March, 2009

Beijing families take on the financial crisis

 

 

As economies around the globe have slowed or fallen into recession, families in Beijing are reevaluating their budgets to prepare for potentially tough times ahead. Find out how different families make decisions about spending and saving money, whether they feel the effects of the financial crisis, and what their strategies are for making it through the downturn in one piece – or even ahead.

THE FAMILY OF SEVEN

With five teenagers under the roof, Karen and Phil Lanman spend conservatively and save as much as possible, putting away a total of almost USD 2,000 each month. Will, the oldest child, is in his first semester of college in the US, while Cody, 16, and 14-year-old triplets Zachary, Matthew and Anna attend the International School of Beijing. Karen’s husband’s job as an air attaché at the US Embassy pays for the family’s healthcare, house in Shunyi and the kids’ tuition at ISB, but with college ahead, the Lanmans are savers.

• Read more

Beijing families take on the financial crisis

 

 

As economies around the globe have slowed or fallen into recession, families in Beijing are reevaluating their budgets to prepare for potentially tough times ahead. Find out how different families make decisions about spending and saving money, whether they feel the effects of the financial crisis, and what their strategies are for making it through the downturn in one piece – or even ahead.

THE MASTER SAVERS

Gina Wang and her husband put most of us to shame; they sock away 60 to 70 percent of their monthly earnings. Since marrying in 2000, the couple has purchased a two-bedroom apartment near Oriental Plaza in Wangfujing, paid off the mortgage, tucked away a good amount of money for retirement, had a baby, and saved up USD 24,000 in cash to buy a Nissan sedan this January.

• Read more

Beijing families take on the financial crisis

 

 

As economies around the globe have slowed or fallen into recession, families in Beijing are reevaluating their budgets to prepare for potentially tough times ahead. Find out how different families make decisions about spending and saving money, whether they feel the effects of the financial crisis, and what their strategies are for making it through the downturn in one piece – or even ahead.

THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

• Read more

Beijing families take on the financial crisis

 

 

As economies around the globe have slowed or fallen into recession, families in Beijing are reevaluating their budgets to prepare for potentially tough times ahead. Find out how different families make decisions about spending and saving money, whether they feel the effects of the financial crisis, and what their strategies are for making it through the downturn in one piece – or even ahead.

THE NEWCOMERS

Tina Beeck’s expenses in Beijing have gone way up since leaving the rural life in La Grande, Oregon to move to China six months ago. “Maybe I’m doing something wrong because everyone says China is so cheap,” Beeck says, “but I’ve found we spend much more here than we did back in Oregon.” Her husband works as an environmental consultant at Valmont Industries, and the employer pays for the family’s four-bedroom apartment (RMB 23,000 a month) near Chaoyang Park, as well as tuition for their three children at Yew Chung International School (RMB 410,000 in total each year).

• Read more

 

 

Beijing families take on the financial crisis

As economies around the globe have slowed or fallen into recession, families in Beijing are reevaluating their budgets to prepare for potentially tough times ahead. Find out how different families make decisions about spending and saving money, whether they feel the effects of the financial crisis, and what their strategies are for making it through the downturn in one piece – or even ahead.

THE BIG SPENDERS

Christmas didn’t come last year,” says Nick Cochrane, an expat whose Beijing-based export business has taken a big hit from the global financial crisis. As major economies in Europe and North America weakened in the fall, Nick and his wife Katherine* acted quickly to slash their business and family budgets.

• Read more

The Artazas hail from Chile but have lived in countries around the globe. Since the family moved to Beijing in February 2005, the capital is now the only place the Artazas call home. Mario and Alejandra love the city’s culture and history and relish witnessing the Beijing’s growth and modernization. Xaviera, 10, is a keen equestrian rider and practices Chinese with her riding instructor.

• Read more

Until recently, Dr. Nicholas J.M. Patrick had previously only seen China from space. In January, he finally landed in China and spoke to students from several schools at Harrow International School Beijing’s lower school. The NASA astronaut, who graduated from Harrow in London, spoke about living in space for two weeks, the possibility of alien life forms, and the tendency of objects to float away. Jessica Pan

Yasmin Spencer, 10, UK, Harrow
Why is the flag waving in the photo of Neil Armstrong on the moon if there’s no air?
Many people ask this. One reason is that the flag was suspended from a stiff, horizontal rod. Although there’s no air on the moon, there is still the force of inertia. If you look closely, you can see that the flag is moving in a pendulum with the motion that was used to place it onto the moon’s surface. People also say, “Why can’t you see any stars in the photo?” The light from earth is so bright that it blocks out all the stars.

• Read more

Bonding in a foreign land

This past week, no fewer than four people burst into tears in front of me. Back in the States, that happened, oh, maybe twice a year? It’s not that my expat friends are more unstable than my friends back home (okay, maybe they are, but that’s a topic for another month). It’s that I know these friends so well. We’ve reached a comfort level with one another that allows us to drop our guard, to show flashes of sadness, disappointment, and yes, even instability, in front of each other.

This always surprises me. Not the fact of it – everyone I know here has experienced a burst-into-tears-moment, when they’ve been pushed just this close to the edge. What surprises me is the speed with which we’ve become so open about our emotional shortcomings.

Back home, I had lots of neighborhood acquaintances, people whom I knew enough to chat with but not enough to unload on. And I had a few friends, mostly other moms whom I could call in a pinch. But these friendships took time to build.

• Read more

Old-fashioned fun in the lanes

Bowling gets a bad rap for its associations with tacky venues, bad shoe requirements, and the allegation that bowling isn’t a real sport – but that’s what makes this game so exceptional. Bowling is a common game in which players attempt to score points by rolling a bowling ball along a flat surface into ten pins, arranged in a triangular pattern at the end of a bowling lane. The earliest version of this game dates back to Egypt, but these days bowling is considered one of the easiest ways to plan a kids’ birthday party or get the family involved in some healthy competition.

At first glance, you may think that bowling is easy. That’s partly true, in that just about anyone can toss a bowling ball down the lane. But throwing a strike or even posting a decent score is no easy feat. You may also think that bowling isn’t a sport of great intensity. But you’d be surprised – the game can exercise more than 200 different muscles on the body when you’ve got the correct posture.

• Read more

Discover outdoor family fun in the shopping mecca

 

THE BASICS

Flight Hong Kong is just three-and-a-half-hours away and getting there couldn’t be easier. To find the best prices for flights, buy tickets online (try Ctrip.com or Elong.com) and fly Chinese airlines.

Climate The island is always humid, with scorching hot summers and brief, mild “winters” with temperatures mostly above 13 degrees Celsius. Air conditioning is omnipresent in the summer, but winter visitors might want to carry an extra layer of clothing, as nights can feel surprisingly chilly because of the humidity.

• Read more

Who’s who in Chinese mythology

Sun Wukong (孙悟空) is better known as the Monkey King, the main character in the epic Journey to the West. When Sun was born from a mythical stone back in Huaguo Mountain, his hometown, he didn’t have any magical powers. But then he served an apprenticeship under Taoist Patriarch Bodhi and learned to make 72 different transformations into animals and objects, not to mention perform tricks like cloud-somersaults, which propelled him 108,000 li (54,000km) at a time. He also carried the Ruyi Jingu Bang, a weapon that weighed 13,500 jin (6,500kg) but could be shrunk to the size of a sewing needle when not being used. With these super powers, Sun Wukong wrought havoc in both inferno and heaven and stole several peaches of immortality from the Empress Wang Mu. To punish Sun Wukong, the Buddha sealed him under a mountain.

• Read more

The Goodness of Pancakes

A yummy, back-to-basics breakfast

“Pancakes are easy to prepare – anyone can make them. Plus, pancakes are very healthy and are always a hit with kids.” – Lee Keong Gan, chef de cuisine at The Village Café

 

Lee Keong Gan’s Pancakes

Ingredients
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup melted butter
2 cups milk
100ml maple syrup
100g raspberries

 

In a small bowl, beat the eggs and set aside. In a big bowl, blend the dry ingredients thoroughly. Add the butter, milk and eggs to the dry ingredients and stir until the pancake batter is just blended. Spray a griddle or non-stick frying pan with pan spray or lightly oil. Pour a spoonful of the pancake batter onto the hot pan. When bubbles rise in the pancake, it is time to flip it. Cook until golden brown. Serve with maple syrup and raspberries.

• Read more

Marina Ranieri

Where are you from? Buenos Aires, Argentina

How long have you lived here? 4.5 years.

Do you have kids? Victoria (13) and Ignacio (10), who go to ISB.

What does your husband do? He works in the oil business.

Are you a spender or a saver? Both. I try to look for good quality for a good price.

What do you spend on? Education.

Where do your clothes come from? These jeans are from Yashow and this coat was tailor-made at Leatherlady. Ray-Ban sunglasses.

Where do you like to eat? For Italian, I go to Assagi. I also like the lunch at Mosto.

• Read more

A foreign correspondent’s perspective

Last year, Richard Spencer covered the Olympics, visited Sichuan during the earthquake, entertained the prime minister of Great Britain, and explored Beijing with his three children and wife – not bad for someone who had always wanted to be a foreign correspondent.

Spencer, 43, the China correspondent for the London-based Daily Telegraph, moved to Beijing in 2003 and has lived in the midst of China’s recent dramatic transitions.

Until six years ago, the reporter’s path was a traditional one. After studying classical languages and philosophy at Oxford, then receiving a post graduate degree in journalism at University of Wales, College of Cardiff, Spencer worked his way up at local newspapers before joining the Telegraph. There, he worked at the news desk and later moved to the foreign desk as news editor.

“London can be a pretty tough place to bring up kids. Unless you have a mega-salary, it can be difficult,” says Spencer.

• Read more

Demystifying Traditional Chinese Medicine

Like most natural therapies, Traditional Chinese Medicine, or TCM, is eyed with some caution by many. For the uninitiated, TCM is a holistic medical practice incorporating multiple treatments with a simple philosophy: Your body and mind are directly affected by your environment and vice versa.

• Read more

The “terrible twos” arrive with a punch

Violence in the home is a difficult subject to broach. But the time to come clean is long overdue, for we are sheltering in our midst a brutal monster with no compunction about attacking his loved ones, male or female, old or young – viciously and unprovoked. It is high time to put a stop to it. But how? We can’t have him arrested, and he’s a bit difficult to reason with. You see, he’s only 21 months old.

• Read more

Everyone always wants to know what kids are listening to, what kids are thinking these days. But who can possibly keep track of what’s cool, who’s hot, and what’s neither? beijingkids decided to take the easy way out and just ask four students from the British School of Beijing about how they define cool, what they listen to, and movies that define their generation. Like all cool kids, the students were a bit hesitant to talk. After all, nothing is less than cool than talking about being cool.

 

How do you define cool?

Luke: When someone’s got their own style that no one else has.
Patrick: If what they’ve done or said or recorded is memorable, it’s cool. Or someone in a group who doesn’t try to take the center or try hard.
Min Jung: When you’re really good at something, and you can show off.

• Read more

What to do about spoiled kids?

Question: “Since we’ve moved to China, our kids have become more spoiled than ever – our ayi picks up after them, so they don’t have any chores, and they attend school with wealthy kids so they often ask for expensive things. As their parents, we don’t want to deny them the luxuries and toys that they want. How do we teach them responsibility and gratefulness without hurting their feelings?"

• Read more

Eden Mei Hester
British/New Zealander. Born to Joanne Caine and Ian Hester on Jul 6 at Beijing United Family Hospital.

• Read more

Once when my mother was driving me home from a piano lesson, she took a different route than usual. At a certain point she stopped the station wagon, went inside a building, and emerged a few minutes later with a bag in her hand. Getting back into the driver’s seat, she gave me the bag and said, “Don’t tell Dad.”

 

Inside was a white summer dress made of cotton poplin, with an emerald-colored sash at the waist. I loved it instantly, but the thrill of ownership came with a realization. I was five years old, and for the first time, I had an inkling that parents could have different opinions on how to spend money.

 

• Read more

1 beijingkids Anniversary Party: beijingkids turns two! Celebrate with us on Saturday, Mar 21 as we lunch at Annie’s and then head to the Beijing Zoo. The party kicks off at 11am with a buffet at the new Annie’s restaurant (8569 3031) at 39 Shenlujie, Chaoyang District, Ritan High Life 2-3-93. Hop on our bus to the zoo, then tour pandas, chimpanzees and other animals from 1.30pm to 3pm with a professional zoologist as our guide. Every child goes home with a beijingkids gift bag. For tickets, contact Joe or Kathy at 5820 7700 ext. 866 or email marketing@thebeijinger.com

• Read more