Tuesday afternoon

Chengde, China

In the end Amy has woke up and guess what, in time for dinner. Very nice food and then onto Amy’s highlight so far, the paper cutting art place. She had been looking forward to this all day and to be honest it didn’t take long to blow me away either. The designs and styles that this one family in the world manage to achieve with a piece of paper and a pair of nail scissors is quite stunning. With a whirr of activity the artist that was demonstrating created threee intricate butterfiles in just seconds. The more intricate designs, of which we have bought many, can take up to a week to create. We’ve bought a magnificent dragon creation which we will have to find a space on the wall for when we get home. After dragging Amy away still pleading for lessons and asking to come back we went to the theatre to see a Buddist theatrical display. The Beijjing Opera we had seen prevoiusly was not a patch on this. The new lens purchased in Singapore was quickly worked to within an inch of its life but we have many more pictures to show you when we get home. It was magical and ended another fantastic day. Amy has now decided that she may move to China. Firstly for the paper crafts but secondly because she keeps being told how beautiful she is by random Chinese strangers. A husband gets very protective of his wife. Some people earlier at one of the Temples wanted to have their photo taken with the token blonde English woman which I thought was nice. But since then, she was told she was beautiful by the costumed entrance person at the theatre and again but the doorman at the hotel. Extended visas will be applied for soon as well as new makeup to cover the glowing cheeks. Tomorrow is going to be a long travelling day. We start with a six hour coach journey back to Beijing Airport and then a one and a half hour flight to Xian. The photos will probably be kept to a minimum which the camera will be thankful for. The other thing is we don’t know if the next hotel will have internet access so I don’t know when I’ll next be able to write. I’m sure my wife would like to tell you though of any more people that thinks she’s beautiful. Rob Amy – He’s such a cheeky bugger!