Leo and Robbie's excellent trip to Beijing

Leo and Robbie came to Beijing for their Easter school holidays for two weeks. Overjoyed to see them, we have had a busy time looking at the sights and enjoying being together again for a while. They are just so fine; happy and settled, doing well at school, fit as fiddles and interested in finding out about China. Here are a few things we have done over the past couple of weeks:


Hanging out beside the lake at Beihai - here are the guys having a break from cycling around the lake









Robbie's 12th birthday with Mr Thomas Chan the magician at Trader's Hotel.












A pedicab tour around Xuanwu Hutong















Wanfujing St, where they sell those scorpions on sticks












Mr Red Army himself
















The Great Wall.













Robbie approaching national monuments with his usual reverence.
















Visiting the Bird Nest and the Water Cube with thousands of other tourists, mostly Chinese people doing their patriotic duty, visiting the now empty icons.

Tomb Sweeping Day

As New Zealand has been moving towards the date that Daylight Saving finishes, Beijing has reached the official date designated by the municipal authorities for spring. How did we know this? They turned off the heating in Beijing. Was it warm yet? Hell, no. We've spent the past week huddled under blankets on the couch in the evenings and sleeping under a pile of quilts at night. When I asked Richmond Park Apartment Management Office about this, they told me not to worry it would be warm in a few days. Sure enough, a week or so later it has turned beautifully sunnily warm.

It's been a long weekend here as today, Monday 6 April, is Tomb Sweeping Day. In Beijing it is a public holiday to allow families to pay their respects to their departed members, traditionally by visiting the cemetery and tidying up their family graves. As we haven't got any family graves over here, we just went out to enjoy the sunshine.

As spring progresses, the quirkiness of Beijing also appears to be unveiling itself more obviously. These are some of the cute things that we have seen over the past couple of days:

• Seeing a young guy riding a red unicycle down the road through the hutong behind our place
• People's little dogs now wearing miniskirts
• A young woman saying good-bye on the phone, "Have a goodness day!"
• People lining up to have their photos taken in front of the cherry blossoms, usually with them flashing the ubiquitous V sign

Sculptures outside the International Olympic Committee offices in Chaoyang Park

• A group of workers on their break from their restaurant, singing in harmony while sitting on the steps

• A guy painting beautiful calligraphy with a big brush with water on the pavement in Beihai Park

Taking a picture of Ian wearing a Beijing monument on his head hehehe

• Public exercise equipment in Chaoyang Park, complete with many people energetically exercising including me