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Sometimes, it all seems too foreign. But with a little effort, you can bridge the gap

After months, perhaps years, of planning, you made it to China at last. Now what? This place, with its tangle of roads and signs in Chinese, can seem so intimidating that you’d be forgiven if you’re tempted to stay indoors and watch your new ayi mop the floor. Or maybe you’ll be so relieved to learn one of your neighbors is from your home country that you’ll break down in tears when she invites you over for coffee.

It isn’t always easy for expats to break through the cultural and linguistic barriers that prevent them from fully experiencing China. Some people give up entirely, settling into a routine that includes playdates and entertainment just like what they had back home. But, with a little bit of effort, you’ll find it possible to escape your expat circles and learn to maneuver outside of your comfort zone. Heck, you might even make a Chinese friend or two. So let’s get started.

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 Everyone knows that vitamin C is essential for a tip-top immune system, but it has many other essential jobs within the body – protecting cells from pollution and sun damage, helping to heal grazed knees and other injuries, and encouraging iron absorption for healthy blood.

Parents often reach for the supplements when they fear that their child is falling short of requirements, but getting a sufficient amount of vitamin C from food couldn’t be easier – a kiwi fruit a day will more than cover it! Furthermore, side effects like diarrhea and kidney stones can occur in those taking supplements in excessive amounts.

Foods high in vitamin C include citrus fruits, berries, green vegetables and even potatoes. Vitamin C is water-soluble and breaks down easily when cooked or exposed to the air so for maximum benefit choose freshly prepared raw or lightly cooked fruits and vegetables. If cooking, stir-fry, steam, roast or bake instead of boiling.

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Keys to surviving the plane ride home

Maybe your kids are really good travelers: They don’t whine, don’t get sick or kick the seat in front of them. If so, go ahead and skip this article.

For the rest of us, however, the time is here. That’s right – the dreaded summer travel season. And though you’ve been dreaming of family reunions, poolside barbeques and trips to your favorite restaurants back home, there’s still one major obstacle between you and your dreams: the plane ride home.

We all have horror stories about unsympathetic fellow travelers. Deborah Vaughan of Seattle recalls a recent flight with her 3-year-old, when she slept fitfully through the flight, vaguely aware that a child nearby was crying, only to be suddenly shaken awake by another passenger demanding to know why she wasn’t giving her daughter a pacifier. Apparently, the other passenger thought Vaughan’s daughter was the source of the noise, even though she wasn’t.

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Beijing expats who do both

I was interviewing a source for this article when my eldest son barged into my office, clutching his throat and coughing wildly. He’d been sick, and it seemed his cough had suddenly taken a turn for the worse. Unable to hang up the phone, I tossed a can of soda his way, figuring it might calm his cough long enough for me to finish the interview. By the time I emerged from my office 20 minutes later, he was coughing so badly that we had to leave for the hospital.

Here I was, writing an article on how to balance working life with parenting, while my son was writhing around on the floor, gasping for breath. Clearly, there are no easy answers.

Nevertheless, many Beijingers manage to make it work, even starting their own companies while simultaneously raising families. I went in search of one who could tell me how to do it properly.

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Calcium

Kids from countries with a high dairy consumption may struggle to meet their calcium requirements when faced with tangy sterilized milk and the meager selection of pricey cheese in Beijing; lactose intolerance – especially common in children from Asian and African countries – can present an additional problem. This can become a real dilemma for parents, as calcium is a crucial mineral for growing kids: It is essential not only for bones and teeth, but also important in helping muscles function and blood clot.

Thankfully, China is awash with alternative calcium sources. Soybean milk and tofu, usually calcium-fortified, are widely available, and soybeans themselves are a great choice. Other options include your pick of the green and leafy vegetables from the local shop, sesame seeds, almonds, dried apricots, tinned fish with soft bones and fortified breakfast cereals.

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Conquering the challenges of breastfeeding

If such an elixir exists in which its first quaff can alter the course of human life, surely it is breast milk: One swallow jumpstarts antibodies that protect newborns from germs, food allergies and jaundice.

During the first six months of life, the exclusive consumption of breast milk meets every nutritional need an infant has. Its antibacterial properties stave off respiratory infections and diarrhea. Its tranquilizing components may mollify tantrums as babies grow into toddlers. It may quicken speech development and lead to superior hand-to-eye coordination.
As children stop nursing, the benefits linger: Children who were breastfed tend to have fewer cavities and need for orthodontia; in adults, they show a pattern of having higher IQs, lower obesity rates and lower chances of diabetes and certain cancers. Study after study has shown that breastfeeding has tremendous benefits, and the World Health Organization recommends that every baby should breastfeed for at least six months and continue for up to and even past 24 months.

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Foreign students are flocking to China in droves, with a 15.3 percent increase in total numbers since 2005, according to China Today, an informational database. These students come from over 180 countries and regions, and are studying at international schools, universities, colleges and other institutes. Korean students, at nearly 60,000, make up over a third of foreign students, followed by Japan (18,400), the US (11,700), Vietnam (7,300) and Indonesia (5,600).

You can stop worrying that your child’s picky eating habits are a result of bad cooking: According to a recent report in the New York Times, the problem may be genetic. From the time they start eating solid food until they are about 2, most children will eat a wide variety of different foods, when they suddenly stop in a phase that continues until 4 or 5. Some scientists believe this is an evolutionary response designed to prevent children from indiscriminately gobbling everything they pick up, which could be dangerous. A recent study on childhood neophobia (the fear of new things) led by University College London’s Dr. Lucy Cooke found that in the eating habits of 5,390 pairs of twins between 8 and 11 years old, identical twins are much more likely to share food aversions than are non-identical twins, suggesting that most food fads are inherited. The study calculated that 78 percent of such tendencies were due to genetics and only 22 percent to environmental factors.

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Aggressive advertising for infant formula may be responsible for a new low in the percentage of Chinese mothers who exclusively breastfeed. A report by the China's Consumer Association indicated that as much as 14 percent of new mothers in China do not breastfeed at all. The survey, conducted in 30 Chinese cities, found that almost a third of babies were fed a mixture of breast milk and infant formula, and these statistics were believed to be influenced by the insistent advertising of formula companies who claimed their product was highly beneficial to brain development in babies. As many as 57 percent of mothers were willing to buy formula based on that knowledge alone.

The Association's report also reveals that formula companies are pushing the boundaries of legal advertising. Chinese consumer protection regulations state that claiming or even hinting that formula could be an adequate replacement for breast milk is illegal, yet companies regularly flout these rules by creating furtive campaigns to lure parents, including giveaways, strategic product-placement and baby-health hotlines that support infant formula.

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You probably already heard about the Beijing baozi maker who confessed on Chinese television to cutting costs by filling his steamed pork buns with seasoned cardboard instead of meat. While China Daily recently declared the story a fake, the fact remains that many other stories of substandard consumer products reported in both the Chinese and international media are not.

The good news is that action is being taken. China Daily reports that government regulators recently shut down 180 food plants in China. This was part of a mass overhaul of China’s food safety policies, which includes a crackdown on the use and distribution of banned food additives and counterfeit food products. According to China Daily, mineral oil, paraffin wax, formaldehyde and the carcinogenic malachite green, among other scary substances, have been used in the production of flour, candy, pickles, biscuits, seafood, tofu and other foods, and some manufacturers have also used recycled or expired ingredients.

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