September has just begun but before you know it, we’ll be welcoming in October and the week-long National Holiday (aka traffic jams, crazy lots of tourists, and so much more). It is very wise to plan your family trips ahead of this short autumn break. Here we’ve listed some activities to do in Beijing. If you’re adventurous enough to join the mass exodus and see more of why China is so awesome, then start booking your travel seats now!

Staying in the ‘Jing

October Holiday Adventure Camp for Kids, Sep 30-Oct 8
This upcoming National Holiday, Imagine brings a new adventure for the little ones of the house (age 7+): indoor skiing (室内滑雪), climbing (室内攀岩), parkour (跑酷), Civilization Game (文明帝国游戏), and Adventure Park (奇妙探险乐园). This camp is the perfect choice for parents who want to stay in Beijing but are looking for outdoor activities which are creative and challenging at the same time to send their kids to.

Kids 7+. RMB 900 per day for indoor skiing; RMB 700 per day for climbing or parkour; RMB 750 per day for Civilization Game or Adventure Park. Click here for more information about each activity. 8am-6pm. Imagine. (WeChat ID: Imagine24X7service, 5739 4933)

Parenting Workshop, Oct 6
Join Sheri Hansen, founder of Character Education International and author of Conscious Parenting, for a Q&A after a presentation on best parenting practices at GREEN T. HOUSE. Make an afternoon of it and come early for lunch, or enjoy dinner by reserving directly with the venue.

Adults. RMB 300. To register, scan the QR code in the poster below and transfer the registration fee before Oct 2. Activity starts 2pm. GREEN T. HOUSE, 318 Cuige Zhuang Xiang Hege Zhuangcun, Chaoyang.

Get Out and Explore China…

A panoramic view of one village in Guizhou.

Four-Day Southeast Guizhou (Ethnic Culture, Hiking, Village Homestay), Sep 30-Oct 4
Guizhou of Southwest China has long been remote and undeveloped. However it’s also unspoiled by the sort of tourism development seen in surrounding provinces such as Guangxi, Yunnan, and Sichuan. Its relative isolation has made the region one of the best-kept secrets in China; its stunning landscape, characterized by limestone karst hills, jagged peaks and terraced rice fields, as well as its colorful ethnic minority cultures that have made Guizhou a paradise for anthropologists, photographers and adventurous travelers. This 4-day tour will go into mountains and valleys of Yungui Plateau to explore several charming nature villages, hike the fields and hills of remote areas and organize one-night homestay in the village houses.

Kids 12+ to adults. RMB 6,800. China Culture Center. The Victoria Gardens D4, Chaoyang Park West Road, Chaoyang 朝阳区朝阳公园西路维多利亚花园D4 (WeChat ID: china-culture-center, 6432 9341 for weekdays 9am-6pm, 8420 0671 for after hours and weekends, info@chinaculturecenter.org)

READ: Packing for a Family of Three

The entrance to Mogao Caves in Gansu

Travel to the Ancient Silk Road, Sep 30-Oct 8
The Silk Road was an ancient network of trade routes which were the center of cultural interaction between the East and West for many centuries. It is an important part of Chinese culture, and there are many magnificent landforms and ancient sites on the route totally worth visiting. The trip includes a tour of Xining, a major commercial hub in the Hexi Corridor of the Northern Silk Road; the Mogao Caves of Gansu Province, a World Cultural Heritage Site that consists of a complex of 492 Buddhist temples; and the Zhangye National Geopark, famous for its gorgeous and colorful rock formations.

Kids 10+ to adults. RMB 3,100 (group discounts available). Price includes a round trip bus ride from Beijing and local transportation, six nights hotel accommodation, breakfast meals and drinking water, and travel insurance. Price doesn’t include lunch/dinner (but group lunch is available) and entrance fees to major attractions. RSVP before midnight of Sep 25. Notes: No refund for the hotel cost (RMB 1,000) if you withdraw after Sep 15 and for the whole price 7 days before the trip. Click/tap here to see the full itinerary and list of prices per attraction. Foreigner China Network. (WeChat ID: FFENGXIN123)

Travel to Shanxi and Xi’an, Oct 1-8
If your family is up for a rugged trip to some of the most historic places in the country, join Foreigner China Network (FCN) for their trip to Shanxi and Xi’an. According to the group, tourists joining this tour will see China’s largest yellow waterfalls and most thrilling mountains, hike one of the ten biggest ancient tombs in the world, visit some well-known ancient cities, and of course, try local delicacies – all of which will definitely make you love China more! The itinerary includes a visit to Shanxi’s Pingyao City, a World Cultural Heritage Site where you can see a well-preserved ancient city dating to the Ming Dynasty; Mount Hua; the Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an; and so much more.

Kids 12+ to adults. RMB 1,700 (group discounts available). Price includes a round trip bus ride from Beijing and local transportation, five nights hotel accommodation, breakfast meals and drinking water, and travel insurance. Price doesn’t include entrance fees to major attractions. RSVP before midnight of Sep 28. Click/tap here to see the full itinerary and list of prices per attraction. Foreigner China Network. (WeChat ID: FFENGXIN123)

READ MORE: Cheap Escapes from the Rush of Golden Week

Zhuangdaokou to the Walled Village, Oct 3
This hike starts off behind a small village to visit the 300-year-old “Phoenix and Dragon” pine trees before hiking up to the Zhuangdaokou Great Wall. From the wall, hikers will have the option to climb some of the towers. The hike ends at the Walled Village, a settlement that has grown up inside and around an old army barracks that used to house soldiers tasked with guarding the Great Wall. 2–3 hours of relaxed walking.

Kids 12+ to adults. RMB 420 (regular price), RMB 380 (for Beijing Hikers members), RMB 200 (for under 12). Click/tap here to make an online booking. Price includes lunch at a restaurant at the foot of the Huanghuacheng Great Wall. Hikers with extra energy have the option to finish lunch early and take a short climb up. 8am-4pm. Pickup at Liangmaqiao subway station at 7.30am. Beijing Hikers.

Photos: Courtesy of Imagine and Beijing Hikers; wplsunboy, lin2015, nhluoj, christels, via Pixabay

See more of my stories here.
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Email: andypenafuerte@beijing-kids.com
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As the national holiday draws to a close, many parents will hope that their kids emerge having learned something about the event that it commemorates – the birth of modern China. But why shouldn’t an interest in history carry through to the other 51 weeks of the year?

Kids love stories and the tales found in the past can be as, if not more, engaging than those found on the fiction shelves. Here is my list of some of the best history books for children, some of which fascinated me so much as a child that I ended up taking a degree in the subject a decade after reading them.

Horrible Histories
Terry Deary’s Horrible Histories series has captured children’s imaginations for over 20 years with its combination of illustrations, fun facts and jokes covering some of the past’s most gruesome periods. His tongue-in-cheek approach will entertain and teach in equal measure, covering over 100 subjects from the Rotten Romans to the Vile Victorians. The genre-defining books have spawned a number of spin-offs, most notably the animated and live-action television series.

Suitable for ages 6+

Chinese Cinderella: The Secret Story of an Unwanted Daughter
If National Day sparked your child’s interest in modern Chinese history then Adeline Yen Mah’s story of growing up here in the 1940s may be a good next step. Struggling with the the indifference of her father and stepmother, she describes her struggle to find a place amongst her siblings. This account, along with the fictional sequel Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society, provide insights into life during this period, as well as looking the pressures of growing up in a wealthy Chinese family.

Suitable for ages 10+

A Little History of the World
It is no mean feat to chart the exhaustive history of human development, from cavemen to the twentieth century, in a way that is accessible to children. But that is exactly what German art historian Ernst Gombrich manages in A Little History of the World, a book often enjoyed as much by parents as their kids. At over 300 pages, the book provides rich rewards to the patient reader.

Suitable for ages 10+

Tony Robinson’s Weird World of Wonders
Tony Robinson may be better known as the dim-witted manservant, Baldrick, in the British comedy Blackadder, but he has since forged a successful career as a writer and pop-historian. His well-received Weird World of Wonders series continues in a similar vein as Horrible Histories, with the stories of the Ancient Greeks, Egyptian and others told through cartoons, quizzes and genuinely entertaining historical narratives. Well-written and informative.

Suitable for ages 7+

The Diary of a Young Girl
Known to many as The Diary of Anne Frank, there is perhaps no child’s account of history more powerful than that of the young Jewish girl in hiding from Nazi persecutors. Written in the form of a series of letters to imaginary friends, Anne uses her diary to reflect on her feelings of loneliness, the development of the Second World War and her tumultuous relationships with the adults in the hidden annex where she remains for over two years. Both a coming-of-age tale and a harrowing personal account of the twentieth century’s defining conflict.

Suitable for ages 11+. Versions with sexual content removed are also available.

All of these titles are available to buy at Taobao.

Images courtesy of Scholastic, Delacorte Press, Yale University Press, Pan Macmillan, Penguin and Wikimedia Commons

Tourists often don’t understand why so many Beijingers have never been to the Great Wall or seen the flag-raising ceremony at Tian’anmen Square. Because we live here, witnessing the latter doesn’t seem so urgent – despite the fact that thousands gather at the center of our city before dawn each day for this purpose.

Since finishing university, I’ve lived in Beijing for eight years. I’ve heard many of my friends talk about this experience, but only started to think about it in earnest after deciding I wasn’t going anywhere for the October holiday. After calling some friends and doing research, here are some notes that you may find useful if you’re thinking of attending the ceremony.

First, watching the flag raising requires getting up really early. Many people choose to stay up all night because it can start as early as 4am in summer. You can check the timetable for the exact time of each day’s flag raising. This year, it falls on 6.10am on October 1.

The ceremony is scheduled each day based on astronomical calculations, which starts when the top of the sun reaches the horizon. Many tourists arrive several hours early to avoid missing the moment.

Fair warning: Special days such as January 1 and the first day of the National Day holidays attract a much larger crowd than usual to the 440,000sqm Tian’anmen Square. According to Xinhua, about 20,000 people from all over China watched the ceremony on the first day of the year. You can get a better idea visually from the video here.

Most of us know how to take the subway to Tian’anmen, but the flag raising ceremony takes place too early. There is a couple of night buses (205 and 210) that pass by the area and people have managed to park their cars on the west side of the square. But considering the National Day situation, I would take a taxi or a bike. If you choose biking, park your bike on the south side of the square since attendees are required to exit from the south side when the ceremony is over.

Admission (which involves a security check) starts at 1.30am; there is an entrance on each side of the square. Many of my friends decided to be early birds in order to get a perfect spot for the three-minute ceremony. 

How does it work? The music starts, honor guards walk through the gate of Tian’anmen Square and Jinshui Bridge. They raise the flag, the Chinese national anthem is played, and the flag goes up in time with the sunrise. You may find yourself singing along with the Chinese audience around you.

The southeast and southwest corners are considered to be the best locations to view the flag raising from.  Photographers who are keen to take pictures of the guards can choose the area near Chang’an Avenue on the north side of the square.

Finally, get some rest the day before and bring an extra jacket for each person. If you’re preparing to stay up, try to do it as a group so that the time goes by faster. Chinese elementary school students often wear a red scarf to salute the flag in groups. The scarf is available here. 

Photo by INABA Tomoaki (Flickr)

At age nine, I discovered R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series. For the next couple of years, I spent sleepless nights tearing through tales of shrunken heads, evil snowmen, and rampant mummies. But my favorites were the ghost stories.

One of them was called Ghost Camp. It’s about two brothers who notice strange things happening around their summer camp. In one instance, a girl drops her hot dog into the fire. When she pulls it back out, there are no burns on her arm. Later on, the brothers find out that—DUN DUN DUN!—the other kids died in a mysterious fog and their spirits were stranded at the camp. Shock! Horror!
 

It seems ridiculous now, but Ghost Camp was the scariest thing outside of Pennywise the Clown to an impressionable third grader. I started keeping a flashlight under my pillow; when that wasn’t enough, I brought an old night light back from retirement. But I couldn’t resist the siren call for long; before the month was over, I was burning through the next Goosebumps book. 

What is it about ghost stories that keeps us coming back for more? This is the question that the Learning Center explores in a week-long writing camp called “How to Write a Great Ghost Story.” The program is part of the tutoring center’s National Day Camp (Oct. 3-7) and is designed for students in grades 3 through 8. 

The workshop teaches kids how to recognize and write a good ghost story by creating a “map” of literary elements, reworking an oral ghost story to share with the class, and crafting their own spooky tales. The finished stories will be published in a compilation at the end of the program.

Depending on the age group, the Learning Center also offers writing workshops focusing on stories from the far east, folklore in theatre, and journalism. Programs are available on a half-day or full-day basis.

For more information, check out the Learning Center’s website.