May, 2007
Articles from prior issues of beijingkids can be found by checking out the archive links below for the month and year you are interested in.
Coaster Crazy
Any kid who grows up in Brooklyn has spent some summer days at Coney Island, our salty, rowdy, beachside amusement park. The park, which has its own subway stop, is worn-out, rough around the edges, and filled with electric energy – the type of place where your parents remind you to stay close, but then let go of your hand themselves to point out the guy with the falcon on his shoulder or to run ahead and snag you a place in line for a ride. Coney Island is home to the annual Mermaid Parade and the original Nathan’s Hotdogs, which serves amazing crinkle cut fries and hosts a famous hotdog eating contest. But more importantly, it’s home to The Cyclone.
You Rate It-Ditan Park
Felicity Liu, 17, is a student at the Beijing Industrial and Commercial University and has lived in Beijing her whole life.
I’m a Beijing girl and I just love Beijing so much! My favorite place in Beijing has to be Ditan Park. It has a long history and really gives people a strong feeling about the culture of Beijing. Most of all, though, it makes me recall so many memories from my childhood.
When I was younger, my old house was near it and I always used to go and play games there with my friends. I love it!
Would you or your kids like to rate it? E-mail editor@tbjkids.com
A Shorty’s Guide to Beijing’s Amusement Parks
Intrepid junior reporter Naomi Martin (1.3m) picks Beijing’s best rides for littler kids
Hi! My name is Naomi Xiali Martin. I am from America, and came to Beijing about five months ago. I’m 8 years old and I love amusement park rides because they can make you feel like you are in space or on a magical swing or something! tbjkids magazine asked me to visit four different amusement parks in Beijing and test out the rides without height restrictions. Here’s what I found out.
Roller Coaster Roundup
Daredevil high school student Flora Qi surveys the city’s most exciting amusement park rides
Every spring, all the ninth graders at the German Embassy School of Beijing do a two-week internship for practical experience. We all look forward to getting involved in the real working world. Imagine my surprise when I got placed at tbjkids and discovered that my main assignment would be to hit up Beijing’s amusement parks! I love roller coasters and amusement parks, so I think this part of my internship was more like experiencing the dream working world than the real one.
Summer Escapes
Ten excellent choices for a family getaway
Outside China
Cosmopolitan Adventure
Pack your bags and head to: Tokyo, Japan
What’s the deal?
Officially the biggest metropolitan area in the world, Tokyo has it all: great museums, restaurants, a juxtaposition of ancient and modern culture, and convenient travel to Mount Fuji and other key destinations.
Why you’ll love it
Tokyo’s outstanding train and subway system makes traversing the city a pleasure. Explore the Imperial Palace and the Ueno district, where most museums are concentrated. And when your stomach rumbles, head out for some high-class sashimi or grab a seat at the local ramen joint.
I Want To Be a Vet
Dr. Madeleine Tremblay and Dr. Virginie Boitout tell us what it’s like to be a doctor for animals
Doctors Madeleine Tremblay and Virginie Boitout are practicing vets at the International Center for Veterinary Services here in Beijing. Hailing from Canada and France respectively, the two animal doctors are probably more accustomed to dealing with herds of animals than herds of inquisitive school kids, but the agreeable pair happily came to Yew Chung International School to meet with a group of Year Four students. The young animal enthusiasts couldn’t wait to quiz the vets about their cool profession.
Wake Up Call
Sleepyhead kids get the royal treatment from softhearted moms and dads
If anything can be considered a universal heart-warmer, it’s the sight of a sleeping child snuggled underneath his blankets. No matter how rough the night before, no parent can stay grumpy in the face of that totally relaxed, utterly innocent expression worn by a child absorbed in sleep. Oh, if only they were always like that! Inevitably, however, the sun slips over the horizon, and the little ones must be reeled in from dreamland. How do Beijing parents deal with this sometimes heartbreaking task?
Every morning, local mother Shen wrestles with her conscience when it comes time to rouse her 3-year-old, Keyi. “All kids need more sleep than adults,” she says. “If I have to wake her up, she will cry – it wastes a lot of time and it’s hard to get her clothes on.” Grandma’s old-school approach is to apply a cold towel to baby’s face to snap her out of sleep, but this is a practice that Shen disapproves of. “A better way is to play her favorite music from low to high, and then she will wake up with a smile,” she says.
Beijing's Smallest May 2007
New parents: Want to share your new arrival with our readers? Submit a photo (at least 1MB in size) of your little one to amanizhang@tbjkids.com with his or her name, nationality, birth date, hospital, and parents’ names.
Lu Jie
Chinese. Born to Du Hui and Lu Xianwei on November 28 at Tongzhou Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
Eloise Xiaoma Wester
Chinese-American. Born to Toni Ma and Michael Wester on April 3 at Beijing United Family Hospital.
Jordan Willis
American. Born to Xiaolu and David Willis on January 29 at Beijing United Family Hospital.
Wangjing Wanderings
Shop, eat, play and primp
Pizza Bonanza
Pizzas don’t have wings, but you can still watch them fly at this newly opened Mr. Pizza joint. The restaurant’s big shop window lets you peer in at the pizza making process and watch staff in chef hats toss dough to astonishing heights. Once you’ve worked up an appetite, sit down for a hearty bite: a regular pizza costs about RMB 60, and a pie filled with cheese will set you back RMB 83.
Mr. Pizza
(A little English spoken; English menu with pictures.) Daily 11am-10pm. 1/F, Zonghe Lou, Area 4, Wangjing Xiyuan, Chaoyang District (8471 8486) 米斯特批萨, 朝阳区望京西园4区410综合楼一层
Silly Reader, Don’t You Know? There’s No Such Thing as a Gruffalo!
Best-selling author Julia Donaldson speaks to tbjkids about her popular children’s book The Gruffalo
Beijing’s young fiction fans were given a treat last month when hugely popular British children’s author Julia Donaldson (accompanied by her guitar strumming hubby Malcolm) arrived to give an all-action performance of her book The Gruffalo. This quirky picture book has sold over a million copies and been translated into 31 languages. tbjkids headed to The Bookworm to catch the show and check out just how excited the lucky little Beijingers in the audience were going to get. Afterwards, we managed to grab a word with the lady herself.
Your books The Magic Paintbrush and The Gruffalo were inspired by Chinese folk stories. Have you seen anything on your trip to China this time that may make its way into a future story of yours?
Julia Donaldson: The Magic Paintbrush is very much a retelling of an original Chinese story (Shenbi Maliang, 神笔马良), whereas for The Gruffalo I just used the idea from a Chinese story as the nucleus and developed it from that. Actually, I am in the middle of writing a novel for older children. It’s about a 15-year-old girl who runs away to Glasgow because her parents have been killed. I’m sure the things I’m seeing here will influence the story in some way, but the ideas need to settle and develop in my mind first. Maybe it will be the Chinese food!
The Mohebatis
Even if you don’t know the Mohebati family, you still might know their food: Bita Farid-Mohebati and her husband Fariborz are the faces behind popular Persian joint Rumi, and their 7-year-old daughter Nadia Sasha Mohebati is the inspiration for its family-friendly touches like a kids’ menu and high chairs. The family, who hail from Iran and the US, have been in Beijing a year and eight months now, and say that’s long enough for it to feel like home. Here are some of the Mohebati’s Beijing favorites.
Birthday Celebration
A meal at Rumi Restaurant (of course!)
Rainy Day Activity
Scrabble
Place for Weekend Fun
Chaoyang Park
Indoor Play Space
Rollerblading around the dining table
Weekend Ritual
Saturday morning brunch at Grandma’s Kitchen
Destination: Hawaii
Two parents, four kids, plus four grandparents equals a lot of fun
The Travelers: Americans Tom and Kate Kirkwood, eight-year residents of Beijing. Tom runs Kirkwood & Sons, and Kate operates a kindergarten from their home in Shunyi. With Tom and Kate were their four children Madeline (Maddy, 9), Jack (7), Emma (3) and Charlie (8 months), as well as both sets of grandparents.
The Destination: Oahu, Hawaii.
The Plan: Originally, it was to be an adult-only retreat – the idea was to meet Tom’s parents in a sunny locale halfway between Pennsylvania and Beijing, where they could talk about the family business. The kids would stay in Beijing with Kate’s Mom and Ayi.
Speaking Chinese in China
Do you need to be bilingual?
Anna-Lina Helsen, from Germany, attends the Western Academy of Beijing and is articulate in English, German and Chinese.
David Ngonyani, from Tanzania, goes to Harrow International School Beijing and is fluent in English and Swahili.
Tiffany Tan, from Singapore, attends the Western Academy of Beijin and can converse in English and Chinese.
Vergini Tzvetanova, from Bulgaria, goes to Harrow International School Beijing and can get chatty in English, Bulgarian and Chinese.
What do you make of expats who live in Beijing and make no effort to learn Chinese?
A Special Job
How did you end up in Beijing?
I’m from Singapore, originally. My sister came over to Beijing to study in a language center and saw an article in a magazine about Dolores [van Dongen, founder of Sunshine Learning Center]. I was studying in Australia at that time, and my sister said: “Sis, this is right up your alley, you should come over.” So I started e-mailing Dolores and it just felt right for the school, and for me, to come over.
What was it that made you decide to be a special needs teacher?
I didn’t really decide on it. I was studying psychology at university and I volunteered at a special school in Singapore. I thought I would just do it for a couple of months before I got my “real” job, but it turned out I loved it.
Keeping Up Appearances
Getting ready for the grandparents
My daughter is about to find out that her grandparents don’t live encased in a 6X4 inch leather picture frame next to the television. In just a few short weeks my mother and father will be coming over from England to visit us in Beijing for the first time.
For a couple of months now I have been schooling Elsa to be word-perfect for their arrival. She has mastered “Nana” but my father’s title is proving more of a problem. When Elsa was born, my father indicated that he wished to be known as EGP, short for “Elderly Grandpapa” (I blame this on too much Dickens). We’ve almost conquered the first letter of this tricky moniker, but the latter two are proving a challenge. After “E” comes, “Eeee!,” which then morphs into, “Aiyeeeeeeeeeeeeee!,” and all is lost.
Together in Sweetness, Together in Pain
An expectant father experiences sympathy pangs
Some articles are not easy to pen. Some admissions are almost too private, too painful to share. But in the interests of my fellow man (and I am using this term in its gendered sense here), I need to confess a shameful secret: I am a couvade syndrome survivor.
I’d never heard of it before I was afflicted, but couvade syndrome is a condition that transcends national boundaries, political persuasion and depth of pocket – anyone with a Y chromosome and a pregnant wife is vulnerable to it. If you, too, are an expecting father, you may be familiar with it. If you are a Cosmo reader you may even be an armchair expert on it. I’m about to have my first child, though, and I’m not a keen Cosmo reader, so I was totally unprepared for the bewildering effects of what is more commonly known as “sympathetic pregnancy.”
Lights, Camera, Action!
A visit to the China National Film Museum
The China National Film Museum, which officially opened its doors in February, touts itself as “the biggest professional film museum in the world!” And it’s true – the museum is big. To avoid getting overwhelmed, it’s a good idea to arrive with an action plan. The following is tbjkids’ advice on how best to tackle this colossal monument to Chinese celluloid.
For act one of your museum adventure, we recommend an IMAX film. The IMAX theater on the first floor has different showings each day, but on a recent weekend they were offering T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous. Strap on the red 3-D glasses and watch your kids start reaching out to grab the images floating in front of them. You can call ahead to check what’s showing on the day of your planned visit. In addition to an IMAX theater, the first floor of the museum also houses a digital projection theater and three traditional theaters – but why settle for a conventional film?
