Once Upon a Time… We asked students to come up with their own Beijing adaptation of their favorite childhood fairy tales. Thank you to all the students who have submitted their work. We’ll be publishing them online and selecting the best story that fits all the criteria to be included in the upcoming issue of Jingkids.

Alice and Mermaid

By: Candy Su (age 8)

After Alice woke up from her dream, she and her sister went back home. When her sister was reading the book with no picture, she felt bored again! She thought, “I should go to the backyard and fly my kite.”

When Alice was flying her kite, she saw a tree hole that she has never seen before. Of course she walked inside. Alice walked down the stairs. Suddenly, a huge hot spring appeared in front of Alice.

A few minutes later, a mermaid named Cece swam up and said to Alice, “I’m the princess of the mermaid country, but a monster called Wax Diamopa ran inside the country and took the magic ball away. The magic ball is the thing that makes the country powerful! So we must find it back.” “Why did you just tell me?”, asked Alice. Cece answered, “That’s because I trust you. I have observed you for some to,e, and you are a brave and smart girl. We need your help, so I let you see the tree hole. Would you like to help us?” Alice answered, “Yes, I’d like to try.” “Come on and follow me, I will lead you  to the mermaid country,”Cece said.

“Why did you lead me into the hot spring?”, asked Alice. Cece said, “Because the country is under the hot spring!” After a few minutes, they arrived at the mermaid country. Cece leads Alice into a mermaid tail swimsuit shop and bought a beautiful golden mermaid tail for her. At first, Alice couldn’t swim with her tail very well, but after a few minutes of learning, Alice found how to swim with the tail. She felt swimming with a tail was much faster than before!

Then they swam to the Minning castle, which is made of huge corals. The corals are all blue and shiny. The most special thing is the corals even can move if you want they can make some tea for you… Cece took a visitor’s card for Alice. “Now we should go to the Wax Diamopa mountain to snatch the magic ball back from the monster Wax!”, they said together!

A few hours later, they found monster Wax and the magic ball in his hand. When everyone was ready to fight with the monster, he quickly hid in a corner. Everyone was surprised! Alice saw that the monster acted like a baby. There was no evil in his green eyes. So Alice suggested, “Maybe we should talk with him first.”

Alice asked, “Why did you take the ball?”, Wax explained, “I took the magic ball because a  spider called Micala hit me with a big sharp object. Micala was scared of the magic ball, so I took it.” “Can you give the magic ball back if I beat the spider?”, asked Alice. “Deal.”, answered the monster.

Wax lead them to a big round circle and said, “When you step on it, it will down and down until you are stuck on the spider web. The spider needs to weave the web all the time. If not, his web will disappear. And when you on the web, he will use his poison to kill you.” Alice nodded her head. When the spider was sleeping，Alice took his poison and add some magic pearls to it, then the poison lost its power!

The next day Alice stepped on the circle. Suddenly, Alice felt some stars were flying on top of her head, and her head was hurt. Three minutes later, she noticed that she was stuck on a huge spider web. She wanted to get off, but she couldn’t.  Just at this moment, she saw Micala. He was as long as five school buses and as tall as half of a school! But Alice was not scared at all, “How cute a spider!” The big spider stopped for a moment and said, “Don’t you know that you are a meal for me ?” He took the poison out of his pocket, “I will kill you with this!” Micala laughed. Alice laughed too, “Are you sure that I’m scared of your poison?” Micala tried to put the poison into Alice, but it all flew away, “Why did my poison fly away?”, asked the spider. “That because I add some magic pearls!”, laughed Alice. Micala was so surprised that he forgot to weave his web, the web became thinner and disappeared slowly. Alice jumped off the web easily. Micala had lost his poison and web, so he ran away from mermaid country.

The monster Wax was really happy and gave the magic ball back to the mermaids, and they became friends. The mermaids were so thankful. Alice saw many mermaids dancing and singing, she even saw that mermaid baby swam faster than an adult! Cece made a big pearl cake to celebrate. Alice ate so much because the cake was so delicious. “I will open the tree hole when you are the only person in the backyard playing.”, said Cece.

When Alice went home and it was dinner time. “Oh no! I’m too full! ”thought Alice.

Candy Su is an eight year old student at Beanstalk International Bilingual School. Her hobbies include playing piano, dancing, and drama. Su hopes to be an actress in the future and wants to act in comedy because it makes people happy.

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Images: Pexels

Being stuck inside has never looked so good! Dive into this week’s collection fun family-friendly events from all over the world that you can attend virtually from right here in Beijing.

As always, click the link in the event title or scan the QR codes for further details and ticketing info.

Friday, Feb 5

Free Kids Collage Hour

Wind down on Friday evening with this free and creative collage session. Guided by British collage artist Jodie House, this session is being held during the British Children’s Mental Health Week and is designed to be relaxing and fun. Sing up, and you and your little ones will have a fun hour of cutting and pasting, and letting your creativity run free. No prior art skills are required at all, you’ll receive a packet of printable resources via email to prepare beforehand.

6.30pm Beijing time. Free

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Images: courtesy of the event organizers

We’re looking for talented young writers to come up with their own Beijing adaptation of classic fairy tales like “Beauty and The Beast,” “Cinderella,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Snow White,” “Goldilocks and The Three Bears,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” etc. Take the story plot from your favorite childhood fairy tale and adapt it to life here in Beijing.

Did the Little Mermaid live under Houhai Lake and fall in love with a visiting tourist? Maybe. Or perhaps Cinderella is fuerdai whose trust fund is under the control of her wicked stepmother.

The best story will be published in the March issue of beijingkids in a beautiful two-page spread along with eternal bragging rights.

To enter:

• Stories must be between 800 – 1200 words.
• Email your story to editor@beijing-kids.com along with your full name and age by 5pm on Feb 28, 2021. Late submissions will not be accepted.

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Images: Unsplash