Chinatown

Hello there! Did you know that in central London, amongst all the theatres and restaurants, is a little piece of South East Asia? This is Chinatown, and as you can see from the street sign behind me, which has the words for 'Chinatown' in traditional Chinese characters, it really is like going to Hong Kong or China for an hour or two - without needing an additional eight-hour flight!

Chinatown is famous for its restaurants. A good tip I'll pass on for choosing a Chinese restaurant is this: look inside and see whether or not Chinese people are eating there. If there are, it's a good sign!

You can even ask to buy takeaways there. Sometimes the restaurants  have roast ducks or crispy pork belly, or other delicacies hanging in the window. You can ask to buy one of these, and take an entire roast duck home for later! Prices vary, but you can generally get a duck for under £20, and you can even ask them to cut it up for you.

There are lots of little shops around Chinatown too, and they mostly sell cute little gifts. There are also bookshops which sell Chinese books - which would make a highly unusual gift for any philologists!

And if you're tired, there's a pagoda to sit under. In recent years, there was an attempt to rejuvenate the area, including putting a roof over the pagoda, so it would become a sort of indoor shopping mall. But lots of people objected, since the point of a pagoda is to shelter people from the rain or sun, and be a meeting point, not just stand inside like an ornament.

I decided to hop underneath and enjoy some shade; as you can see, the sun was strong today!

And now onto souvenirs. Throughout London, there are many shops selling postcards.

Each shop sells between three and five for a pound, but I've got a little elf tip for you: get some free newspapers as alternative souvenirs!

They're in the central area of Chinatown, between the two arches (see my second picture in this post - those arches mark off the main section of shops and restaurants). These newspapers are free to take, and since many of them come out weekly or fortnightly, they're a good memento of a holiday - and unmistakeably Chinese!

I have a little confession to make: I can't read any of these, but I like them because they do look so cool.

Bye for now,

Elf Dryadalis