admin's blog
New social insurance laws could hit Beijing's international schools hard
More bad news from the school sticker shock department: brace yourself for increased costs from international schools next year as the effects of China's new social insurance laws for foreigners begins to take effect.
Most expats have already heard news of China's new social insurance laws that will now require foreigners to pay into the social security system, which covers medical insurance, retirement, unemployment insurance and the like. The net effect for this is an increased cost of hiring expats of an estimated 33% to 39% of an employee's base salary.
Mea Culpa: The Tiger Father apologizes (sort of)
- 397 reads
This post comes to us courtesy of The Tiger Father, aka Trevor Marshallsea, a Beijing-based Aussie who is the stay-at-home parent of two young daughters.
My wife is OK with any sort of misbehaviour I might get up to as long as I apologise and admit I was wrong.
So yes, basically I’m screwed.
It takes a big man to say sorry and concede he might not have acted 100 per cent correctly 100 per cent of the time. It takes a far bigger man to admit he is lost and ask for directions, but that’s another matter.
In any event, as you all should know by now, I am nothing if not a big man.
How Bazaar: Holiday shopping season in full swing beginning Sunday
With only 37 days left til Christmas, I'm sure all of you are looking at your gift list and thinking: how am I going to do it all in time? Have no fear, it's bazaar season in Beijing! There are enough unique shopping experiences over the next 4 weeks to fulfill all of your gift requests for here and abroad.
Our full list of holiday bazaars can be found here, but do read on for my suggestions on the highlights of the season:
The Tiger Father: Beijing stay-at-home dad gives us recipes we can actually use
- 624 reads
This post comes to us courtesy of The Tiger Father, aka Trevor Marshallsea, a Beijing-based Aussie who is the stay-at-home parent of two young daughters. His full bio appears below.
Dear Zealous Fanatics,
Today I am extremely proud, weeping with pride in fact, to present a brand new feature of this website. It seems we can’t turn around these days without seeing another show or whole network devoted to cooking. Celebrity chefs lurk in every shadow. Reality shows abound and get more tedious by the hour. Can't we just merge a few of them and save time? How about So You Think You Can Dance, Sing and Cook?
Travel with children: 5 great reasons to bring the kids along
This post comes to us from the blog Gogovivi by mother and expatriate resident of Qingdao, Kiley Ariail. It is used here with the permission of the author, whose bio appears below.
beijingkids' 5th Halloween Costume Brunch Ball pics are up in the gallery!
The festivities are over, and 500 happy souls later, we've got scads of pictures of cute kids in costume from the 5th annual Beijingkids Halloween Costume Ball -- which were held at the Hilton Beijing Capital Airport on Saturday and the Hilton Beijing Wangfujing on Sunday.
We Are Not So Different: Why China’s Recent Hit and Run Tragedy Shouldn’t Shock You
This guest post by Singapore-based Franco-American expat Cordelia Newlin de Rojas once again came to our attention from the excellent blog InCultureParent and was originally published there. It is used here with the permission of the author, whose bio appears below.
What's up this weekend? Over 60 choices in our online events section
Beijing Halloweens past and present for the author's daughter
It's Halloween weekend in Beijing and as usual there's tons to do this with the family ... we've got 29 family-friendly Halloween events in Beijing currently listed on our site here. For a comprehensive day-to-day action plan for Halloween this weekend, see our weekly Top Picks newsletter here.
But perhaps Halloween's not your thing -- that's ok, there's 40 family-friendly things to do this weekend that have nothing at all to do with Halloween in amongst the 60+ events currently listed in our online events section here... fun things like:
Midweek Giveaway: Win tickets to next week's Disney on Ice!
As the parent of a 4-year-old girl, I know first-hand the draw of both Disney princesses and ice skating. Combine the two and its virtually impossible not to have your little one completely sucked in.
With that in mind, our household is preparing for next week's Beijing performances of Disney on Ice, which combines the grace and skill of ice skating with the characters our children can't seem to get enough of.
The world touring company of Disney on Ice starts with Friday night show on Nov 4 and continues both Saturday and Sunday with three performances at 10:30am, 3:30pm and 7:30pm.
An Ode to Halloween Costumes
This guest post by second generation Chinese-American Frances Kai-Hwa Wang came to our attention from the excellent US-based blog InCultureParent and was originally published in annarbor.com. It is used here with the permission of the author, whose bio appears below.
As I child, observing the world as it was presented to me by the mainstream, I often decided to shut doors myself before anyone actually told me to.
