Well thank god: someone’s finally got it together to create an English-language cinema booking site.

While Chinese-language online booking systems have proliferated recently (you can even buy cinema tickets now via the Baidu Maps function on an iPhone), they’re a real pain to use for those that cannot read Chinese.

247cinema, which started up in October of last year, boasts an all-English interface and accepts payments by major credit cards, PayPal, and UnionPay.

Bookings can be made for over 50 cinemas in Beijing, including the Jackie Chan International, Jinyi, Broadway, Poly International, Huayi Brothers and Bona cinema chains.

Registration is easy and the site is simple and straightforward, and even lets you choose your seats for the showing.

But even if you have no intention of booking your tickets online, the site is a boon for movie lovers because it lists the language that every film is shown in.

No such comprehensive list is currently compiled anywhere in English, and knowing this is of critical importance as many cinemas show two versions of the same foreign film: one dubbed into Chinese and one in the original language.

The site unfortunately does not list the subtitles that are featured on each film. All films shown in Beijing are subtitled in Chinese; some Chinese films, particularly those from Hong Kong, often have English as well, allowing non-Chinese speakers to enjoy them.

Not all Beijing movie theaters are in 247cinema’s system yet — prominent among the missing are the Wanda, UME and Megabox chains — but organizers are adding new ones all the time (they expect to get UME up in a few weeks).

Some of the Beijing cinemas already on the site include Imax Joy City Chaoyang; Purple Light Movieland in Chaoyangmen; Huayi Brothers Cinema in Wangjing; Chaoyang Cinemas on the East Third Ring; the Bona Cinema in U-Town; and the OSGH Cinema in Phoenix Town.

Bookings can be made for the current day and the next day or two, depending on the cinema.

Once you purchase your ticket online, a code is sent to your phone and email. Most cinemas in the network have a ticket-printing machine on site. Type the code into the machine and your tickets will be printed.

In the event the cinema where you made the booking does not have a ticket-printing machine, the system informs you of this via email and text.

There are some limitations on the site. For instance, there is no ability to search films by cinema: If you want to see what’s playing at your local cineplex, you’re out of luck — cinemas are listed, but the site does not list the films currently showing there. Operators of the site say a version 2.0 will be out soon that will address this problem.

Now if we could just convince Taobao, Didi Dache and JD.com to come up with English interfaces …

This post first appeared on thebeijinger.com on May 28, 2014.

Image: 247cinema

A trip to a museum is one of parenting’s great gambles. Choose unwisely and your child will find themselves in the throes of unquenchable boredom. No kid wants to spend their Saturday in the presence of verbose audio guides, wordy displays and the hollow silence that unfolds as middle-aged museum-goers stroll around with their hands held behind their backs.

But find somewhere with bold displays and interactive content and suddenly they can’t get enough. What’s more, when children are learning and having fun, they tend to think they’re just doing the latter.

I know only too well. As a dinosaur-obsessed child, seeing the 32m-long cast of a diplodocus skeleton standing guard in the main hall of London’s Natural History Museum was enough to make me feel like I wasn’t learning at all. But then I also remember a grueling trip to an exhibition featuring different types of garden gate, from which I absorbed absolutely no information about horticultural fittings.

So if you want to get your kids excited about learning this weekend, here’s our choice of some child-friendly museums with that little something extra.

Chinese Aviation Museum
It may lie quite far from the city, but the Aviation Museum needs all the space it can get to host Asia’s largest display of aircraft. The English signs aren’t too extensive but the mainly military collection flies you through the history of 20th Century China, with specimens from the 1940s through to modern airliner production.  Would-be pilots can also take a seat in a fighter jet and kids are bound to enjoy the flight simulator and a play area with an “anti-aircraft artillery” theme.

A slightly closer option is the Military Museum in Haidian. While it may have far fewer planes, it certainly makes up for them with tanks, boats and other military gear.

Beijing Natural History Museum
Not all of the exhibitions at the Beijing Natural History Museum are worth visiting and some of the displays are a little run-down. But there is one reason why kids will love this place – dinosaurs. As well as your usual array of life-sized replicas you can also find some bona fide fossils, including a 26m-long Mamenchisaurus jingyanebsis, the fabled Tyrannosaurus rex and a Lunfengosaurus, the first dinosaur to be found in China.

Then move forward in time, past the (frankly scary-looking) taxidermy and towards the 4D cinema where you can see educational films from moving seats (the fourth dimension, apparently). Call in advance to book tickets for screenings.

One small warning: Unless your kids enjoy gore and have a sturdy stomach, it’s probably best to avoid the exhibitions featuring human body parts in jars.

Magic Bean House Children’s Museum
The Magic Bean House treads the line between fun and education perfectly. A museum in one sense and a play center in another, this is hands-on learning for younger children. What better way to explore planetary orbits than using toy balls in the interactive solar system? Why grapple with the basics of physics in a notepad when you can take it to the water play area? There are also plenty of opportunities to develop social skills and practice role-playing at the miniature supermarket and mechanic’s garage.

China National Science and Technology Museum
Sadly, this is another example of a Beijing museum that’s suffered from neglect over the years, as a number of the displays are prone to not working at any given time. Nonetheless, given the Science and Technology Museum’s size there will still plenty to keep the kids entertained, with interactive displays throughout the main exhibitions bringing concepts such as gravity and electricity to life.

The museum is arguably better for inquisitive youngsters than adult science enthusiasts and a visit will see kids working with water pulley systems, marveling at future technologies and making human-sized bubbles.

Photos from Wikimedia Commons and The Magic Bean House