There’s a particular kind of magic that happens when you take a child to an exhibition that was clearly made with them in mind. You watch their usual restless energy settle into focus, wonder, that quiet hum of engagement that every parent recognizes as a small victory. The Love Monster: Spring Reverie of Love exhibition, running now at Li Gallery in Beijing’s 798 Art District, offers just that.

If you’ve been looking for something to do with your kids that feels a little more thoughtful than the usual weekend rotation, this one is worth the trip.

From the moment you walk into Li Gallery, your children will find themselves surrounded by the world of Love Monster. Instead of cold white walls and roped-off installations, the space has been transformed into something warm and inviting.

What makes this exhibition particularly successful for families is its pacing. It’s not so large that kids become overwhelmed or exhausted halfway through, but it’s substantial enough to feel like a proper outing. You’ll probably spend about 45 minutes to an hour inside, which for most young children is the sweet spot between “engaged” and “over it.”

And the best part, the entire exhibition is completely FREE!

Find it:
Li Gallery 骊画廊
Middle 2nd Street, 798 Art Zone
No. 2 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District
北京市朝阳区酒仙桥路2号
798艺术区中二街

Images: Toni Ma

In what administrators are calling the “most ambitious pivot in educational technology since the invention of the whiteboard,” the experimental Genesis Global Academy (GGA) in Haidian District, Beijing’s very own Silicone Valley, announced today that it has begun beta testing a fleet of student-robot doubles, designed to attend classes, absorb curriculum, and socially interact on behalf of flesh-and-blood students.

The program, called Project ECHO, aims to solve a perennial problem facing international schools: student absenteeism, lack of engagement, and the logistical nightmare of getting teenagers out of bed before noon.

“The idea is simple,” explained Dr. Alexander Luther, the school’s Head of Innovation, during a press conference held via a slightly glitching hologram. “Why force a child to sit in a traffic-choked SUV for forty-five minutes to sit in a hard chair when a perfectly calibrated, AI-driven proxy can do it for them? We are beta testing robots that learn a student’s unique linguistic tics, behavioral patterns, and even their specific way of sighing dramatically when a teacher mentions homework.”

The robots, sleek white humanoid units dubbed S-1s (Student-One), are currently being piloted in three Grade 8 classrooms. According to the school, each unit is assigned to a specific student. For the first month of the beta, the robots are in “observation mode,” shadowing their human counterparts.

“It’s a little weird at first,” admitted Liam, a 14-year-old beta tester, while controlling his robot remotely from his bedroom via a gaming headset. “I named my bot Gio. It’s freaky accurate. Yesterday, it mimicked my sneeze so well that the kid next to it said ‘bless you’ without looking up. We’ve got AI everywhere nowadays, and Gio’s just taken it to the next level.”

The technology focuses heavily on linguistics. Engineers have programmed the S-1s to master the complex, evolving dialect of the modern international school student. Early demonstrations showed the robots flawlessly executing phrases such as: “This is fire,” “You’re just being salty,” and, when asked for a late assignment, “I emailed it to you yesterday, did it go to your spam?”

“The vocal inflections are spot on,” said Ms. Chen Wei, a math teacher participating in the trial. “This morning, one of the robots looked me dead in the optical sensor and said, ‘Ms. Chen, we’re not going to be tested on this, right?’ It sounded exactly like Kevin, the student it’s assigned to. I actually apologized to it before I realized what was happening.”

The ultimate goal, according to a leaked internal memo obtained by this publication, is to reach a point where students no longer need to physically attend school at all. Instead, they will “telematically inhabit” their robotic avatars, allowing them to receive a full international education from ski slopes in Switzerland, beach resorts in Phuket, or, most commonly, their own beds.

“Why disrupt the child’s natural habitat when we can bring the classroom to them?” Dr. Luther added. “The robots handle the physical presence. The student handles the learning. It’s perfect synergy.”

News of the beta test has already sent shockwaves through Beijing’s international school community. Sources indicate that representatives from Northern Academy of Beijing (NAB) and English School of Beijing, Shunyi  have requested “exploratory meetings” with GGA’s tech team. Meanwhile, Birmingham College Beijing is rumored to be considering a competing model involving drone-based attendance.

“We are working out the kinks,” Dr. Luther assured. “We just pushed a software update to address the ‘sass’ parameter.”

When asked for comment on the expansion plans, a spokesperson for the Beijing Education Commission responded with a single laughing emoji before declining to elaborate.

As for the students, reactions are mixed. While many appreciate the opportunity to “attend” school in pajamas, some worry about the long-term implications.

“I mean, what’s the point of having a robot learn to be me,” said Liam, “if eventually the robot is just going to realize it’s smarter than me and just leave to go to a better school?”

The beta test is scheduled to continue through the end of the academic year, provided the robots do not unionize.

Images: FreePik

In 2023, Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) organized its first KM for Love, which they called Peachy Charity Run & Brunch and raised RMB 28,068 for then-5-year-old orphan Ping, who suffers from a rare genetic skin disease (epidermolysis bullosa, or EB). Since 2026, WAB has turned this charity run into an annual tradition. 

Sunday, April 12, from 9:00 AM to noon, Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) will once again become a hub of energy, compassion, and community spirit as it hosts the annual KM for Love Run & Brunch. Organized by WAB’s student group KM for LOVE, every bit raised supports Dew Drops and a very special six-year-old named Fei.

Fei is an energetic six-year-old living with Loeys-Dietz syndrome, a rare genetic condition that causes serious heart issues. She is now preparing for her second heart surgery in Beijing, with custom medical parts scheduled to arrive in late March 2026. The surgery will cost approximately RMB 100,000, and this event is a vital part of rallying the community to help make it possible.

You don’t need to be a marathon runner to join. Run & Brunch offers something for everyone. Run or walk at your own pace. The important thing is to come out and support the community together.

Eleventh grader Autumn Cherney has been a part of the KM for Love club for two years and has made many visits to the Dewdrops orphanage. This year, in addition to adding live music to make it more exciting for fellow music lovers, she’s also responsible for finding raffle sponsors. Thanks to amazing local partners like QMex, Slowboat, Las Musas, Pignut, Slider Nation, Hatsune, the Vet Clinic, and Pie Squared, they have gathered some great prizes to help support the cause.

They’re currently looking for student bands to join the lineup and share their talent while supporting this wonderful cause! If you or your students are interested in performing, please reach out to Autumn Cherney at 27autumnc@wab.edu or contact the KM for LOVE team directly.

After the run, refuel with a delicious spread of brunch of fresh fruit, sweet treats, and unlimited pancakes. Bring your family and friends for a feel-good morning of connection and compassion.

Grab your entry tickets via the QR code below and join the fun. Run for love, rally for Fei’s quick healing! Hope to spot you there. Can’t make it? Donate virtually instead!

Find it:
10 Laiguangying Donglu, Chaoyang District
朝阳区来广营东路10号

Images: KM for Love

Head over to Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) tomorrow (March 25) for the kickoff of Cultural Canvas. They’re firing up an actual steamroller for art!

This is your chance to witness the incredible spectacle of massive, hand-carved linocut designs being pressed onto paper by a full-size steamroller right on campus. It’s art on an epic scale, and you won’t want to miss it!

But this event is about so much more than the thrill of the roll. The stunning prints you see and can purchase on-site are the centerpiece of a project with a powerful mission. “The purpose of printing these artworks was to fund a project called Cultural Canvas,” a WAB student shared. Students at WAB are collaborating with an African traveling teacher to bridge continents through creativity. Together, they are working to help children in Uganda and the Congo to improve their digital literacy while uniting around a collective passion for art.

This collaboration is already sparking a beautiful cultural exchange. Inspired by the project, a student in Uganda, Maria Tereza, has begun using tablets to create content that shares her heritage. In one tutorial, she shows the world how locals in her community weave traditional baskets. Now, students at WAB are following her lead, using her instructions to weave artworks of their own, which proves that creativity knows no borders.

By purchasing a print, you aren’t just taking home a unique piece of art; you are directly supporting this incredible initiative. All proceeds go toward supporting Nyarutembe School in Uganda, helping to provide resources and digital literacy programs for students there.

The exhibition runs from March 25 through April 13 at Hub Link at WAB, so come celebrate the opening day, grab a print, and see how art is connecting kids across the globe.

Images: WAB

There is a place where donated toys wait for new adventures, where clothes hang ready to warm a stranger, and where a single, simple act of sorting can ripple into a story of hope.

This is Roundabout, Beijing’s very own version of Salvation Army, and it is powered by people like you.

At Roundabout, we believe that kindness is not just about giving. It is about the care we take in preparing that gift. Every item that arrives has a story. Your role? To get them ready for the next chapter.

Roundabout is looking for volunteers who want to show up, lend a hand, and be part of something steady and meaningful.

This opportunity is open to adults and teens alike. For teenagers, it is a chance to build responsibility, contribute to the community, and experience the quiet satisfaction of work that truly matters. For adults, it is a space to step away from daily routines, connect with a warm community, and make a tangible difference—sometimes in just a few hours a week.

So what does it take to volunteer at Roundabout? No prior experience is needed. Only three things matter:

1: A caring heart that believes that small actions add up.
2: A sense of attentiveness
3: The willingness to give time either regularly or occasionally, at a rhythm that suits your life.

As a Roundabout volunteer, you will be a part of the team where you will help sort, organize, and prepare donated goods so that they can be sold or distributed to support those in need. You will work in a bright, welcoming space alongside friendly fellow volunteers. There is sunshine, conversation, and the shared sense that together, we are making something beautiful happen.

If you want to know what it’s like to volunteer at Roundabout, check out Margaret Yang’s first hand accounts. 

Find it:
Monday to Saturday
Morning: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Afternoon: 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
(You are welcome to choose shifts that work for you.)
Shunyi Villas and Pinnacle Plaza area
Cathy View Plaza, 2 Xiangjiang Bei Lu, Shunyi District
顺义区香江北路2号

How to Join:

Images: Roundabout

At just 16 years old, Tony Ding is already thinking about how to grow lacrosse in China. A junior in high school who balances his passion for diabetic biology studies with his love for the sport, he recently launched Laxmeter, a website designed to connect players across the country and help build a community around a game still finding its footing in Beijing.

A former student at Beijing World Youth Academy, Tony’s own journey began only three years ago when he entered high school in the US as a freshman. He played thirds lacrosse and was, by his own admission, terrible at it. It took him a week just to learn to successfully catch and throw the ball. But despite the steep learning curve, he fell in love with the fast pace, the aesthetic motion of a well-aimed shot, and the way the varsity team celebrated a win where everyone sprinted onto the field to high-five their goalie. For Tony, the beauty of lacrosse lies in that tension between fierce body contact and delicate stick movement.

With lacrosse set to return to the Olympics in 2028, he saw an opportunity.

The sport is growing in China, but there’s no platform bringing players together. When his parents suggested that hiring a professional to build one would be too expensive, Tony took matters into his own hands. Drawing on what he learned in AP Computer Science and a post-AP data structures course, he programmed Laxeter himself.

Right now, the site features a rankings system meant to motivate more players to participate in games. But his ambitions are bigger: he wants to eventually rank players by stars and help them build profiles that college coaches can see.

His vision doesn’t stop online. Tony is now working to establish a school lacrosse league among Beijing’s international school communities. He’s calling it BALL (the Beijing Academia Lacrosse League), and he’s already reaching out to schools to invite them in.

The plan is to start with a 3v3 format and scale up to a more competitive Tier I league for players with real talent and drive. For anyone interested in starting, he recommends BUX Lacrosse Club and the Beijing Lacrosse Association as great places to begin, filled with passionate athletes and professional coaches ready to help.

For Tony, this moment matters. “This is a pre-Olympic stage of Lacrosse (as I would like to call it), so every player is a pioneer. They’re not just learning a sport—they’re building a community from the ground up. That sense of ownership makes their journey deeply personal, which not only creates future influencers in the lacrosse community to publicize this sport we love more, but also presents opportunities (colleges, national teams, branding, etc.)” says Tony. The story of lacrosse in Beijing, he believes, is ultimately one about belonging and identity.

When asked what advice he’d give to kids who want to pick up a stick, he quotes his high school’s varsity goalie, John: “Lacrosse is an easy sport to pick up, but a hard sport to excel in.” What matters most, Tony says, are the friends and connections you make along the way. Whether you’re playing in big games, tossing the ball with a neighbor, or doing wall-ball with music in your ears, you’ll find yourself improving with a smile on your face. And then he adds John’s signature send-off: “Let’s go hit the wall.”

For kids in Beijing who want to give the sport a try, it’s easy. “I am working to create lacrosse teams at every high school that shows interest in this sport. Not only can they come to play at BUX lacrosse club, but they can also aid me and convince their teachers about including this sport in their school. We have professional coaches who are happy to show up and teach you the tricks!”

Inspired? We know we are! If you’re a teen with an incredible achievement, let us know! Get in touch with Mina Yan via email at minayan@beijing-kids.com or WeChat (ID: Wilhelmina87).

Images: Tony Ding

My five-year-old daughter has a smartwatch. Let me start there, because I know some parents will judge me for it, and honestly? I get it. I’ve judged myself a time or two.

I got it as a gift, and on trips to the park, when she zooms off toward the slide and disappears behind a climbing structure, I can glance at my phone and see that little dot on the map. She’s safe. She’s exactly where she should be. For a mom who’s spent five years perfecting the art of hyper-vigilance, that little dot is a gift. It shows you exactly where your kid is, even to the point of knowing exactly which floor of a building she’s on. We’ve barely touched any of the other features, though, and boy, there are a lot… For us, it’s purely a tracker, and on that front, it delivers exactly what I hoped for.

But here’s what I’ve noticed watching other families navigate these devices: the features you don’t use don’t just disappear. They sit there, dormant, waiting for the moment your child discovers them and, worse, gets addicted to them.

I’ve watched kids on the playground compare friend counts like they’re a playground commodity. “You only have three friends on your watch? I have fifteen!” It’s basically a pre-smart phone follower count culture for little kids. They’re comparing digital friend lists like teens compare social media followers. Except they don’t have the emotional maturity to understand why that feels lousy when you’re on the losing end. We spend years teaching our kids that friendship isn’t a numbers game, and then we strap a device to their wrist that turns it into exactly that.

I’ve overheard after-school calls between elementary school kids that went on far longer than any conversation between kids their age should. At that age, kids are still learning how to navigate friendships face-to-face. They need to spend time with their family after school. They don’t need the added complexity of unsupervised calls when no adult can hear what’s being said or guide the conversation.

And the photos. These watches make it effortless to snap and share pictures. I’m sure you’ve been to events where kids are holding up their wrists, recording like they’re in the old James Bond movies. But five-year-olds don’t understand privacy yet. They don’t yet understand that just because you can photograph someone doesn’t mean you should.

I worry about addiction, too. Not in the dramatic, “my child is glued to a screen” way, but I watch how other kids gravitate toward their watches. How they check them. It’s the same behavior I see in myself when my phone buzzes, and I don’t like seeing that loop start so early.

Here’s the truth I’m still sitting with: I’m not ready to take the watch away, because I’m not ready to give up that little dot on the map. The safety feature works exactly as advertised. It soothes a primal fear that lives in the back of every parent’s mind.

But I also don’t like what else came along for the ride.

So for now, we’re keeping it simple. The watch stays, at least until I figure out something better.

Maybe that’s the real work of parenting in 2026. Not choosing between technology and no technology, but figuring out how to hold both the safety and the complication and make peace with the fact that we’re all figuring it out as we go.

What are your thoughts on kids today and smartphones? Better yet, if you’ve got a better solution, don’t gate keep them to yourself!

For most teenagers, the immediate future involves deciding which class is next. For 19-year-old Milly Wang, the horizon is occupied by her next restaurant concept.

Milly has opened Farmily, her second business venture, and this time, the hyper-successful teen is deliberately pressing the brakes. Moving from the quick-service model of her first enterprise,  EIS Engelchen, Farmily is designed as a space to slow down. The concept is simple: a place to grab a quality sandwich, linger with friends, and take home fresh-baked pastries.

Stepping inside, the atmosphere immediately communicates that intention. The scent of fresh bread drifts through the air, settling over wooden tables bathed in soft light. The effect is one that’s warm and calm, a stark contrast to the typical pace of fast food.

That tranquility is rooted in a philosophy of provenance. Their bread is baked on-site using grain sourced directly from a farm, reflecting Milly’s belief that knowing where your food comes from is essential. This attention to detail is a lesson learned from her previous experience running an ice cream shop, where she discovered how small, intentional choices can define a space.

While the buttery croissants are the daily stars, often selling out before the day is over. Milly’s personal favorite is a quieter offering: the yogurt bowl. Featuring zero-sugar yogurt, homemade granola, and a drizzle of fresh honeycomb, it represents the kind of wholesome, crafted food she wants to be known for.

Managing the launch of a restaurant while attending college is a monumental balancing act. Milly admits the hardest part is the daily mental shift required to toggle between the mindset of a student and that of a business owner.

Ultimately, Farmily is more than just a business expansion; it is a personal project. With this new venture, Milly is aiming to build a sanctuary—not only for her customers seeking a respite from their day but also a quiet space for herself.

Looking for more family-friendly dining recommendations? Join the FamFriendlyEats group on WeChat by scanning the QR code below.

Inspired? We know we are! If you’re a teen with an incredible achievement, let us know! Get in touch with Mina Yan via email at minayan@beijing-kids.com or WeChat (ID: Wilhelmina87).Find it:
No. A1, Xiyang Hutong, Beixinqiao Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing
(Enter South Park through the West Gate and go 20 meters to the right)

Tel: 13811486972

Hey mamas, life in Beijing is an adventure, but let’s be real—it can also feel incredibly overwhelming. Between the soul-crushing commutes, the maze of hospital systems, and the pressure to be a “super-parent,” it’s easy to feel like you’re navigating it all alone, especially if you’re far from your own family.

This is where the magic of a private, judgment-free WeChat group comes in. We’re creating a “Beijing Moms” WeChat group that isn’t just about swapping contacts; it’s about building a safety net in a city of millions.

The beauty of an all-female space is the unspoken understanding. It’s a place where you can ask the messy, vulnerable questions without fear of judgment. Whether it’s parenting questions, relationship and cultural problems, health

The best groups thrive on one rule: no judgment and no spam. It’s about getting real and trusting that you will be met with compassion.

In a fast-paced city like Beijing, these groups slow things down, turning strangers into neighbors and neighbors into friends. Because at the end of the day, we all just need someone who gets it. To join, add Wilhelmina87 on WeChat.

Images: FreePik