March, 2010

Celebrate Easter Sunday, April 4th at one of these fabulous brunches around town!

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The post Olympic ice hockey excitement has placed ice hockey on the radar. But rest assured, you don’t have to be in Canada to participate in the hockey frenzy. The Sports Beijing Imperial Guard Hockey Club will host an  International Ice Hockey Tournament from April 1 to April  4. Eighteen of the best youth hockey players - local and international - will compete for the Cup. This four-day event features three age divisions, with teams hailing from Singapore, Korea, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Harbin. The hockey action will take place the Hokay Ice Rink in Gaobeidian. Admission is FREE.

Visit the website for more information, or email Philip Ho, the tournament director philipbeijing@me.com

 

The Hilton Beijing Wangfujing loves food as much as we do, and have offered one lucky family (2 adults, 1 child) a FREE Fizztastic Easter brunch. The catch? Simply email your favorite family recipe to imogenkandel@beijing-kids.com for your chance to win.

All we need is:
1. Instructions on how to make your simple family-friendly dish
2. Measurements and ingredients (eg. 1 tbsp soy, 500g beef mice, etc)
3. A nice photo of the finished product (photo size should be no smaller 1MB)

It gets better! If we love your recipe, you'll see it in the next issue of beijingkids magazine. So dust off those aprons and get into the kitchen. You never know, you could be the next Jamie Oliver or Nigella Lawson!

Entries close Mon 29th March.

Finding the right school for your children is a difficult decision many parents face. Finding the right school in a foreign country – in which you may or may not speak the language – is a process that stresses out even the most resilient expat parents. Regardless of the school, comparisons between China’s education system versus your home country's system eventually arise.

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As everyone has no doubt noticed by now, Google switched off its mainland site around 3am this morning (Tuesday, March 23), and is now redirecting all traffic to Google.com.hk. At this stage it appears even Google.com is being redirected to the Hong Kong site.

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First there was the Oedipus Complex, now there’s the Womanzier Complex. In a Telegraph article, Dr. Dennis Friedman makes the claim that boys who have nannies before the age of one will likely “turn into womanizers.”

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I am excited because I finally found an iphone application I actually would use with my kids. The International Children's Digital Library has released a StoryKit application that allows you to create books on your iphone. It is free, easy to use, and allows you to upload photos, draw pictures, add text and record voice.

Despite the fact that I don't even have an iphone, I now envisage buying one and taking photos from recent trips and turning them into talking photo albums with the kids. Maybe make a short story for my children, Natty and Sassy, about their lives so far. They can even help create their own stories, choosing the photos and doing the voice over themselves.

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Winter is slowly but surely coming to an end. As the days get longer and the mercury creeps up there’s something that will disappear off the streets of Beijing. No, I’m not referring to the snow! I’m talking about sweet potato. But just because the temperature is getting warmer, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t enjoy this delectable treat. This root vegetable packs a nutritional punch, and kids love it too!

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Check out this interesting article published in the UK Times Online. Time to swap to a more natural remedy?

"The risk of children suffering from flu can be halved if they take vitamin D, doctors in Japan have found. The finding has implications for flu epidemics since vitamin D, which is naturally produced by the human body when exposed to direct sunlight, has no significant side effects, costs little and can be several times more effective than anti-viral drugs or vaccine.

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On March 28th, feast on the award-winning Sunday Brunch in Beijing as Bubbalicious turns one. Fill your plate with fresh food cooked in an open-air kitchen. Adults may enter the XXL burger competition for a chance to win a 3-night stay at the Westin Miyako Kyoto in Japan for 2.

Parents can relax, dine on XXL-sized fine food and sip Veuve Clicquot champagne (served in double magnum bottles) while their children are looked after in the kid’s lounge. The lounge is decked out with video games, toys, face painting and a kid’s buffet. From the main buffet, kids may satisfy their sweet tooth with cotton candy, ice cream, assorted candy, popcorn and hotdogs.

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This Saturday, March 20th, join beijingkids Club at Hilton Beijing Wangfujing! Enjoy an exclusive beijingkids Club event featuring Vasco's lunch buffet. Kids 4 to 12 years old will learn how to make special treats from 5-star hotel chefs. After a mini-presentation of the goodies, the kids get a chef’s hat to take home!

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Correction in the March issue: Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland does not arrive in China until March 26th, after Avatar has departed theaters. This Disney film will be available in 3-D around town, including Salitun Village Megabox. Megabox website here (Chinese only). It will also be shown in IMAX at UME Haidian and Shijingshan.

View the film’s London premiere here.

There have been some baby bottles and aluminum cans with traces of Bisphenol (BPA), which leads to asthma. Read more from efitness.com news. This update comes after a recall of plastic sippy cups in Canada – our blog here.

In a recent article, the Guardian reveals that a South Korean couple left their daughter to starve to death while gaming online. Addicted to Internet games, the couple spent most of their time on a role-playing game called Prius Online, in which they raised a virtual daughter. After spending a reported 12 hours at a Seoul Internet café, they returned to find their newborn daughter dead. An autopsy confirmed the infant’s cause of death to be malnourishment.

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The 3rd edition of the Expat Show Beijing will take place on 26-28th March 2010 at the China World Trade Center. Around 150 exhibitors will present their services and products during the three day exhibition.

For this third edition we will set up 4 new animations to enjoy your visit:
• Food Festival
• Travel in Asia
• Live Performance
• The Kid Show

The Entrance is FREE to all the visitors. So be sure to note the dates in your calendar and register directly on the website to win great prizes, including: vouchers for famous Beijing restaurants, a weekend in Sanya, Beijing Guide, massages at Dragonfly and Spa de Feng, hotels rooms and much more.

Check www.expatshowbeijing.com or call us at 5869 9752 for more information.

Adopting a child from China is a long, difficult process. And now, it’s even harder.

Chicago Tribune reports:

“Three of the most popular countries — China, Guatemala and Russia — have scaled back, tightened rules or temporarily halted adoptions as they struggle to establish more transparency and accountability.”

“Countries also have raised the eligibility bar, excluding more prospective parents based on income, marital status and even — in the case of China — body mass index.”

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The ice is thawing, the trees are sprouting tiny flower buds, and spring is on it's way. As we come out of hibernation, it’s time to reconnect with the roots of this fair city. That’s why the March issue is all about what makes Beijing a great place to live.

See what goes on in a week in the life of a local Chinese family. Find a new Chinese restaurant, museum, or hidden market. Read what parents have to say about sending their kids to local Chinese schools. While Kara Chin tracks down the best Mandarin teachers and discovers their top tips for perfecting Putonghua. If it’s time to say goodbye to Beijing, Kaatje Schreurs Harrison’s got you covered with advice from families who’ve done it before.

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Peanuts are close to being crossed off the list as the “most lethal of all food allergies.” Read Alpha Mummy’s post here.

Researchers from Cambridge's Addenbrooke's Hospital are busy working to desensitize children to peanuts. So far, they have successfully done so with four children over a six-month period.

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