Guess what? We are right back to where we started – The British Museum.

We went there on the first day and it’s where we went on our last but the trip was well worth it because we got to see its special exhibit – China’s Hidden Century. This exhibit began on May 18th and it’s an exhibit about a fascinating yet relatively unknown time in Chinese History – years 1796-1912.

I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibit and learned a lot because this period isn’t usually delved deeply in history classes. It’s usually a period which the teacher would skim or skip altogether. 1800-1900 is also one of my favorite time periods in history.

I can definitely tell you that this exhibit was more interesting than the exhibits on Chinese history at the museum. I’m not interested in learning about stuff that happened thousands of years ago for some reason. The stuff from the recent couple of hundreds years pique my curiosity more than the things from the BC era.

The exhibit was short, in my opinion. It only took me about 2-and-half hours to completely see it and absorb it from the start to the end. The parts that interested me the most were the part about trade, the tradition of feet-binding, and the reforms that happened near the collapse of the Qing Dynasty.

If you ask if I’d like to live in that era, I would tell you no, thanks. The tradition of feet-binding sounds excruciating and not at all flattering. I feel awful for those young girls that had to go through that.

After the museum, we went to Leicester Square, which was less than a mile away. Last night, mom found out there were statues of famous movie characters in the square. The most recent one to be installed is Clifford the Big Red Dog – my favorite cartoon when I came to the US and it was the book that helped me learn English. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it.

I managed to locate the statues of Bugs Bunny (another one of my favorites), Mr. Bean, Paddington the cuddly orange-marmalade-sandwich-eating bear, Charlie Chaplin, and more. I think they are such cute and adorable additions to the park.

Before completing our journey with a meal in Chinatown, we walked a little further to our final destination – Piccadilly Circus. It’s a place I have long wanted to see after seeing it featured in so many TV shows. I was told this was the Times Square of London and I could tell why the moment I arrived.

Crowds began congregating on the square as live tribal-like music began and though I have never been to Times Square in New York, I have been to Las Vegas and the giant screens featuring ads reminded me of Fremont Street of Las Vegas. I can only imagine how it looks at night.

About 2 hours later, after a dinner and a long subway ride, we arrived at the hotel to be assigned a room. The room overlooks the airport and I was just in time to see the sunset.

What an ending to a trip to the UK!