite, and me and Bruno stayed in the west wing Concubine suite. Concubines are (as the adults will know and the children won’t) are like the reserve wives; if a wife dies, they can become the new wife (not that Mao waited that long). After the boring business of checking in, we went to the Forbidden City (not before we had lunch and were conned. Please ask for details). It was good but it needed a big dust down. On the second day we went down a back alley and bought a stamp that the guy specially engraved my name on(in chinese of course). I also got great new shoes. On the last day in Beijing we went to the great wall of China(not all of it though just a section). We climbed as far as we could one way (some of it is crumbling so you have to be a skilled climber to climb there) although mum and BB (my name for Bruno) didn’t do the last bit, and I cant blame them. It was like 300 steps of shear torture (it felt like 300 steps anyway). The steps were uneven, slippery and endless. After the climb up and down my legs were trembling. We then went the other way but we only went to the toboggan which you could take down. Unfortunately I was behind some slow business men so they slowed the entire thing up. I might go back one day just for the toboggan.
Next morning we flew to Guilin where we were for one night (again). We visited a cave where there were a load of stalactites and stalagmites which, with a stretch of the imagination, turned into shapes. The water was so still that the reflection was perfect.
Next morning we got on a boat to Yangshuo (both of the last two had hills that came out of nowhere, let me explain. That bit of China was at a certain point under the sea so the water shaped these rocks and left the surrounding area flat). We stayed in this perfectly good hotel and didn’t have any exotic food just egg and toast(for breakfast). We were near west street, and it really is western, it has shops with pizza and popcorn and everything. Further along there’s a park with stalls. I had a go on the shooting stall, shooting balloons, and I got 8 out of 10. I made a vow to go back and get 10 out of 10. after the shooting game we went to market (not with cheep junk but food) and they sold a live animal and killed on the spot so it’s fresh. That night we went to the Yangshuo sound and light show. The stage was the Li river and behind it were 12 of those weird rocks that I talked about and it was brilliant(there were 600 actors in it, all local). The best bit was when people in reed boats (they looked like farmers) dipped red flags in and out of the water, and it looked a bit like a Mexican wave.
We went on a bike ride the next day, with tandems! It was really good fun, even if we got kind of lost. In fact it was so much fun, we did it again the next day. After we got lost again we went on a boat crossing the river with locals going to market (they pay ½ rmb and we pay 20). It was our last day and we had to check out 90 minutes before we had to leave, so I went to the shooting parlour and got … 10 so I got what I came for, plus a lollipop.
Next Hong Kong, and he’s is different. It has so many adds and our hotel was a mere 45 floors compared to all the skyscrapers around it, however it was a five star hotel (really it was). The room had a telly in the bathroom for petes sake(long list of cool things coming up). There was: a shower with two heads, sky sports and cartoon network, excellent room service (I had it) and a grand view of the harbour. History lesson: Hong Kong was a British colony and was only given back to China a few years ago, on the terms it could keep its commercialism. All the rich Chinese had come to Hong Kong when the communist rain took over, that’s why they can hold this spectacular light show every night (it has won a Guinness world record). After we saw the show we went back to the hotel. We, me and Bruno (unfortunately) got to have room service because mum and pup wanted to have dinner down stairs. I had burger and chips and a banana, and the banana became the most interesting thing that dinner. The bananas were impossible to open so I had to use a knife (oh-oh). I cut Bruno’s without too much trouble and then it was my bananas turn to be cut. I struggled a bit so when I cut it, it came down with a vengeance and (guess what?) I cut my finger. Luckely mum and pup were only downstairs so I went down to the restaurant and the waiter fixed me up. Next morning mum was ill so she missed the worlds longest escalator (or series of escalators) measuring 800meters (if you put them all together). We then went to the airport (to go to India) and had a quick lunch and went to the mini train (like in Stansted) but before we could get on, we had lost Bruno!!!