(Out of date order - this is still from Beijing)

Meanwhile back in the Forbidden City ...

It's simply huge, and in its day life was absurdly formalised and to our way of thinking, stifling in the extreme. Eunuchs ruled the place, really. Well, you gotta have some compensation...

Today, it's full of us common people, including unbelievably adorable two-by-two colourful children, who of course stared at the big nose with the bruised face (it's much better now).

'Hallo!' they carolled, waving and laughing at the weird foreigner.

'Nee How!' I grinned back - in Suseperanto ..

Later, I saw a line of two-by-two OAPs, all in red baseball caps. Cradle to grave behaviour!