Images: Chinanews.com, The Beijingers

With Didi and express courier (aka kuaidi) services to Shunyi suspended for several weeks due to an outbreak of COVID-19 cases in the district, residents are getting used to life without them – and in many cases realizing how dependent they have become on them.

PR representatives from Didi and several courier companies contacted by beijingkids on Monday afternoon stated that they are following the orders of city government officials in charge of epidemic prevention and control and, as yet, have been given no timeline for the restoration of normal services. Asked to speculate, one courier company said that they don’t expect full service to resume until after the Chinese New Year holiday in mid-February. Residents in the district have said that while Didi is an absolute no-go, some packages have managed to get through despite the restrictions.

The Shunyi cluster sprang up in late December, and at its peak resulted in seven neighborhoods – all north and northeast of Beijing Capital International Airport – being declared “medium risk” areas. Since that time, the risk level of all but two of those areas has been returned to the baseline low-risk level.

Over the past month or so, Shunyi residents have gone through multiple rounds of mass testing to weed out any cases that were flying under the radar, with some compounds being put under closed management for short periods of time before test results were returned. Residents have also been advised to curtail unnecessary trips outside the district.

While local deliveries from supermarkets and restaurants within the district are still available, most items from outside the district are not. In addition, many housing estates have requested that all packages be left at the main gate, which has produced grumbles from some living in the often massive complexes, especially since it is winter to boot.

Some have questioned why such drastic measures remain in place in the district overall, especially compared to Daxing district, where a new outbreak has caused a cessation of services only to the affected neighborhoods and not to the district overall.

Nevertheless, residents of Shunyi are adjusting to life in the district, finding themselves getting more familiar with bus and subway transport (which remains unaffected), and walking and biking more than usual. Others have formed carpools with private drivers and had their courier packages delivered to their office downtown to take back home.

Tracy Blacklock, a teacher who lives and works in Shunyi, has gotten accustomed to biking 6km each way to work in the winter, grappling with sub-zero temperatures. “Once it was -13℃ and not very fun … but it means I get fit,” she said.

Biking at night has also been nerve-wracking for Blacklock, but tough times call for innovative solutions: “My [bike]  lights broke, so at one point I wrapped Christmas tree lights around me to stay safe.”

KEEP READING: Stories From Shunyi’s Pop Up Nucleic Acid Testing Centers

Photos: Pexels

Ah, the Chinese New Year holiday… The week where business in China seems to come to a halt and the annual homeward bound migration takes place all over the country. This holiday used to mean that you need to stock on groceries because all your local shops will be closed, but not anymore. Most larger supermarkets will be open, and there’s always the food delivery apps that are working overtime.

While it’s time for China’s largest annual travel, COVID-19 has put a major damper on things and many are choosing to stay put even though it means not seeing their families for the holiday.

For those with full-time live in ayis, Chinese New Year can be a challenging time each year. Not only are you left to manage home and family on your own for a week, but there’s also always the question of whether your ayi will actually return after the CNY holiday. While it seems like a no-brainer that you should return to work after a long 10 day holiday, there are ayis who will choose to resign during CNY after receiving their holiday hongbao to spend more time with their families in their hometown, since in past years it’s never been difficult to find new employment after returning to Beijing.

This year, however, there are ayis who are choosing to stay in Beijing rather than make the trip home due to COVID-19. So what do you do when ayi chooses to stay at your home but isn’t working?

In China, if an employee is working during the public holiday they’re paid three times their normal salary. But if you didn’t ask ayi to stay and she’s not expected to work during CNY, are you expected to still pay her? No.

Recently a friend told me her live-in ayi has been foregoing going home on her weekly day off to avoid coming into contact with anyone with COVID-19. To make ayi feel more comfortable, she and her husband have been taking their newborn daughter out during the day to let their ayi stay home with some peace and quiet. While that might work for weekly day trips, it’s not a solution for the cold, 10-day CNY holiday.

If your live-in ayi wants to stay and work during CNY, what are your options?

Double or Triple Pay

If money isn’t an issue then you can work out either paying ayi double or triple her regular salary to stay and work during CNY. Note: The holiday hongbao shouldn’t be included. That’s their annual bonus and should be paid separately. Check out our blog on how much to pay for the different types of ayis.

Double Time Off

If ayi prefers to stay and work during CNY she can trade her working days for double the number of days off to be taken later when it’s safer to travel.

Partial Working Days

Ayi can rest for three (or whatever number you both decide on) days with regular pay and keep working the remainder of the holiday.

Obviously, you’re not going to let your hourly ayi stay at your home to avoid traveling during CNY. But if your live-in ayi is from somewhere that’s considered high risk and she’s choosing to stay in Beijing rather than return home, appreciate the fact that she’s putting health and safety first and make the most of your time together during the CNY holiday.

Since most people with live-in ayis have children at home, it could be a great time for the kids to learn more about ayi’s hometown and the unique holiday traditions that she grew up with. There’s no need to make it awkward and avoid the house just because ayi is there on her day off. The live-in ayi employee/employer relationship is different than that of a normal nine-to-five job. Ayi is involved in almost every aspect of your life here and becoming friends with your ayi makes communicating that much more natural and your time together more fun and educational.

KEEP READING: Are You Paying Your Ayi Enough? the Results of Our Survey Are In

Images: Pexels

The latest cases of COVID-19 have put Beijing’s schools back on high alert. Last winter when COVID-19 first became a global pandemic beijingkids kept a daily updated blog of news and regulations happening around the city as they developed. We hope this time the cases will be contained and life resumes back to normal in 2021.

At the moment, international schools that aren’t located in or near the medium risk areas of Shunyi are planning to resume classes as scheduled after the new year. Schools located in or near the medium-risk areas of Shunyi have been required to close.

For the schools that are planning to reopen as scheduled, testing is highly recommended but not required for all international schools. International School of Beijing issued a letter to parents requiring that all students, teachers, staff, and contracted staff to provide a negative COVID-19 test taken within Beijing dated no earlier than Dec 24 in order to enter the campus. Other schools have informed parents to complete the mandatory government survey but have not issued any mandatory requirements for mass testing as a community, through the school recommends that all students and family should proactively schedule a test.

Winter camps have also been interrupted by the latest cases. Those with field trip plans have begun contacting parents regarding cancellations.

At the moment, while families are enjoying the holiday break, we recommend avoiding large group gatherings and traveling. While it’s not mandatory to get tested, we highly urge the Beijing community to do so as a preventative measure. The full list of hospitals where you can get tested for COVID-19 can be found on the Beijinger.

At yesterday’s (Dec 27) press conference a spokesperson for the Beijing Municipal Government reminded the public that all districts in Beijing have entered a state of emergency and have adopted stricter measures in order to prevent the spread of the recent sporadic cases.

We’ll keep you updated on the latest school-related news as they come in. Don’t panic. We, as a city and a community, been through this before and we’re better prepared this time. Life will be back to normal in no time.

KEEP READING:  Updates: The Latest in Beijing School News 

Images: pexels

Last December we polled Beijingers and asked the big holiday question, “when did you stop believing in Santa?”

Looking at last year’s poll results, a shocking number of Beijingers still believe in the big man in red; and to them, I tip my fluffy winter hat.

Santa’s getting ready for his annual trip

It’s time for the big man in red to get ready for his annual trip around the world again.

Sticking to the traditional story of how Santa visits every kid around the world in one night is already hard but since most of us here live in apartments without chimneys, it’s always fun explaining to a kid how Santa travels to every compound and visits every child without waking up the yappy teddy dogs.

Now this year, the kids are going to have more questions than ever about Santa’s travel logistics. They’ve been dealing with COVID-19 for a year now and for most kids, travel restriction is going to come up eventually. Is Santa exempt from the travel ban?

If you’re keeping it (somewhat) real with the kids you can always quote Dr. Anthony Fauci who told USA Today “Santa is exempt from [COVID-19] because Santa, of all the good qualities, has a lot of good innate immunity. Santa is not going to be spreading any infections to anybody.”

Or, if you’re going with the holiday magic route, we’ve got a few suggestions on how to explain Santa’s visit amidst what is hopefully the end of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

Elves
Santa may send his elves to deliver the gifts this year, and as you know, elves are magic and can’t get COVID-19.

Self-Isolation
Santa lives in the North Pole and he hasn’t had any visitors all year. He’s been self-isolating and has not been infected with the virus.

Zero Contact Delivery
Santa delivers the presents after everyone’s gone to bed. He doesn’t actually come in contact with anyone in the house.

So this year, instead of leaving milk and cookies out for Santa, leave out a mask and a little bottle of hand sanitizer and call it a night. Santa’s not going to deliver the presents until everyone is in bed, so use it as a good excuse to send the little ones off to bed early.

KEEP READING: When Did You Stop Believing in Santa?

It makes sense and didn’t come as a surprise: parents aren’t allowed on campus to watch the holiday shows this year. I assume it will be the same for Lunar New Year performances. Even older year groups, such as WAB’s Dance and Drama performances, are live-streaming and not allowing anyone outside of the school’s students and staff to attend.

I know that many of us are grateful that our kids can have a performance at all. In so many of our home countries right now, families still need to balance their work schedules with virtual school or weigh the risk of sending their preschooler to a smaller classroom with how much they trust the other parents. Giving up the ability to be in the audience of a child’s live performance is a small sacrifice, but it is something to consider so we know how to make the best of it.

As I sat at my desk watching the WAB Dance shows on Thursday, I wondered how it would feel to be a teenager and know that I wouldn’t be greeted with flowers and a hug by my parents after such an accomplishment? How do my friends, who would normally have been as close to the front as they could to watch their little babies blossom into elegant dancers, feel at this moment knowing how hard they worked after school and in their bedrooms to get the moves just right, timing perfected, and also worked tightly as an ensemble?

My husband and I experienced it ourselves today. We’d spent a good bit of time explaining to our kids, especially our youngest, why we couldn’t be there. Our four-year-old didn’t quite understand what a live stream is, so we told them it’s like we have a private YouTube channel that’s just for the parents of their classmates, and that lit up their faces! We checked with them in the morning before the bus and they did seem to understand.

And so it was that on a day we would normally spend the morning as a couple, proud parents of a small child singing his little heart out to spread the “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer” story around, waving at him from the audience against all our theater etiquette (for me at least), we watched separately from our respective desks at work. It was normal for us to have our WeChat conversations on the side, but a new kind of bonding happened that I wasn’t really expecting.

During the performances, the school’s parent WeChat groups lit up with praise. Instead of trying to whisper or give friends a thumbs up in the audience when their kid’s class was up, we could chat together. We assured each other when the live stream paused that it wasn’t just on their end, it was for everyone, and we took a moment to enjoy all the little cuteness that kids aged two to five singing and dancing completely out of sync but absolutely enjoying themselves could bring. Friends sent private messages to say how well each other’s kids did and share a bit of community joy for the bravery and resilience of these little creatures who’ve been through so much this last year and are able to end it singing bravely with their peers.

My husband shared the joy with his co-workers and I cried quietly into my headphones, wishing I could see their sweet and happy faces in person instead of through pixels, but so, so happy that we are all able to share the joy of song in our communities. It’s been a bear of a year, and if live streams are still how we must celebrate amidst precautions, then I think next time we’ll have a little viewing party, either in our homes or offices.

KEEP READING: Gratitude Journal 2020: “It Wasn’t the Pregnancy I’d Imagined”

Photos: Unsplash

Perhaps the greatest news since the announcement of schools reopening was announced yesterday afternoon. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an announcement that effective as of Monday, Sep 29 at midnight foreign nationals holding valid Chinese residence permits for work, personal matters, and reunions will be allowed to enter China again without needing to reapply for a new visa.

This announcement stressed that this currently only applies to foreign nationals in these three categories with valid visas. If your visa expired after Mar 28, then you’d need to reapply for the relevant visa at the Chinese embassy or consulate nearest to you.

It should be noted that although the announcement states the travel restrictions have drastically lifted, the COVID-19 prevention and control measures in China have not changed.

Prior to your return to China, you’ll need to obtain a negative COVID-19 test. Each country’s Chinese consulate official website will have the details on how much in advance to take the test for and how to submit documents. Chinese citizens upload their tests to an app whereas non-Chinese citizens will need a paper health declaration form stamped by the consulate. Scan the QR code below for the most recent list of 157 countries where China-bound passengers are required to obtain a negative COVID-19 test result prior to boarding. The list may be updated without notice so we recommend double-checking before you book your flight.

Upon return to China you’ll still need to complete your mandatory quarantine and depending on which city you’re returning to, abide by the regulations of that city as well. In Beijing, the rule is still 14 days of quarantine in a designated hotel followed by seven days at home with limited movement depending on the regulations of your residential community here in Beijing. While some compounds are more relaxed about COVID-19 measures, other are still insisting that its residents get their temperature taken twice a day during their first seven days back as well as present a negative COVID-19 test when they check out of their quarantine home and after their seven day home quarantine is complete.

KEEP READING: The New Normal: Life Abroad During COVID-19

Images: Unsplash

The day that school finished for Chinese New Year, I left Beijing to visit my mother, who works as a journalist abroad in Israel.

Back in January, Coronavirus was but a distant disease to us Beijingers. The only thing that changed was a couple of people at the airport were wearing masks, so I decided to put one on too. When I arrived in Jerusalem, the original plan was to stay for a week and head back right before school resumes. I had lived there with her for two years before returning to my hometown so I already know the city well but little did I know, half a year later I would still be stranded in the Middle East, over 7,000 kilometers away from home.

A couple of days after my arrival, I tagged along to my mom’s dentist appointment and the dentist mentioned that her niece and nephew in Shanghai would be having a two-week extension to their Chinese New Year holiday. It was the first time that the possibility that I might be staying longer than expected crossed my mind, and naturally, I was thrilled, hoping my school would announce the same.

My school officially switched to online learning on Feb 3 and at first, it felt like a breeze. There was no more struggling to wake up at 7am and squeezing onto the subway, and I had all the time in the world to complete assignments. Life couldn’t get any better…until Zoom classes kicked in. Between China and Israel, there’s a 5-hour time difference. All our Zoom classes were held in the morning, meaning that I had to wake up in the middle of the night. The first couple of weeks, I mostly told teachers I couldn’t make it or simply slept right through my alarm. But as time went by, Zoom seemed less of a burden to me, but more like the closest thing I had to normality. I settled into a routine of waking up at 4am, packing up my notebooks, and heading out to sites around Jerusalem to take my classes. Sometimes it was at parks and hills, other times it was neighborhood playgrounds and empty amphitheaters. My teachers in Beijing started to say that when I turned my mic on it always sounded like I was in a tropical rainforest.

By early March, the inevitable happened: COVID-19 reached Israel. At first, there were only a handful of cases, but that number quickly doubled, tripled, quadrupled, and skyrocketed as the months progressed. With the whole country’s population barely reaching half of Beijing’s, I was shocked to find the number of daily new cases in the hundreds. We went into quarantine and lockdown, wearing masks in public became mandatory, shops and schools shut down, and gatherings were strictly prohibited. It felt like a time machine had taken us into the past and we were undergoing exactly what my friends in Beijing described months earlier.

And amidst the lockdown, my travel visa was expiring fast. I was only permitted to stay in Isreal for three months, so we headed to the Population and Immigration Authority to renew it. While waiting in line, we came across another Chinese family facing the same issue: the mother explained to us how her daughter and parents intended to stay with them for Chinese New Year but were now stranded. This gave me a small sense of security, reassurance that I was not alone.

In early May, restrictions were lifted and life temporarily went back to the way it was before. New cases dropped down to two-digit numbers and the nation of fun-loving citizens celebrated their success. I went on road trips, hung out with friends, performed at music venues, and basically got to make up for the two months I’d spent at home. Whilst observing social distancing, I initiated a garbage-collecting group and organized weekly cleanups. I also volunteered to pack food and masks for those in need, in hopes of making good use of my time here. It felt like the pandemic was over for us, but in truth, it was merely the calm before the storm.

As June approached, new cases broke into the hundreds again. It became evident that restrictions had been lifted too early and schools had opened too swiftly. A local high school just down the street from my house became a new epicenter, and in the span of a few days, 200 students and teachers from the school had tested positive. Yet the people in my neighborhood went about life as usual. Another lockdown didn’t seem to be on the table, even with daily new cases surpassing the one-thousand milestone.

Around that time, a second wave hit Beijing as well, and I was completely awestruck to hear the city had everything under control within a matter of weeks. Scores of people were tested, schools closed, and people willingly socially distanced. Meanwhile, here in Israel, there still aren’t sufficient testing supplies, schools are still open for end-of-year exams, and convincing citizens to put on a mask is practically impossible. Currently, the total cases stand at around 60,000 and the daily new cases is at an all-time high of 2,000.

Looking back at this surreal journey, I remember the homesickness, and how hard it was watching my grade celebrate the end of the year without me. I remember the fear, and feeling terrified that flights won’t be resumed in the near future. But most of all, I remember I’m not the only one. Thousands of students have been stranded across the globe. I have no idea when I can step foot in Beijing again, but what I do know is that I can live in the moment and play my small part in bringing this pandemic to a halt.

KEEP READING: “‘Corona!’, But I Held My Head High” 

Qinglan Du is a 16-year-old student from Beijing City International School. She’s originally from Beijing but is currently living in Jerusalem with her mother due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Aside from her passion for writing, she enjoys singing, spending time with friends and family, and experiencing new cultures.

Photos: Qinglan Du

This article appeared in the beijingkids 2020 August issue