Undying fame. A plug for your school. And most important of all: a big pizza party for you and your friends. Sound up your alley?

Then get your creative juices flowing and be the next big pizza box artist for Gung Ho! Pizza.

The Gungsters are launching a new kids’ menu on June 1 and to celebrate they are throwing a competition for students in Beijing to design their next pizza box.

Imagine the thrill you’ll experience when people all over Beijing receive their pizzas in boxes decorated with your own creative efforts (and your school’s logo). If that won’t get you into the MFA program at Yale, nothing will.

The contest has two two divisions: one for Under 12s and another for kids 12 to 18. One winner will be selected in each division, and their work will be used for Gung Ho’s Large and Medium pizza boxes for three months over the summer season beginning in late June or early July.

Gung Ho Marketing Manager Rich Akers is also hoping the art teachers of Beijing will help motivate their students to go for it. "If a talented student from your institution wins, we’d be happy to feature your logo on our box next to the winning design," he notes.

Some of the critical details:

The Theme: Summer in Beijing

The Colors: Black & Pink on white background

The Minimum Size: 20cm x 20cm

The Deadline: June 14, 2015

Pink and black are Gung Ho’s colors, hence the color limitations. It goes without saying that the design should be perfectly square so that it can be reproduced on square pizza boxes.

Artwork should be submitted to rich@gunghopizza.com.

Gung Ho has a long tradition of supporting local artists via its pizza boxes, as anyone who has ordered from one of their three locations knows.

Artists are handsomely credited on every box, so you’ll make your mark not just with your art but with your name and bio as well.

Here’s a few of the designs that have decorated pizza boxes in the past, to get your creative juices flowing:

 Images: Courtesy of Gung Ho! Pizza

Dulwich College students from England, South Korea, Singapore, and all over China have descended upon the college’s Beijing campus today for the inaugural Dulwich Olympiad Games.

A sports, music and arts event involving all eight Dulwich Schools across the world, the Olympiad runs through today and tomorrow on Dulwich’s campus and at the National Olympic Sports Center, where many of the sporting finals will play out.

The event is part of the Beijing campus’s 10th anniversary celebrations.

Several hundred students hailing from Dulwich schools in London, Seoul, Singapore, Suzhou, Shanghai and Zhuhai are all participating in the event.

“The Olympiad will be an opportunity for students to represent their schools in both sporting and cultural activities and compete against their peers from other colleges,” said Brian McDouall, Director of Schools for Dulwich College International.

The sporting events include competitions in swimming, athletics, table tennis, basketball and football.

One of the additional highlights of the event is a rugby friendly between Dulwich College London’s under-17 team vs. Scots College from New South Wales, Australia at 3 pm today on the Dulwich’s South Pitch.

Dulwich College London has a history of excellence in rugby, while Scots is one of the top teams in Sydney, so the match should be an exciting one.

For the music segment of the Olympiad, its more about collaboration than competition.

Students from different Dulwich schools will form a combined choir, orchestra and big band to play tonight at 7 pm in the school’s Wodehouse Theater.

Beijing is the first-ever host of the Dulwich Olympiad. The next will be hosted in London in 2019 and will be part of the 400th anniversary celebrations for the London school.

Calling all amateur filmmakers! Beijing City International School (BCIS) is hosting the fourth annual Flux Film Festival on Saturday, May 9 at the school’s main campus. The festival is still open to submissions from the wider community and the four-person judging panel has just been announced.

The event includes six categories: narrative film, documentary, animation, PSAs/commercials, music videos, and Sweded films. The latter refers to remakes of scenes from existing films. There are four age groups: elementary (K-G5), middle school (G6-8), high school (G9-12), and adults. The deadline for submissions is Friday, April 10.

The judges for this year’s festival are Popo Fan, Vicky Mohieddeen, Moxie Peng and Richard Widmer.

Popo Fan is an openly gay filmmaker, writer, and activist whose documentaries include The Good Days and Chinese Closet. A graduate of the Beijing Film Academy, he is also the director of the China Queer Film Festival Tour and the author of Happy Together: A Complete Record of One Hundred Queer Films.

Originally from Scotland, Vicky Mohieddeen is a filmmaker and video editor based in Beijing. Many of you may know her from Electric Shadows, the organization that screens free films on the Bookworm’s rooftop during the warmer months. She is currently the creative projects manager for Koryo Tours, a travel outfit specializing in North Korea. Mohieddeen’s latest project, Enter Pyongyang, has received 4 million views.

Moxie Peng is an independent filmmaker and scriptwriter whose works include Tiger Lily, From Me to We, and Micro Search. His films have been screened at events like the Queer Film Festival Beijing, Asian Cinema Week, and BarCamp Beijing. Currently, Peng produces TV commercials and is working on his next queer film, My 17 Gay Friends.

Richard Widmer is an American documentary filmmaker and artist whose diverse body of work explores artistic practice and cross-cultural narratives. His work has been screened all over the world (including the 2013 Venice Biennale). Widmer has also collaborated with and filmed many Chinese artists.

To find out more about the Flux Film Festival, check out our March issue or visit BCIS’ website. To enter a submission, click here. For more information, email flux@bcis.cn.

Photo: davidd (via Flickr)

If you’re looking for something indoors, fun, and free this weekend, pop over to China World’s Le Cool Ice Rink and watch kids from around China and Asia carve it up on the ice. Home to Skate Beijing 2014, this year Le Cool hosts 260 national and international competitors from Beijing, Hangzhou, Xiamen, Shenyang, Macau and Indonesia.

The opening ceremony starts today at 4pm, with competitive events from 5pm to 9pm tonight, 8.30am to 9pm on Saturday and 8.30am to 6pm on Sunday. Skills on display will include everything you’d expect plus some surprises; individual and paired dancing, rhythmic skating with hoop ball and ribbon, speed skating, hockey skills, and group synchronized dancing.

Keep an eye out for the youngest skater; Zhang Jing Han from the Le Cool team is is just 3 years old!

If watching all that activity gives you an appetite, there are plenty of restaurants and bakeries near the rink. China World Shopping mall houses options such as Malaysian restaurant Nyonya Kitchen, Fatburger and Paris Baguette.

Photos courtesy of http://kids.youth.cn/ and Le Cool Ice Rink.

The count down to Thanksgiving started sometime ago but as the day is fast approaching, it’s time to get all your recipes together for that dinner this Thursday. The beijinger has called upon Beijing residents to send them their unique Thanksgiving recipes and there is still as chance to win what’s in their goodie bag. Send them your recipe with an accompanying photo to thebeijingerphotos@gmail.com, and they’ll share them on their blog as well as us here at beijingkids. They will test some of the recipes and pick two winners who will receive a bottle of Grand Marnier to add for Thanksgiving.

They are also want to hear some of the Thanksgiving stories that you have to share.

This post has been modified and the original appeared on the beijinger site on November 15.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia commons

Do your kids have unusually good hand-eye coordination when it comes to rollerblading? Enter them in Beijing’s first rollerblading competition for kids, which takes place this Sunday, September 23 from 2-5pm at the University of International Business and Economics. Open to ages 3-6, the contest is divided into boys’ and girls’ events across two age groups (3-4 and 5-6).

Organized by Rollerblade China and Beijing University Sports’ Association’s Roller Skating Club, the competition is free to enter and features a number of prizes. All 160 participants will receive health insurance and complimentary souvenirs, such as a Roller Skating Cup t-shirt and key chain.

There are two types of races: The MINI Kids Urban Race (ages 5-6) and the Parent-Child Race (ages 3-4 with accompanying adult). The first prize is a pair of inline skates, with the first and second runner-ups receiving a helmet and protective equipment respectively.

1. MINI Kids Urban Race (Ages 5-6)

• This is an elimination race that takes participants through a simulated urban obstacle course. The 16 fastest participants move on to the next round, and the top three finalists are determined through head-to-head races.
• Skaters are allowed to have physical contact, but are forbidden from engaging in dangerous behavior like pulling or pushing, elbowing, and purposely crashing into others.
• All participants must wear a helmet and protective gear during the race.
  

2. Parent-Child Race (Ages 3-4)

• This timed race takes place in two stages. Each participating group includes five pairs of parents and children (one parent and one child). First, the kids must first race on foot to the end of a 30m track and back. Then, Mom or Dad helps them put on their rollerblades, and the kids repeat the process in skates. 
• Like the Kids Mini Urban Race, participants must wear a helmet and protective gear.

Registration
Participants must register at a participating rollerblading club. Here’s a handy list:

•  Beijing Tieqi: New Lufthansa Mall, 1 Yuanda Lu, Haidian District (Li Xuemei: 189 1057 0169)
• Beijing Feisu: Fangzhuang Sports Park, Fengtai District (Yuan Ji: 136 7122 3236)
• Beijing Fengxingzhe: Longtanhu Park, Dongcheng District (Zhang Tao: 136 1117 9831)
• Beijing Benben: Shifoying, Chaoyang District (Dong Shuyong: 139 1091 8069)
• RB Financial Street: Jinrongjie Square, Xicheng District (Zhang Rong: 137 0118 6427)
• RB Huilongguan: Huilongguan Sports Park, Changping District (Jia Guilu: 136 0121 1626)
• RB Wangjing: Longze Xiyuan, Wangjing, Chaoyang District (Ma Caihong: 135 1100 8251)
• RB Bird’s Nest: Bird’s Nest, Olympic Village, Chaoyang District (Mo Liyu: 139 1162 0561)

Though the competition is open to everyone, you’ll probably have an easier time registering and participating if you have a good grasp of Chinese. Good luck!

For more information, call the Organizing Committee at 5900 1245 ext 297/9 or email Lisa Liang at lisa.liang@technicagroup.cn. Stay informed by following Rollerblade China’s Weibo page.

Photo by Joseph A Ferris III via Flickr

Ice skating in April? Why yes! This weekend, skating fans can look forward to the Seventh Skate Beijing 2012 (April 6-8) at Le Cool in China World Trade Center. According to the organizers, the event is poised to become one of the biggest ice skating competitions in China.

Categories include:

•    Individual events: Delta Solo, Stroking, Freestyle, Open Freestyle, Artistic Solo, Footwork
•    Partnered events: Couples Spotlight, Couples 1-10, Jump and Spin Team
•    Group and team events: Family Spotlight, Freestyle Synchro Team, Kaleidoskate Team, Pattern Skating
•    Hockey: Figures, Interpretive, Solo Compulsories 1-10, Rhythmic Skating 1-10, Solo Spotlight, Solo Surprise, Speed Racing
•    Ice dancing events: Free Dance 1-10, Solo Dance 1-10, Partner Dance 1-10
•    Production team: Synchronized Compulsories, Synchronized Team, Team Compulsories, Team Surprise

Note: The numbers “1-10” refer to various skill levels.

Around Le Cool, on the B1 floor of China World Shopping mall, there are a wide range of restaurants and bakeries such as Nyonya Kitehen, Fatburger and Paris Baguette for you and your little ones before and after enjoying watching the competition.

Photo courtesy of beijingkids.