As of Sep 19, the Kerry Center is proud to commence their free Multi-Sports Games where you can take part in various sporting games for fun and prizes. From now until the end of September, try your hand at 8 different sports and win Kerry Center vouchers up to RMB 2,000.

Watch the video below to check out the games on-site!

There’s football, basketball, disc golf, ping-pong, rowing, biking, curling, and cornholes!

Most of the games can be easily accessed on the basement level of Kerry Center, but the ping pong is located on the first floor, while football and disc golf are outdoors in the Kerry Center gardens. Don’t worry about getting lost as the game attendants will give you directions and it’s almost like a mini-scavenger hunt to look for the stations!

Register in the Mini-Program to check your scores and see your current ranking amongst all the competitors. Since you can play all the games once a day until the end of the month, you’ll have many chances to improve your standing!

Those will qualify for the first three places in every sporting game will win Kerry Center vouchers worth RMB 100 – RMB 300 and the first three overall high-scorers will walk away with vouchers between RMB 500 to RMB 2,000! The winners will be announced at the end of the month.

Registration is simple: Long-press the QR code below to open the Mini-Program, click agree, and then fill in your details. There are helpful game attendants to help you register onsite as well. Note that all participants have to be between the ages of 18 and 50 and each mobile number can only be registered once.

KEEP READING: Not Just Play, But Learn All Day At This New Indoor Playground

Images: Vivienne Tseng-Rush, courtesy of Kerry Center

How would you like to enhance your teen’s preparedness for the world of the future?

One step in the right direction is to sign up for the upcoming JISE Youth Entrepreneurship Competition. No experience is necessary for the free, one-day workshop-slash-competition: your teen will learn all they need on the day of the event. The Middle School workshop will be held February 23, while the High School workshop will be held Feb 24.

We’ve got a slate of teams already enrolled from schools such as CISB, BCIS, Huijia, Dulwich, WAB, Keystone and YCIS, but have space for a few more. Monday (Jan 28) is the second round application deadline – few if any spots will be left after that date! Register for free here.

The event, to take place Feb 23-24 at the Kerry Hotel as part of the Jingkids International School Expo, is conducted in English and is open to teams of five who are currently enrolled at any Beijing school.

There are two divisions: Middle Schoolers (Grade 6-8, with the workshop happening Saturday, Feb 23) and High Schoolers (Grade 9-12, with the workshop happening Sunday, Feb 24).

This event is not only a competition but also a great learning opportunity for middle schoolers and high schoolers who want to develop skills that the World Economic Forum have declared to be in high demand for the workplace of the future:

• Analytical thinking and innovation

• Creativity, originality and initiative

• Critical thinking and analysis

• Complex problem-solving

• Reasoning, problem-solving and ideation

Professional facilitators from Venture Education (a social enterprise that empowers students through entrepreneurship education) and Techtrek (a company that helps young learners develop the tech skills they need to thrive in the modern world) will coach teams on site on how to develop an idea into a sellable pitch, all in one day.

Successful Beijing entrepreneurs will be on hand throughout the day to guide students through the process. The day concludes with short three minute pitches to a panel of real-life entrepreneurs, to be followed by an awards ceremony with RMB 38,000 in prizes up for grabs.

Entry is free and no preparation is necessary – all you need to bring is your open mind and a team of five from your school.

Interested? We will continue to enroll teams (no deadline) until we get closer to the capacity of 20 teams per division

Register here!

For more information about the 2019 JISE Youth Entrepreneurship Competition, contact Mike Wester at gm@truerun.com or via WeChat at mwinchina.

Photos: weforum.org, Adobe Stock (denisismagilov) 

With over a hundred international schools in attendance, educational forums given by both parents and experts, activities for bourgeoning student entrepreneurs, and much much more, the Jingkids International School Expo (JISE) 2019 is something you can’t miss out on this coming February 23-24 at Kerry Hotel, Kerry Mall, and Kerry Sports.

This expo is the most all-encompassing and largest-scale education event of its kind, that not only brings together an incomparable number of attending schools, but also a large, diverse number of attendees from Beijing’s local and expat parenting community.

Get your tickets here!

In order to shield parents from the overwhelming anxiety that comes along with picking a school, this expo will be a comprehensive educationally focused event seeking to inform in addition to providing a superb venue for schools to show off their fabulous curriculums and facilities. After all, education is not just about school choice. Scan or long-press the QR code above for ticket information.

The History and Development of JISE

JISE, formerly known as the beijingkids International School Choice Expo, is an annual fair focusing on the latest and greatest in education. We strive to not only give insight into school choice but also the rapidly developing educational landscape as a whole. The international education community and a growing number of schools are placing parents into a growing state of anxiety about choosing the right school, allowing for some to blindly give priority to a prestigious school over the necessary long-term educational goals. This year’s JISE is themed “Education Beyond School Choice,” for exactly this purpose of helping parents to ease their short-sighted anxiety and perform a more comprehensive probe into education through the great communication opportunities and learning experiences this expo is designed to present.

Jingkids International School Expo (JISE) 2019

JISE 2019 will have over 100 schools to choose from, spanning both the K-12 and preschool categories, ready to answer all of your questions about what’s new or more importantly, what’s next! Here’s a list of the schools that have registered to attend the event happening from Feb 23-24, and it’s growing by the day.

JISE 2019 Beijing: Early Years Education Fair (Ages 0-6)

JISE 2019 Beijing: K-12 School Fair (Ages 5-18)

JISE 2019 Beijing · Educators Forum 

We are bringing together the principals of Dulwich College Beijing (DCB), International School of Beijing (ISB), and Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) to talk about their innovative programs, along with the successes and the apparent challenges they face in their implementation and development. This lecture happening on Saturday, February 23 in Kerry Hotel’s Kowloon Room (2-4pm), will be the first time that these important figures share a stage, explaining to parents their innovative programs along with the cold hard facts supporting these important movements in education.

Simon Herbert, Headmaster of Dulwich College Beijing

Simon joined DCB as Head of Senior School in 2012 and became Headmaster of the College in August 2016. He is currently studying for an MA in International Leadership and Education and gained a BA in French and Latin from the University of Nottingham. He has worked in advertising and has taught in an international school in Kenya and a lycée in South-West France. He was Head of Modern Languages and then Senior Housemaster at Fettes College in Edinburgh, where he also introduced the IB Diploma Programme, before moving to China.

Patrick Hurworth, Head of School at the International School of Beijing

Patrick was born and raised in the UK and left in 1996 to teach at the International School of Geneva, Switzerland. He has now lived and served schools in four countries; UK, Switzerland, USA, Hong Kong China, and now Beijing where he has served as Head of School at the International School of Beijing (ISB).  ISB (a non-profit school) is Beijing’s oldest and largest International School and enrolls the daughters and sons of foreign passport holders.

Dr. Marta Medved Krajnovic, Director of Western Academy of Beijing

Krajnovic joined WAB in 2018. With nearly two decades of academic experience, Krajnovic served as the director of Stockholm International School for five years, and worked as Associate Professor at the University of Zagreb, and was also director of the Postgraduate Programme in Applied Linguistics there. Marta has authored books and research articles on second language acquisition and multilingualism.

JISE 2019 Beijing · Parenting Forum

In accordance with the principles of “education beyond school choice, change begins with me,” we invited some example parents from the international community to share about the challenges they face on the path towards self-growth and the importance of being a positive role model for your child.

JISE 2019 Beijing · Youth Entrepreneurship Competition (Ages 12-18)

Join our JISE Youth Entrepreneurship Competition! The event, to take place Feb 23-24 at the Kerry Hotel as part of the Jing International School Expo, seeks to provide kids with creative real-life entrepreneurial skills and will be open to teams of five who are currently enrolled at any Beijing school. No experience is necessary to take part – you’ll learn everything you need on the day of the event itself! There are two divisions: Middle Schoolers (Grade 6 to Grade 8, with the workshop happening Saturday, Feb 23) and High Schoolers (Grade 9 to Grade 12, with the workshop happening Sunday, Feb 24). Not only a competition, the event is an awesome learning opportunity for middle schoolers and high schoolers who want to develop their skills. Professional facilitators from Venture Education and Techtrek will coach teams on site on how to develop an idea into a sellable pitch, all in one day.The day concludes with short three minute pitches to a panel of real-life entrepreneurs, to be followed by an awards ceremony with RMB 38,000 in prizes up for grabs. Register here!

About True Run

As the forerunner of hosting international school expos in Beijing, True Run is a company advocating advanced lifestyle and educational concepts through the combination of traditional and new media outlets, and planning activities catered towards the diverse range of people who call Beijing home

School Registration

The registration for participating schools at JISE 2019 is in full swing. All schools and educational institutions that want to register for JISE 2019, please scan or long press to learn more and to reserve your spot.

Photos: Uni You; courtesy of ISB, DCB, and WAB

The Beijing International School Expo 2015 is sponsored by HealthPro.

This weekend’s Beijing International School Expo at the Kerry Center (with over 40 schools represented) is rapidly approaching, and we suggest you make a day of it!

There’s plenty of kid distractions and places to eat in the immediate area around the Kerry Hotel and the Kerry Center (and even more if you expand your horizons to the connected China World Mall next door)

None of these choices will require you to go outside to reach — a good thing given Beijing’s wintry weather and the ever-present threat of smog. And while we’re on the subject of smog, rest assured that the air at our event will be fully protected via a bevvy of top-of-the-line IQAirs courtesy of our sponsor HealthPro).

As for kid-friendly distractions, we’ll have three on-site play areas at the expo itself, but should you tire of those, right next door is the Kerry Hotel’s Adventure Zone, a massive indoor play paradise for kids. Three additional attractions are just across the sky bridge in the China World Mall: Page One Bookstore, the Le Cool Ice Rink and the Broadway Cinema Palace (check here for their showings — unfortunately the site is in Chinese only, though they do show Hollywood films in their original language).

As for food, there’s great choices in the hotel itself, as well as in the remodeled Kerry Mall (and plenty more once you head over the skybridge to the attached China World Mall as well).

Here’s a few of our favorites in the Kerry Center:

— Kerry’s Kitchen For the buffet types you can’t go wrong feasting out at Kerry’s Kitchen

— Kerry’s Pantry The perfect spot for a quick cup of joe and a sandwich before you head into the fair.

— Hatsune Hands down our favorite Japanese restaurant in Beijing has a location in the Kerry with plenty of seating.

— Bellagio Taiwan’s finest has a spot in the Kerry

— Comptoirs de France If you’re looking for a quick pick-me-up or a first-class authentic French pastry, this is your go-to spot.

— Element Fresh A family favorite with an emphasis on fresh California-style cuisine.

— The Horizon Chinese Restaurant Fancier fare, serving one of the city’s best roast ducks.

— Wagas Sandwiches and salads from this Shanghai import. This one’s a bit tricky to find as the entrance is on the outside of the building – go out the east side of the mall (next to the office tower) and turn left, it’s
on the corner.

— Ippudo The Japanese ramen sensation who finally landed in Beijing last year. Expect lines as for whatever reason, people have gone nuts for their bowls of noodles that you can order cooked al dente if you so desire.

The Kerry Hotel’s Adventure Zone opened to the public on November last year to loads of fanfare. The play center spans three floors and was designed by a British company for kids ages 4-12. It features slides, climbing areas, toy cars, a snack bar and awesome themed rooms that look perfect for your kid’s next birthday party. And the young at heart can still enjoy the facilities.

Adrenaline seekers, adults and teens have the prefect place to test out their fears and get a rush at the Demon Drop Slide which is a 90 degree angle, 7.3m vertical drop. If younger children set off in trepidation then there are two smaller slide to choose from that have mild drops. Kids under age 4 can play in the Role Play Village to try out their vocation to different careers, padded slides, ball pits, climbing frames and ramps and roller.

The Adventure zone is a members only play center at the heart of the CBD but there are other options available such as the session cards. Sessions card go for RMB 800 and holds five entries. With the session card kids can play for two hours from Monday to Friday and one hour Saturday and Sunday. This offer expires on January 30 in which case families membership cards only will be sold.   Membership is RMB 5, 000 for half a year and RMB 7,500 for a year. But if you bought a session card before January 30 then it is still valid for one month after date of purchase.

Find reviews out more about how much it is to host a birthday here

Photo courtesy of Mike Wester

There’s a new choice in the downtown area for families looking for an indoor play space: the Kerry Center Adventure Zone.

The members-only play space opened with great fanfare over the weekend with a bash for over 100 families to take a preview at the 3-story, multi-zoned facility.

The Adventure Zone features slides, climbing areas, toy cars, a snack bar and awesome themed rooms that look perfect for your kid’s next birthday party.

Judging by our test run, the zone is perfect for both younger and older kids, from toddler to pre-teen. The main area features a 3-story jungle gym with myriad obstacles and climbing areas, culminating with a series of slides, each successively steep, providing a fun experience for the timid toddler right through to adults (I couldn’t bring myself to go down the steepest slide).

A nice touch that makes the Adventure Zone different from similar spaces in Beijing is that adults are welcomed to join the fun. I had a great time with my 6-year-old as we navigated through the climbing gym and went down the slide together. Try that in other play spaces in Beijing and you’re likely to be met with a stern "sorry, no adults please" warning.

The space is members-only and comes at a pretty steep price — RMB 7500 for a full year, RMB 5000 for a half year — but for those who would make a habit of playing there and go once a week, that amounts to less than RMB 150 a visit. In a city known for poor air quality, freezing winters and blistering hot summers, that does not seem like a steep price to pay. Given its quality and cleanliness is backed by the Kerry’s stellar reputation and you’ve got yourself a winning combination.

Still reluctant to part with RMB 5000+ without a try? The Kerry is offering a special promotion for their first month of operation: RMB 350 for a day pass, or RMB 800 for 5 sessions. This promotion ends soon, and after that the Zone is membership only.

For more information, contact the Kerry Hotel at 8565 2490 or adventurezonebeijing@thekerryhotels.com.

As pictures speak a thousand words, I’ll let my amateur photography tell the rest of the tale for you to decide if the Zone is for you.

Photos courtesy of Mike Wester and Jerry Chan