Eno and Bean Stone-Banks

American. Born on July 22
to Wei Yan and Blake Stone-Banks
at Beijing University #1 Birth and Infant Hospital

Kai Tasi Mar

America. Born on February 2
to Jade Choung and Aaron Mar
at Beijing United Family Hospital

Maxime Jingxuan Brend

Chinese/British. Born on July 22
to Tiffany Liu and Adrian Brend
at Amcare Women’s and Children’s Hospital

Leah Zhou

Canadian. Born on June 18, 2018
to Lillian Dong and Kevin Zhong
at Amcare Women’s and Children’s Hospital

Hanzhi Wang

Chinese. Born on April 12, 2018
to Ting and QiWang
at Peking University People’s Hospital

This article appeared in the beijingkids September 2019 Family Foodies issue

Photo Credits: provided by parents 

A new school year means a fresh start – and the beijingkids parent board member is no exception. If you’re a parent, passionate about parenting or education topics, plugged into Beijing’s family scene, and eager to make your opinions heard, we want you for the board! Read on for requirements.

The beijingkids parent board meets once a month after the magazine comes out. We, the editors, take you out for a nice lunch and you, the parent board, tell us how we did on the latest issue. The meetings take place on a Friday during the first half of the month and run from 11.30am to around 1.30pm.

What’s in it for you? Why, let me tell you:

• Publicity for yourself and your business: Your name, contact, and place of business will be listed in our magazine and website (if desired) as part of our parent board, to be seen by all our readers.
• Influence: Your input will directly influence the content and the direction of the magazine.
• Connections: Serving on the board gets you face time and get-to-know-you opportunities with other board members.
• Freebies: A free subscription to beijingkids magazine and a free lunch every month for the board meeting

There are just a few simple rules:

• You can’t miss more than three (3) meetings in a calendar year.
• You can’t miss two (2) meetings in a row.
• You must arrive on time to meetings.
• You must come to meetings prepared; most members bring their own tagged and annotated copy of the magazine.

If you’re interested in checking out or joining the board, please email sijiachen [at]beijing-kids [dot]com.

Your intro should include your name, nationality, number of years in Beijing, what you do, and how many kids you have (as well as their ages and schools).

Photo: nosha (Flickr)

The Beijinger Burger Cup is back, and it’s bigger and beefier than ever. We’re shaking it up for 2014 with a slightly new format – instead of a cook off for the finalists, we are hosting a huge Burger Festival Launch Party to kick off this year’s competition.

Join us on Saturday, August 23 at Tube Station Pizza in Lido for Beijing’s biggest ever burger festival. 15 of your favorite local burger vendors (see below), including The Local, Alibi, The Vineyard, Great Leap Brewing and Home Plate Bar-B-Que, will be peddling their wares to up your burger-related excitement before voting for the final 64 burger venues starts. Duvel, Vandergeeten, Great Leap, and Panda Brew will be on hand selling drinks of the alcoholic and non-alcoholic variety should you need something to wash it all down with.

Date: Saturday, August 23, 2014
Time: 11am-8pm
Venue: Tube Station Pizza, Lido (6 FangYuan Xilu, Chaoyang District, near the west corner of Lido Park)
Entrance: Free, burgers available for purchase individually

Voting will go live on Monday, August 25 but until then, stay tuned for Burger Wars (having started yesterday on thebeijinger.com), where we pit some of the Capital’s top burgers against each other.

To get a taste for this year’s competition check out who made it into 2013’s top eight here.

List of confirmed Burger Festival vendors:
Alibi
Beer Mania
Blue Frog
Burger Bar
Duvel
El Gran Bocado
Great Leap Brewing
Home Plate Bar-B-Que
Langham Hotel
Lily’s American Diner
Luga’s Villa
New World Hotel
Paddy O’Shea’s
Panda Brew
Penta Hotel
Q Mex
The Local
VDG
Vineyard
Windy City

This post first appeared on thebeijinger.com on July 21, 2014.

Photo: The Beijinger

Chi Fan For Charity (CFFC), the annual city-wide fundraising feast, is looking for table hosts and volunteers, as it begins to assemble its vast list of restaurants and participants for its 2014 event, scheduled for November 8.

With almost 60 restaurants participating in 2013, and at least that many likely for 2014, the organization is seeking community-minded people with a sense of fun and hospitality to take responsibility for individual tables, communicate with the designated restaurant, and if possible, invite friends to join while ensuring everyone has a good time.

CFFC is also seeking volunteers to assist with coordinating the event’s silent auction, which attracts numerous prizes that are usually gathered into high-value, experiential packages. All proceeds from the night’s dinners, the silent auction, and other activities all benefit the year’s designated charity recipients.

The 2014 charity beneficiaries for Beijing will be Morning Tears and the United Foundation for China’s Health (UFCH).

Founded in China in 1998, Morning Tears is an international non-profit organization who stands up for children of convicts through raising awareness of the issues surrounding such children and capacity building. Morning Tears is a non-political, non-profit and non-religious organization.

UFCH is an organization of caring people committed to doing our very best to improve access to healthcare for these children. UFCH state that "receiving the needed medical care not only saves that child’s life, but also gives her a real chance at a future," and they should know, having been in this field for nine years.

To date, Chi Fan For Charity has raised about RMB 3.2 million for various charity recipients, mostly through its eat, drink, and be merry events. In 2014, the model will again be extended to two other cities with Chi Fan For Charity events in Shanghai on November 15 and Hong Kong on November 22.

For more information on becoming a table host, volunteering, or donating to the silent auction, visit the CFFC website for Beijing here.

This post first appeared on thebeijinger.com on Jul 3, 2014.

Photo courtesy of the Beijinger

Hope you thought to take a brolly with you when you left for work this morning: Beijing City Government have issued a storm warning by text informing citizens that they can expect a downpour to be on us anytime through this afternoon into tonight.

These informative mass textings are usually issued when authorities are pretty confident of imminent danger to citizens especially in light of the deadly 2012 storm.

Of course, Beijing is massive and the storm might pass your hood by, but if the skies bruise quickly and the sweetly chirping birds fall silent where you are, it might be best to consider hauling it along to the subway station or out for a taxi before the rain lands.

And minus the death part, spend some time reading why rain in Beijing is a good thing.

This post first appeared on thebeijinger.com on Jul 1, 2014.

Photos courtesy of thebeijinger.com

Guess what falls on Sunday, June 15? That’s right – Father’s Day. It occurred to us that we’ve never done a dad-centric issue before, so we’re setting the record straight with the June 2014 issue of beijingkids. We talk to four expat dads about parenting in Beijing, investigate the growing phenomenon of long-distance families, interview fathers and sons who bond through sports, and complete our first-ever dad makeover.

Since it’s June, this issue is also chock-full of summer content. We’ve got family-friendly bike itineraries (Hegezhuang, Houhai, and Tsinghua/Beida), a roundup of al fresco dining spots and the city’s best fountains for outdoor play, and an a story about camping on the Great Wall.

This month, columnists Melissa Rodriguez and Dr. Richard Saint Cyr share a cooling recipe for peach nectar and write about the health benefits of fatherhood respectively. In addition, Christopher Lay reflects on lessons from his own dad and Ember Swift realizes that post-partum troubles affect men too.

In Dining, French mom Isabelle Justo shares a cooling recipe for cold avocado soup and we review delicious Korean fried chicken at Chicken Suutak’s.

Also in June, 10-year-old Ella Smith from Daystar Academy writes about her class visit to Shepherd’s Field Children’s Village and Kyle Mullin looks into the benefits of infant massage.

Over a year ago, we spoke to Elisabeth Koch about sending her daughter Bernadette to a local kindergarten. Well, now she’s switched her back to an international school; find out why in the latest issue.

As always, find kid-friendly events and search our Directories for anything and everything you’ll need in Beijing.

Can’t find the print edition? Send an email to distribution@beijing-kids.com or call 5820 7700. You can also check out the PDF version online at Issuu.

If you’re worried about the effect of air pollution on your family, can’t make head or tails of Shunyi and Shuangjing, or don’t know the first thing about setting up utilities, don’t worry – that’s where the beijingkids Home & Relocation Guide comes in.

If you’re new to Beijing, the city can be scary and a bit overwhelming once the initial excitement wears off. Don’t worry; this feeling will pass. This city is full of adventures and opportunities, but you’ll need to find solid ground first.

The annual Home & Relocation Guide contains a wealth of information for newcomers, with articles about:

• Picking a school (for more on that, check out the beijingkids School Choice Guide)
• Undergoing the standard health inspection for foreigners
• Using a local Chinese hospital
• Weighing your neighborhood options
• Getting your driver’s license
• Riding the city bus and purchasing long-distance train tickets
• Relocating with pets
• Making your house feel like a home
• Navigating Chinese etiquette rules
• Choosing a relocation company
• Protecting your family against air pollution
• And much, much more!

Free copies are available at hundreds of distribution points around Beijing. If you’re having trouble finding an issue, email our Distribution team at distribution@truerun.com or view it online at Issuu. In addition, the articles will be reposted on our website throughout the month of June.

Madame Tussauds will open its 16th signature wax museum worldwide and fourth location in China in Qianmen on May 31, Chinese media reported Thursday.

Located at 8 Qianmen Jie, about 200-250 meters south of the Qianmen subway station, Madame Tussauds’ Beijing location will feature both Chinese and foreign figures, including historical figures, movie and music stars, including Beijing rocker Cui Jian, and sports celebrities.

Owner and operator Merlin Entertainments gave Beijingers a preview in January with statues of Leonardo Dicaprio and Johnny Depp standing in front of the future Madame Tussauds’ site. Based on promotional photos on the Beijing location’s website, visitors can also expect to see Michael Jackson, Rihanna, Jackie Chan, Albert Einstein, Fan Bingbing, Kate Winslet, and Yao Ming appearing as wickless candles.

The Beijing site is being built in partnership with property developer SOHO China. “Merlin is one of the world’s most successful and biggest visitor attraction operators and we are delighted to be working with them to bring one of their best known and loved global brands, Madame Tussauds, to Beijing. It will bring a new dimension and international flavor to the Qianmen and Beijing, and we look forward to working with Merlin on more projects in the future," said Pan Shiyi, chairman of SOHO China, and one of the Beijinger‘s 20 Most Interesting People in 2013. No word yet on whether Pan, also a popular blogger, will get waxed.

Based in the UK, Merlin Entertainments has announced its intention not only to expand the Madame Tussauds brand in China but also to bring or expand its other brands here, including Sea Life marine parks and Legoland Discovery Centers.

Tickets are RMB 170 for adults, RMB 120 for full-time students with ID, and RMB 110 for children (up to 1.3 meters) and seniors (65 and over). Advanced bookings can be made by phone.

This post first appeared in thebeijinger.com on May 22, 2014.

Photo courtesy of thebeijinger.com via China Daily

We love invitations to events and we receive our share of ones that occasionally seem strange, but we were intrigued by the one we got from The Opposite House Tuesday afternoon.

"May The Force Be With You – The Opposite House Presents Star Wars International Day," reads the subject line. The Sanlitun Swire venue will hold two separate events on Saturday, May 3: one at Village Cafe from 4:30-6pm, to launch its new kids’ menu and provide photo opportunities with Darth Vader, Stormtroopers, and Rebels.

Star Wars Day is actually celebrated on May 4 ("May the Fourth" is a semi-pun supposed to sound like "May the Force"), but since our goofy holiday schedule mandates everyone back to work as punishment for having International Labor Day off, May 3 somehow makes more sense. This is actually the second year in a row The Opposite House is holding Skywalker-themed events.

Insert your Star Wars cliche here.

More straightforward, Home Plate Bar-B-Que is having a Kentucky Derby party on Saturday, the day of the race’s running, except it’s 12 hours before the actual event starts in the US. No matter, there will still be mint juleps and Kentucky Ale beers for RMB 30 each. And they’re off!

This post first appeared on thebeijinger.com on April 30, 2014 and has been slightly modified.

Photo courtesy of OnePlusInfinity via thebeijinger.com