Bare-bottomed babies of Beijing

Following on from Simon’s ‘bellies on show’ post I thought it only right to bring to your attention the phenomenon of Beijing’s bare-bottomed babies. It would appear that about 3/4 of the parents in Beijing have decided that rather than cladding their babies’ backsides in nappies it is better to either leave the lower-half naked or to dress their babies in bottomless trousers. While this might be cooler in the heat of the city, when you’re standing next to a dad holding his baby on the metro you really hope that it doesn’t have an ‘accident’. Admittedly we haven’t witnessed any such incidents so far, maybe they just toilet train their children at a very early age?

Laura

And so it starts

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Greetings from Beijing, where we’re now warmly settled into our hostel after a fun if somewhat enduring 18 hour journey here.
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We had a 4 hour stop off at Dubai airport, and it was about 2am when we realised we only knew two card games that work well with two people – Rummy, and snap. Since Laura’s an ace at snap, that was out – and it turns out Rummy can get a little dull. We’re going to have to do some research on some alternatives, or we’ll go mad… On another games-related note, it turns out that Tetris (on the in-flight entertainment system, and multiplayer, no less) is still a winner. Brings back the days of Tetrinet at uni!

Our flight from Dubai was on an Airbus A380, a massive new superjumbo. We reckon the engines are bigger than the flat Laura and Patrick used to live in (but a bit more drafty).

All’s pretty good here so far – we’ve got beds, the hostel’s small and lovely with a courtyard and in a quiet suburb, and this evening we went for some mandatory Peking Duck. Total bill for a whole duck and drinks between the two
of us? £10. And Beijing is expensive, we hear!
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Right, time to use the best feature of the hostel – a shower, and then get some kip. 29 degrees tomorrow, and we’ve got some exploring to do…

Simon & Laura