My nephew Alexander was planning a trip to China to meet up with his girlfriend Emma who had been studying there for a year. He had followed Chester chimpanzee’s adventure here on my website and wanted to do something similar. As he was going to China it seemed obvious that he needed a Chinese Golden Monkey to go with him.
I love their blue faces but they have so much different coloured, different length and different texture fur that they are not that easy to knit! I made him a big one called Gilbert and a baby one called George. Alexander decided that one monkey to lug around in his backpack was enough so George has had to stay at home here at Madmonkeyworld and play with all my other monkeys.
Alex and Gilbert set off for China in July and after having met up with Emma in Bejing the three of them went on a very interesting sightseeing trek.First stop was The Great Wall of China which immediately made Gilbert feel that he was home at last.Then it was off to Tienanmen Square.

Next they got the Bullet train to Shanghai. Whilst there they visited the Shanghai Financial Centre which is the third highest building in the world and made Gilbert’s face go green rather than its usual blue due to vertigo.

The next destination was Hangzhou and Gilbert had a very enjoyable boat trip on the West Lake. He also loved having his photo taken with Buddha on the island in the middle of the lake.

The next destination was Suzhou which is famous for its delicacy of chicken feet. Gilbert wisely stuck to sweet and sour bananas but Alex and Emma were feeling adventurous, so gave the chicken feet a go and immediately wished they had not. I found this particularly funny because whilst they were trying to eat chickens feet I was trying to knit them for Alex’s cousin Henry’s hen!!!! I’m afraid there are no photos of this gourmet dining experience but Gilbert emailed me and said you just had to be there!
The next day they all headed for Panmen (the towns main gate) and the pagoda next to it, all of which is within a large garden setting. There was a thunderstorm and a torrential downpour. Gilbert hates getting wet so Alex and Emma made him his own raincoat (much to the amusement of the watching locals).
One of the real highlights of the trip for Gilbert was a visit to see the Terra Cotta Warriors, as he had no idea there were so many.

But the VERY VERY best thing that Gilbert saw on his trip were some of his Chinese relations but he did think they chose the weirdest places to hang out.