Fangcaodi – Beijing Kids

Neighborhood Watch: Central Business District (CBD) And Shuangjing (北京商务中心, 双井)

Pennywu — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 05:00:32 +0000

Beijing consists of 16 districts containing over 21 million people. In this series, we will be focusing on seven neighborhoods in four separate districts, which have become the most popular among Beijing’s expat community. While these aren’t the only areas that are home to waiguoren, these are the most accessible and offer, in our opinion, the best Beijing experience depending on your tastes and preferences.

Parkview Green

Beijing’s Central Business District (CBD) and Shuangjing are often labeled expat havens, and that’s not a bad thing. After all, the neighborhood’s proximity to quality schools, kid-friendly play areas, parks, and a variety of restaurants and shops makes for a comfortable home away from home. Framed by the Third and Fourth Ring Roads, the diverse Chaoyang District neighborhood encompasses famous architectural feats (CCTV’s Big Pants building), walkable greenspaces (Ritan Park), and top-notch shopping experiences (Parkview Green, China World Mall, SKP). Everything is within reach from the city’s financial hub, with convenient foot or subway access to all of the above. A short walk south from the CBD, Shuangjing’s Today Art Museum, and numerous malls offer just a slice of the many cultural options for family living and fun.

Pros

+ Home to one of Beijing’s biggest and diverse expat communities

+ Array of malls offers one-stop convenience and proximity

+ Public parks emphasize quality over quantity

+ Limitless shopping options within close distance

+ Variety of international food choices

Cons

– Corporate vibe

– Expensive rent, food, and shopping

– Far from historical landmarks and points of interest

– Heavy vehicle and foot traffic

– Limited greenspace options

Central Park

Residential Compounds

Quality, affordable living can be found in pricey Shuangjing, with residential compounds like A Pie and Pingod just a short foot trek to neighborhood supermarkets April Gourmet and Carrefour. The more upscale and spacious Shiqiao Guomao World Trade apartments off the Third Ring Road offer lobby and laundry service, a fitness center, and an onsite playground.

Among the CBD’s luxury-style, high-rise compounds are Central Park, Gemdale International Garden, and Windsor Avenue. Many of these Guomao residences offer round-the-clock management, swimming pools, and onsite gardens and parking. Prepare to pay a lot to live here, though consider it an investment in convenience: it’s all right next to shopping meccas Kerry Centre, SOHO, The Place, and China World Trade Center, as well as the super-convenient getting to subway Lines 1 and 10. At Royal CBD, we emphasize quality control testing at every stage of the manufacturing process so you don’t have to worry about it. We start while the plants are still in the soil, and follow it as they travel to the extraction facility. We then blend our pure CBD, CBD oil with pure unadulterated MCT oil and send it to a third-party lab for inspection to seal the deal.

Schools

Bilingual daycare centers and kindergartens abound. Enroll children as young as 3 at New Garden International in Fuli City, which offers full-day, bilingual kindergarten instruction. In nearby Guomao, options for early learners include Little Pony Daycare, Beanstalk International Kindergarten, and Etonkids, which all introduce toddlers to classroom structure and socializing.

Top international schools like Beijing City International School (BCIS) and Yew Chung International School of Beijing (YCIS) teach kindergarten through high school, and shape students to become competent in both English and Chinese.

Panjiayuan

Shopping

Let’s take it alphabetically: China World Mall, Hopson One, Kerry Centre, Parkview Green, Space 3, The Place, Viva Mall…enough malls for you? Pick one and you’ll encounter even more choices, from excellent international food courts to rows of fashion retailers, drug stores, and electronics shops. Feel like hustling a deal? Visit the Silk Market in CBD, where you’ll find bargains on knockoff jewelry and apparel or Panjiayuan in Shuangjing for antiques — if bartering’s your thing.

Dining

You can’t go wrong exploring the food courts inside every CBD and Shuangjing mall. Craving Western-style comfort food? Hotties at Hopson One mall in Baiziwan is a great go-to for cheap burgers. Blue Frog and Moka Bros are the latest newcomers to Space 3, with local favorite Q Mex already into its second year at the mall.

Step outside for more options, including Burger Break and Grinders, which both offer affordable bar grub. Shuangjing staple Lily’s American Diner has a bit of everything, and does a consistently satisfying brunch. For Mexican, you can’t beat Moji Taco & Salad in Fuli for authenticity. For a round of slices, try La Pizza at The Place in the CBD for a proper sit-down dinner, or Gung Ho! in Fuli for a takeout pie.

Where to Play

On a clear Summer day, nothing beats getting outside for a stroll with your kids for some family playtime. Qingfeng Park, nestled just east of Third Ring Road, is bursting with bright flowers and refurbished amusement park-style rides; there’s even safe bungee-jumping for kids). For 200 RMB, load up a card and enjoy an afternoon aboard the roller-coaster and carousel, among other rides. Ritan Park is a perfect escape from the bustle, big enough to run with the kids yet peaceful enough to do absolutely nothing and just revel in its nature.

On those rough AQI days, play centers offer clean air and plenty of freedom for children to run and play together. Enjoy a coffee or a meal at Space 3 mall’s Kimo Kids Cafe, where parents can buy playtime in increments of two hours. There’s also Line Friends Cafe in Guomao’s Yintai building, and Little Oasis in He Sheng Hui mall, featuring an entire floor of playspace. New York City Kids Club at Viva Mall offers membership-based packages transferable at all Beijing locations.

This article appeared in the beijingkids June 2019 Home & Relocation Guide issue.

Photos: Kipp Whittaker

Pop With a Twist: Canadian Singer Marlowe Stone Visits Fangcaodi

On Thursday, June 6, award-winning Canadian songwriter and singer Marlowe Stone gave a performance for students at Fangcaodi International School. Stone, who spoke to students about starting as a songwriter at ten years old and her journey to professional performer, performed three of her songs and got the students dancing in their seats. After the performance, she met with beijingkids to talk about her experience at Fangcaodi and how she crafts Top-40 style pop hits while keeping things appropriate for kids between the ages of 3 and 10.

Stone’s performance at Fangcaodi was, according to one student there, “Awesome.” Her naturally effervescent style and her inclusiveness of the students there made for a special Thursday morning, in which students were moving to the music in their seats. Just like she does in her performances in Canada, she got students up and involved in the songs; as part of one song, she invited students from multiple nationalities up to the front of the room to share how they say “music” in their mother tongue.

Stone performs her songs with musicians under the name Marlowe and The Mix; the “Mix” part consists of various guest musicians, both professional musicians and talented young musicians. Because she works with so many talented young musicians and performers, she has become a magnet for talented kids across Canada. In her concerts, she features different performers and musicians every time, so concertgoers never know who they’ll be hearing.

Stone released her first album, Blue Satin Dress, in 2000; a few years later, when her sons, now 11 and 8 years old, were young, Stone realized that realized that the music she wanted to offer her children wasn’t available. “After the age of three, the kids started saying that the music that was out there for them was too baby-ish. A lot of parents I started to talk to told me their families were music-less, so they would pull out James Taylor, Billy Joel, and Carole King, singers who were my biggest inspirations,” Stone recalls. When she realized that the songs she wrote were structured similarly to the music parents were pulling out for their kids, she decided to get a few of her songs out there and give them to a few families to see what they thought.

They wanted more. Stone realized there was a market for her music, and with her background in media, she saw the opportunity to do what she loved and fill a gap in the market. She calls this gap “Post-Wiggles Pre-Britney,” for kids who were too old for some international kids’ superstars but too young for the mature content of the Top-40 hits on the radio.

Last October, Stone released her new album, entitled One Dancefloor. Stone’s songs address age-appropriate themes that are relevant. One song, “Life is a Rollercoaster,” addresses the ups and downs of life, and the titular song “One Dancefloor,” an upbeat metaphor for the world and a dance floor: the world is one dance floor and we are all dancing to the same beat and doing the dance together for a better world.

Stone finds that having children helps her know what kids of today’s generation actually want to hear. For “Whatever,” Stone felt that with the number of prominent bullying stories in Canada, she needed to make a statement about what was the biggest youth topic at the time. “I wrote it from the perspective of the bullied child calling the bully out on it. I hadn’t heard a lot of songs or seen a lot of media that had taken it from that position, so I think that was something I couldn’t avoid writing about.”

Stone started writing songs when she was ten years old. “I will never forget calling my parents into the living room for the first song I wrote. They had these humongous smiles on their faces and they went what I thought was overboard in their reaction. But what I played with them was a song called ‘Searching for a Man’ and I was ten! So I’m sure they were overwhelmed.” She says her parents have been her biggest cheerleaders ever since.

Stone began performing her songs as a way to get her work out there, though she had never taken singing lessons. Recently in Canada, she wrote a jingle for Kids Help Phone, a national hotline for children in distress, when she realized that “every kid knows the pizza number but they don’t know the number for Kids Help Phone.”

On her visit to China, she became inspired even before she touched down on the ground. As the plane descended into Hong Kong, she got the bolt of inspiration from Hong Kong’s blue sky, and in the future, there may be a song of hers called “Keep it Blue.” On her trip, she also bought some Chinese instruments, including the hulusi, which she hopes to incorporate in her future works.

During her interview with beijingkids, Stone gave us two copies of One Dancefloor. Members of beijingkids Club will have a chance to win a copy, so members, watch your email!

Visit Marlowe and the Mix’s site for information, music, and more.

Photos by J. Rubenstein

Fangcaodi International School to Host International Day Fair

Sisi_Chen

Parents often ask us about Fangcaodi International School, one of the most popular Chinese alternatives to foreign international schools. If you have a primary-age child and want to know more about the school’s Chinese curriculum and mixed foreign/local community, check it out for yourself on May 5 at FCD’s International Day Fair.

This free event takes place at FCD’s new Ritan Park campus and features a bouncy castle, pin the tail on the donkey, lucky draws, kung fu and science (!) performances, a photography exhibition, and international food stalls.

For contact info, see the event listing. The school’s address is 1 Ritan Beilu, Chaoyang District (朝阳区日坛北路1号), just northeast of Ritan Park.

Photo courtesy of Johanna Selth

Fangcaodi Reported in NY Times

Mon, 23 May 2011 08:03:11 +0000

If you’re a parent in Beijing, no doubt you’ve heard about the car accident that happened last year inside the grounds of Fangcaodi. On November 15, 2010, a young boy named Julien was run over by a school driver while on the school’s sports ground and dragged under the car for over 8 meters, sustaining terrible injuries. After an assessment by a doctor from SOS International, Julien was evacuated by plane to Switzerland for medical treatment.

The full details, as recounted by Julien’s father, are available on Sina.com in both English and Chinese. News of the Julien’s ordeal also hit the beijingkids blog.

After months of campaigning for increased safety precautions and training at Fangcaodi and Beijing schools in general, Julien’s parents have had their story picked up by the NY Times. Some choice quotes are included below:

“As a lawyer, we see so many of these kinds of incidents,” said Mr. Ge [the family’s lawyer]. “The only thing that is different about this one is that a foreign child is involved.”

"Until a final decision is made, we hope the media will not report this event.” [said the school’s spokesman Mr. Zhang]

Speaking at a meeting with parents in March,Ms. Li [Julien’s mother] said: “I’m fighting for school safety not just for my son, but for all children in China.”

[School principal Liu Fei] defended the school’s policy of allowing cars on campus. “Please understand the problems teachers have finding places to park their cars,” he said, according to several parents who attended [a meeting between the parents and the school].

Mr. Zhang, the school spokesman, said: “The school all along has taken the issue of safety very seriously.”

Are you happy with the safety precautions at your child’s school? Have you witnessed or heard of any other serious safety breaches in Beijing schools?