Planning some day trips with the family to all the cool places in Beijing that you’ve wanted to see but never made time for? Before you get too attached to your plans, this year’s Golden Week is accompanied by some road closures smack dab in the center of the city.

The Beijing Traffic Management Bureau issued a notice yesterday that from Oct 1 – 8 some roads in the city will be heavily regulated and the roads on both the east and west sides of Tiananmen Square will be closed to all motor vehicles except those with special permits. If you’re planning on visiting the area on bike, expect a detour to Zhengyi Road and the West People’s Great Hall Road.

From Oct 1 to 8 from 8am to 7pm, Nanxin Village Street (including Hongfeng Road to Xingshang South Road) will be restricting cars driving from east to west. No restrictions regarding bikes were mentioned.

KEEP READING: What Happens if You Get Hurt Riding a Didi?

Images: beijingkids, pexels

This morning it took me an hour to get a DiDi to work – an hour! Today (Sep 1) is the first day of school all across the city and, as can be expected, there’s going to be traffic jams all across the city. According to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transportation’s official Weibo account, there’s going to be some expected gridlocks around the city.

Unless you absolutely need to be there, avoid these places today

The Beijing Municipal Commission of Transportation recommends staggered travel times to avoid congestions and to use public transportation as much as possible. Our advice? Leave early and mentally prepare yourself for congestion.

For those who’ve already dropped off the kids at school, remind your kids that today is the first day back for many children all across the city. This afternoon when it comes time to go home, be extra patient because we’ll be stuck in traffic once again.

Photos: Beijing News, Beijing Municipal Commission of Transportation, pexels

On average I take about 60 trips a month which means in any given year I’m meeting about 720 different Didi drivers. In my opinion, that gives me a pretty good overview of the different types of Didi Express drivers on the road in Beijing

There are those with spotless cars and blast their AC – a much-appreciated effort especially during these hot months. Then there are the occasional ones with dirty cars, broken seatbelts, and insists that an open window is the same as AC. There are those who’ll drive you from point A to point B without any extra exchange of words other than the “thank you for choosing Didi, please put on your seatbelt” and there are those who offer you more unwanted life advice than you could possibly want, especially when you’re exhausted and just want to close your eyes for a few moments. Common guys, it’s not Uber. Don’t make me feel like I’m obligated to have a conversation with you about how this “isn’t your full-time gig”.

Here he is, driving hands-free.

After one particularly unpleasant ride where the driver kept on slamming on the breaks every few seconds, something at seven months pregnant made me feel nauseous, like I just rode the world’s longest roller coaster. He then proceeded to take me on a route that I didn’t recognize all while pulling out a second phone and spastically driving around hands-free. While this was my first experience of this kind of reckless behavior, my mind couldn’t help but drift to darker “what if” questions.

I reached out to a friend working at Didi Chuxing for some insights into their company’s safety policy.

First of all, how does a company with so many cars on the road every day keep track of all their drivers? Who are these people behind the wheel that you’re trusting your life with? According to Didi’s policy, anyone who wants to become a Didi driver, need to provide the company with a valid ID, driver’s license, and third-party comprehensive insurance. In certain cities in China, they will also need to pass government tests to obtain special ride hailing licenses. After all their documents have been submitted, these drivers must pass a facial recognition to ensure that the driver and the person shown on the Didi account are one of the same, pass a comprehensive and rolling background check, and have their vehicle checked for safety.

The most common annoyance that I encounter while using Didi is the detours, but to be fair, in the past six months I’ve had less than a handful of drivers who’ve taken detours. Most just follow the in-app GPS. Didi has an en-route safety monitoring system that uses the in-app GPS and an algorithm that monitors the normal length of time for the trip. If the trip goes beyond what’s considered normal, the rider or driver will receive a real-time trip check notification which will allow both parties to activate the safety center if needed.

But detours and nauseating break slamming aside, what if the driver gets into an accident while you’re in the car? And worse, what if you’re the one who got hurt? I’m sure I speak for a few of us when I say that we’ve all had those scares where we open a car door without looking only to be surprised by the biker who suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and we suddenly see our lives flash before your eyes. In the event that the Didi you’re in gets into an accident and you’re injured, Didi will provide medical & financial assistance for accidents that happened during trips, including an advance payment for medical bills during insurance claims.

For other safety, related questions visit their Safety Center for more information.

Remember to buckle up for safety and have fun exploring Beijing.

KEEP READING: Didi English Now Allows You to Edit Destination Mid-Ride

Photos: Mina Yan, Unsplash

Recently Didi has added a brand new feature to their English platform – drop-off edit!

Until sometime last week only the Chinese version of Didi allowed users to change their destination mid-route. This function is especially handy if you want to share a ride with friends and drop people off along the way, but until now the Mandarin-challenged among us would have to either abandon the ride altogether and call another car, somehow explain to the driver that we’d changed our mind about where we wanted to go, or convince them to make a detour to drop off some friends. Not the easiest feat. Heck, it’s not an easy feat even if you do speak Chinese as it usually requires long explanations with the driver who doesn’t understand that the option isn’t available on the English version of Didi.

Change your own destination 

If you hopped in the car and realized you need to go somewhere else instead, simply select Edit Dropoff from the bottom menu during your journey and follow the steps to change the location. The driver will be automatically informed, adjust his route using the in-app GPS, and you’ll continue on your merry way.

Drop off friends

Making multiple stops is a little bit trickier, as you will need to tell the driver not to end the ride when he makes the first stop. When your friend gets out of the car, you can then edit the destination to your next stop. Do this as many times as you need. Here are a couple of handy phrases to help you navigate this step.

Please don’t end my ride yet: 请先别结账 Qǐng xiān bié jiézhàng
I need to go to another place: 我还要去下一个地方 Wǒ hái yào qù xià yīgè dìfāng
My friend needs to get off here: 我朋友在这儿下 Wǒ péngyǒu zài zhè’er xià 

Although we welcome the upgrade, the English version of Didi still does lag behind the Chinese version when it comes to travel options. One extremely handy feature is the Children Ride Service, in which parents can call for a car already equipped with a baby car seat that’s suitable for a 9+ months old baby. Click the link below to see our how-to guide if you are ready to level up to the Chinese version.

KEEP READING: Didi’s Hidden Gem: How to Use Children Ride Service 

Photos: South China Morning Post, Mina Yan

As a family, the Cliffords are used to traveling long distances. Mom Kim and Dad Aaron first met in their home country of Canada then jetted off to set up their new lives together in China just 40 days after their wedding. They welcomed their son Lachlan to the clan in 2013, and have since enjoyed exploring Thailand and Malaysia as a family, as well as taking a very special trip with their ayi to her hometown of Nanchang for Chinese New Year.

When it comes to finding great family travel advice, Kim says you just can’t beat the local expat community for the great wealth of information available, so we quizzed the young family for their best travel tips.

When Lachlan (middle) goes on vacation, he knows exactly what t-shirt to pack!

Kim

Pack food! You never know what will or won’t be available after you pass through security and it is better to have things you are sure your child will eat. Once when transferring flights in China we went through security to find there were no food places at all, so I made my husband go back to get McDonald’s. Also, let your children carry their bags or pull their luggage. It slows the little ones down!

Aaron

Download episodes from Netflix before you leave and turn the device to airplane mode so they aren’t lost. You never know which flights won’t have entertainment. And don’t forget your headphones.

Lachlan

Bring your stuffed animals to play with. I like to bring my camera too, then I can take pictures of everything!

KEEP READING:  How to Make Traveling Fun and Stress-Free for the Whole Family

Photos: Uni You

This article appeared in the beijingkids 2020 June issue

Many Beijing families will be spending their summer vacation in China for the first time this year and while domestic travel is a great option, there is no reason you can’t recreate that vacation feeling right here in Beijing. Here are some simple tips on how to be a tourist in your own home, and reignite the spirit of exploration and discovery that goes hand in hand with vacation.

Summer is the best time to fall in love with Beijing all over again.

Hit the Books

Pretend that Beijing is a new exciting destination that you’ve never seen before, and research it like you would any other place. Dust off the Lonely Planet guide books, check TripAdvisor, look up local bloggers, follow the official city hashtags on Instagram, and browse through back issues of beijingkids for inspiration. Get each member of the family to pick interesting places that they would like to explore, including places to eat, play, and learn, then make a plan to visit or experience as many as possible.

Do a Grand Tour

Even if you’ve lived here for years, we bet there are plenty of things about the city you haven’t discovered yet. We are really spoiled for choice with dozens of wonderful and experienced tour guides offering all kinds of different food, historical, cycling, and walking tours. Flip to p. 38 for a list of our favorites.

Phone a Friend

If you were visiting a friend in a foreign city, you’d hit them up for recommendations straight away! Do the same in Beijing, asking a friend to show you their favorite restaurants, parks, play centers etc. You could even take it in turns with another family, trading your favorite ‘secret spots’.

Get Moving

Changing your mode of transportation for bus, train, bike, walking, tuk-tuk, or even pedalo (on some of Beijing’s lakes) is a great way to literally change your perspective. It’s amazing how differently you see the city you either slow or increase your pace, or take a slightly different route.

Book a Staycation

If it is within your budget, book a night or two in a hotel in a part of town you don’t usually get to. This will make it even easier to explore the area and kickstart that vacation feeling.

Get Trapped

We’re not suggesting you should go and get ripped off, but why not take a chance on some of those ‘tourist trap’ restaurants and experiences that you’d usually avoid? Yes, you might spend a bit more money but you’ll be surprised at how fun and interesting these ‘traps’ really are.

Cheese It Up

Have you ever gotten a great family photo at Tiananmen Square? Or in a typical Beijing hutong? Now is the time to make all those fun cheesy holiday pics happen! Half the fun of a holiday is looking through all the fun snaps afterward, making this ‘Beijing holiday’ one to remember for years to come.

KEEP READING: Put Your Trust in Beijing’s Best Local Tour Guides and Agencies

Photos: Unsplash

This article appeared in the beijingkids 2020 June issue

While most international travel is still off the cards, that doesn’t mean you’re destined to be a couch potato all summer. After all, being an expat doesn’t mean you’re confined to exploring only the fine things our fair city has to offer. One needs to take advantage of living abroad to explore all the hidden corners of the country. You never know what adventure awaits.

Popular travel booking app Trip.com (also known as CTrip) contains a very handy but often overlooked function called ‘Explore the World’ which can help you find great last-minute flights and deals, especially if you’re not too picky about where you go. Think of it as a digital stand-by ticket for the super adventurous.

To access the function, simply follow these steps:

Step 1:  Download the Trip.com (EN) or Ctrip (CN) app from your preferred store

Step 2: Select ‘Flights’ from the app homepage

Step 3: Scroll down to the ‘Explore the World’ function

Step 4: Adjust the date and budget settings, and get exploring!

Tips:

Of course, these prices are highly subject to change, but if you’re in the mood for a quick escape and not too picky about where you go, the Explore my World can be a great way to save money and, well, explore your world!

KEEP READING: What You Need to Know to Travel in China Right Now

This article appeared in the beijingkids 2020 June issue

Is it just me or do all horrible travel stories happen at airports? A few years back on a spur the moment trip to India, I spent most of my time trying to reunite with my luggage, which had been held back in New Delhi due to a misunderstanding about a power bank. Despite endless phone calls and emails, I never got it back until the day I was due to fly out. After much standing around on the airline staff’s part and a lot of yelling and lobbing threats on my part, I finally got my precious suitcase, then had to streak through the airport to catch my 3am flight. I learned a valuable lesson. When doing a multi-city trip, never travel with check-in luggage.

A Midnight Dream…

From an almost missed flight to a lost day, Anna Pellegrin Hartley, our deputy manager recounts when she made a very expensive miscalculation. “In 2013 I was flying back to Paris after a holiday in Australia. I extended my stopover so I could spend a week exploring Bangkok and Thailand, and caught up with some old friends who were passing through at the same time,” explains Hartley. After a day of exploring the city, she returned to her hostel where the hostel reception inquired whether she wished to purchase an extra night’s stay. Hartley continues, “I was confused as I thought I’d already booked through till the next day, as I was flying out the following evening at midnight. As they were checking I suddenly had a terrible thought, and looked up my emails to check my ticket. My flight wasn’t leaving the next midnight, but this one, in just over two hours.” In a panic, Hartley considered her options. Would she make a mad dash for the airport which was over an hour away via a cab, or would she just bite the bullet and change her ticket for the next day?  “I would have to collect and re-check in a big suitcase I’d left in storage, not to mention do check-in and pass security so I was sure I wouldn’t make it in time. I was so embarrassed that I’d screwed up that I didn’t even think to call the airline and assess my options,” Hartley further explains. Ultimately, she bought a ticket from a different airline for the next day, a costly decision that put her – at the time a skint ESL teacher who was just scraping by – into debt for over a year.

All’s Well That Ends Well

Just as the COVID-19 pandemic was gathering momentum in China, Lisa Albrecht and her family planned to return to Beijing from Manila, where they had been vacationing via Hong Kong. But with only days to go, flight after flight was canceled, leaving the family stranded and with diminishing options for getting back to Beijing. Luckily they managed to snag tickets from Manila to Hong Kong with a massive 20-hour long layover. While under normal circumstances nobody relishes such a long layover, in this instance they realized how lucky they were to be able to get home and made the most of it. “With the 20-hour transit, we decided to go to the city and explore it. It was the best decision ever! We booked a very beautiful hotel near Victoria Harbor, we explored the area, and observed the city from the highest skyscraper Sky100.” A sweet note to end their harrowing struggle to fly back to China.

Word To The Wise

Looking back at his travel history, Beijing dad and owner of Pepples Courtyard Ray Yue Heng has a few tips for the novice traveler within China.  “In China, I would say the only essential thing you need is to make sure you download all the necessary apps on your smartphone because, in this digital, China is almost entirely cashless.” muses Heng. These Apps include Ctrip or Qunar to manage your flight, train, hotel, and car rental bookings and confirmations,  Dianping to find the best restaurants, movie theaters and general travel destinations with the best reviews and the best deals,  and finally Gao de (멕돠) or Baidu maps (겟똑).

Whether it’s losing your luggage, missing a flight, or just trying to figure out Apps in languages we don’t understand, even the worst travel experiences can be chalked up as part of the adventure of travel. And when it goes from the ridiculous to the insane, breathe in and repeat to yourself, “This too shall pass!”

Are We There Yet? How to Make Traveling Fun and Stress-Free for the Whole Family

Photos: Unsplash

This article appeared in the beijingkids 2020 June issue

After watching movies like Before Sunrise and reading books like Eat Pray Love the notion that the purpose of travel is somehow linked to self-discovery has grown on me. The characters in these pieces often spontaneously decide to leave all they have behind and backpack around Europe for a month. They wander aimlessly through the cobbled streets of Prague, stroll along the canals of Amsterdam, and eat croissants at Parisian cafés. Often times, they stumble upon people who are just as lost as they are, and the whole story turns into a dreamy summer romance. And then, as if it wasn’t already clichéd enough, they return home changed people, crediting their newfound selves to a two-week holiday in the South of France. The truth, however, is that there is so much more to travel than self-discovery.

This is not to say that travel has no purpose. On the contrary, I feel that travel is one of the most freeing experiences people can have. It’s wondrous, eye-opening, escapist. But at its core, travel is mainly one thing. It’s fun. This may sound overly simple, insulting, even, to travel itself. How can travel just be fun? Because there isn’t really anything wrong at all with things just being fun. We’re allowed to do things just because we enjoy them, because they make us happy and help us forget about our mundane lives. There’s no need to over-analyze something as simple as travel and put it on a pedestal. It’s counter-productive and takes away from what travel really is, stripped down. It’s incredible. It lets you discover places you never knew existed, meet people you wouldn’t have interacted with otherwise, eat food that leaves unfamiliar, yet delicious, flavors on your tongue. New cultures, new sensations, a new environment. Travel is something else nothing else can give you. It sort of humbles you a little bit. Helps you realize that the world doesn’t revolve around you. And yes, it really does help ‘widen your horizons’. Having lived in the Greater China region for over seven years, I’ve traveled extensively in China, to places like Xinjiang, Gansu, and Tibet. Initially, I was under the impression that China consisted of only jiaozi, zhajiangmian, and baijiu. In reality, China is so much more than that, and I would have never discovered it for myself if I didn’t travel. After traveling to all these places within China, I started associating China with things like lamb kebabs, the smell of melted butter in Tibetan monasteries, and camels in the Gobi Desert. There is always more to things than you think, and in my opinion, travel is one of the ways you can explore that.

I love traveling, I really do. Most of my happiest memories are from the many trips I’ve taken, and especially during times like these, where the furthest we travel to is the grocery store down the road, I find myself trying to relive past holidays. I think that’s because now more than ever, we crave an escape from how isolated our lives have become. I, for one, often think back to the trip I took to Australia during Chinese New Year. Maybe it’s because it was the last time I can remember being around so many people without a hint of fear, but I think we can now agree that travel has taken on a different role. Never again will we take it for granted, and this is why I believe that due to this pandemic, some of us will see travel in a different light.

When you travel, don’t focus on making sure that the trip teaches you something. Don’t look for a purpose when there doesn’t have to be one. Focus on losing yourself in the surroundings, genuinely enjoying your experiences, immersing yourself in the trip. That’s all.

Sharanya Trivedi is a Year 10 student. Originally from India, she has lived in several countries across the world and has been in Beijing since 2017. An avid reader and debater, she is a devoted fan of the k-pop band BTS.

This article appeared in the beijingkids 2020 June issue