Travelog for: Anton Bär

I took the bottom photo when we were waiting for the traffic lights.
The white tower behind me is White Dagoba on Qionghua Island in Beihai Park.
It's a buddhist building which was built to honour the visit of the 5th Dalai Lama in 1651.
Maybe I could move closer to have a look at it next time.
Now we have to keep moving. 

Hooray!
We finally made it to the corner tower! 
Mia said it is the northwest corner tower of the Forbidden City. There are four of them in total. MooseS and Eliott suggested to take a group photo together, haha we love that photo.
Here are some info I found online:

After the corner tower we went to the northern gate of the Forbidden City. 
There is a hill nearby the gate. If we get to the top of the hill, the official name is Jingshan Park, we could have a birds' eye view to see further of inner Beijing. But we were going to catch a bus to get to the Gulou, so we could climb that hill next time. Some info about the Gate of Divine Might:

We took a very quick snapshot with a lovely newsstand before we got on the bus.
There were an awful lot of passengers on bus No. 5. 
Seriously I can hardly breath!

Oh fresh air!
Getting off the bus we saw a street sign reads Dianmenwai dajie. I know jie means street, what about dajie?
It must has some connection with street...ummmm...the avenue? So da will be wide in Chinese. I asked Dancing Dolly because she is a Chinese expert within us. She said da means big. Haha I also learned little which is xiao.
I'm a xiao bear, I have da eyes.
Dolly also introduced the Gulou to us, she has been here a couple of times already. The red building is Gulou. It was originally built in the 1270s by the Yuan Dynasty during the reign of Kublai Khan. Relocated and reconstructed in the 1420s by the Ming Dynasty. We also took a look at Zhonglou behind Gulou. It looks smaller than Gulou and the basic color of it is grey.
Wow...we went lots of sightseeing today!

Walked along Gulou west street and then turned left, I found myself in a Hutong area.
The red sign on the wall indicates here is Dashibei Hutong, aha I knew it! It might also has Xiaoshibei Hutong! So I asked Dolly again, she said there is indeed a Xiaoshibei Hutong, these two hutongs used to be a whole one called Shibei Hutong and they were separated at the beginning of 1900s. The longer one's turned to be Dashibei Hutong since then.
Ummmm...interesting

Here we arrived at Shichahai area.
Hai is the sea in Chinese, but it is actually a big lake consisting of three lakes to the north of the Forbidden City, another historic site on the top of must visit in Beijing list. Mia said she usually go skating here in winter when the lake is frozen. It would be a lot of fun!
I heard my heart break when I saw the lake. It's not frozen yet or it started unfreezing.
Ok it's true that the winter here is quite warm. You see today is up to 12c, spring is coming! It means green, bees and tons and tons of flowers. I can actually take more colorful photos, you know winter is a bit pale.
The second photo is me on Yinding Bridge.

My dear mama papa and little owner,
That's all my adventures for today.
The sun rush to go home, I think it is time for me to go home too.
Here is a photo I took when I was waiting for the subway.
Please don't worry about me. The weather here is good, not that much smog. The food is fantastic, all I need is learning how to use chopsticks, and Mia will help me. Yawn...it's such a long day. I feel a little bit tired.
Always love
Your little Anton

Happy birthday Eliott!

Dear mama papa and little owner,
Today I went to a street called Yandaixiejie and I found an unique Postoffice.
It has a real mail box and a statue of a boy in Qing Dynasty at the entrance.
It looks like a historic site, I will go inside to take a look.
Love
Anton

Here I got to the postoffice which is called Daqing Postoffice.
Umm...It's actually  a retro site looks like the postoffice more than 100 years ago.
I saw some unique stamp marks people used to use before in Qing Dynasty.
I heard we are about to go visit a secret voyager and spend Chinese New Year together.
That will be a lot of fun!

Dear mama papa and little owner,
Simão IV invited me to go visit him.
I will stay at his home for a couple of days and we will celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year together! How excited! We had a cup of hot tea and then he showed me around his home. Here I saw a big decoration with many Chinese Fu, which means blessing.
Love
Anton

Dolly told me Simão's grand was preparing for the New Year Eve's feast.
I can't wait to take a look at the kitchen, I hope I could offer some help but grand said it was almost done.
Wow there are fried fish, steamed fish...so many fish dishes.
I'm so excited! You know how much I love fish!

After the feast, we sat in front of the telly.
It was almost 8:00pm. We watched the Spring Festival Gala together.

My dear little owner and mama papa,
How are you? I saw very beautiful fireworks tonight.
Look, how gorgeous they were!!! It was nearly midnight. Also my first time to stay up that late, mama you will probably ask me to go to bed if you are here. Happy Chinese New Year!
Always love
Your little Anton