Travelog for: GiGi Giraffe

Dear mum,

Here I arrived at Gulou, or the Drum Tower. It is a really red building. Gulou 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. Move a little bit to the north it's Zhonglou, or Bell Tower. Smaller than Gulou and the basic color of it is grey. Sorry mum we are walking in a rush to join the pub quiz near by, gonna be late!

Talk to you soon
GiGi

Hi mum,

How are you? Here are some photos we took before the pub quiz. There were some interesting questions, and we can't use cellphone during the quiz, we also played some games to get more points. Like use chopsticks to build a chips tower....oh mum, trust me it's not that simple as it sounds. And we also needed to use chopsticks to pass a ping pang ball! We can only use our left hand! Ummm..I like the decoration there, I mean the furnitures, the tables are made by old gates, they look like real antiques, maybe they are! You know the bar is located in a historic area and they are removing some houses around here. Mia said the government decided to build a square. Aha, the last photo is Dolly and our answer sheet, our team name was 'Dolly the Destroyer'!

Love
GiGi

Hello mum,

I just heard that I will visit Poland after the journey in China, wow I'm so excited but there are so many awesom placese I haven't been to yet, and I really want to spend my time here during the Chinese Lunar New Year. So I might probably go there in March. So...this is another photo we took at pub quiz night. The girl who was holding us is Eline, she is a teacher from England, a very creative girl.

Love
GiGi

Hi mum,

I've heard Arn became a voyager today so I can't wait to congrats to him. Although he is a tiger, I'm not afraid of him at all. Haha I gave him a warm hug and Carbs came to join us, we finally took a group photo.

Love
GiGi

Dear mum,

After the small celebration we had on balcony, we decided to do some reading, the sunshine was so warm. Arn found a dictionary on book shelf, it has five different languages, haha sounds fantastic, doesn't it? We started at the word family. Crabs is from Germany so he knows how to say most of the words from that dictionary in German, he said there still are a lot of new German words for him to learn. Arn loves football so much, we stayed at the football page for almost 20mins! Then we moved on to the words about swimming. Honestly me and Arn can't swim. Carbs gave us some tips about swimming, sounds really interesting, I'll definetely learn how to swim in the future. Ummmm..my favorite part of the reading was about space, I mean our Milky Way is fabulous! But they just have some basic info in dictionary, I'll do some study online then. Aha, I found the word giraffe.

Love
GiGi

Hello mum,

We went out for a walk after a late lunch. Trust me, we've never eaten lunch on time since the beginning of Mia's winter holiday. On the pics below you can see an office building which is quite tall, if you get off the Wanshou Lu subway station via exit C, you'll definitely see it. And then the crossroads between Wanshou Lu and Fuxing Lu. Fuxing Lu is the west part of Changan Ave, means if you drive through Fuxing Lu to the east, you will see Fuxingmen,Xidan and then the Tiananmen Square.

Love
GiGi

Hello mum,

You know I was really afraid of lion, all of the giraffes are afraid of lion, but today I met two pretty lions, they are so friendly. Aha they even let us tried the sword they've been holding. I admit that the sword is much heavier than I thought, tell you what I can just hold it for few seconds. In the end I gave it to Crabs. He is such a strong crab!

Love
GiGi

Dear mum,

We went to a local postoffice today to send my friends Arn Wes Wilde and Gretel off. It's just so soon...I really hope they can stay longer with me. Anyway safe trip my friends.

Love
GiGi

Hi mum,

Today we went to a building which was mentioned in a magazine! It is an architecture magazine. And the building was introduced as a renovation project located along the extension line of West Changan Ave. The article said: It is a reconstruction of a nine-story office building with a frame structure built in the early 1990s. The project improved the building's functionality, interior space and appearance while retaining the original structure, function and facilities.
Emmmm..interesting.

Love
GiGi

Hello mum,

We are going to visit Badachu Park! It is a historic buddhist site located on the western mountain of Beijing. So we arrived at the bus stop early this morning, I just can't wait to get there! Oh yes a new friend will come with us, his name is Simão III, an orangutan. Ummmm..let us check how many stops in total.

Love
GiGi

Yay! We finally made it to the gate of Badachu Park.
After almost 1 hour's trip on bus, I suggested to take a few minutes rest first.
We found a comfy place and we can also chat with the lion and her baby lion.

Dear mum,

I saw a huge statue when I was walking through the gate of Badachu Park. Mia said that smiling man is Maitreya Buddha, he looks really happy, I wish I can be happy like him everyday. And then I arrived at the Golden-fish Pond but the lake's frozen, I can't see any fish. It must be more beautiful here in spring. When we came to a long bridge. I saw some gaint footprints on the bridge which are decorated by some unique symbols. I just found Mia's mum in the last pic.

Love
GiGi

When we passed through the long bridge I noticed there were so many white spots down there, then I relized they were all sheeps! Right or called goats. The sheep year is comming, that's why there are many decorations about sheep at park. Did you see the tower in first photo? It is a Relic Stupa, which holds Buddha's relic. The picture is not that clear, I will come closer to have a look at the tower. Then the last 2 photos are me standing in front of a big Chinese character 'Chun', which means spring. I think after the Spring Festival I'll leave for Poland.

I have no word to describe this pavilion,
It is just too beautiful!

Hi mum,

Here we arrived at the hall of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, all of us have no idea who he is. Mia said she just heard about him. We decided to collect some info online after we come back home. The third photo is a statue of the god of longevity who always goes to celebrate people's birthdays. I think he might likes fruits that way he is holding a big pink peach, lovely! Did you see the animals on the green roof?

Love
GiGi