It’s no secret: Beijing is massive and getting from point A to point B as a functioning adult is tough some days. Doing it with kids…on the best of days…nightmare! For most of us, getting around requires my least favorite form of travel – Didi. It’s expensive, it’s slow, it pollutes the air and in my case, induces motion sickness. So here are a few alternatives. None of them are particularly creative but all of them will save you money, time, and could even reduce the amount of vomit you need to scrape off some stranger’s back seat.

Old-School Walking: Like I said, not creative but it has worked for thousands of years. If it’s not a yucky AQI day or pouring rain, it will help your family get their steps in and provide some much-needed fresh air. Pro tip: To pass the time, play a focused game of I-Spy. Decide what your family will look for before you leave the house. Younger kids can see how many red items they pass for instance, while older ones can try to spot as many different flags as possible. Enjoy getting around outdoors while you can. In the winter, when temperatures dip below zero, it’s simply not an option. So take advantage of the capital’s beautiful spring and fall weather. Heck, even balmy summer afternoons or evenings are an excuse to get outside and move, albeit in shorter spurts. Just make sure you put on your SPF!

Scooters and Bikes: They’ve been an iconic part of Chinese life for more than a century and by far the fastest way to navigate the city! I found foldable scooters for kids on Taobao for as little as RMB 45. There are also tons of baby bike/scooter seats a mere click away. Just please make sure they have a helmet and I’m begging you: Don’t put them in the basket of a rented bike while weaving in and out of traffic. Check out this article on cycling with kids for some great safety tips.

The Subway: Okay, not my favorite – especially in the middle of the sweaty summer heat. But, if given the choice between sitting in rush hour traffic with a potty training child for an hour or doing a 20-minute subway ride, I know what I would pick. The subway is also fun for kids. They love the trains and lights and maps so take advantage of the inexpensive adventure.

Public Bus: Did you know that Apple Maps has integrated public buses into its navigational system? A colleague of mine followed instructions on the user-friendly app and seamlessly boarded, alighted, and transferred buses from downtown CBD all the way to her home in east Beijing. She prefers buses to the subway because she loves the passing scenery and fresh air (the windows are usually open on the bus unless it’s raining). Also, you can pay your bus fare with a simple tap using Alipay!

Final Thoughts: The number one reason I hear parents say they take a taxi is not because of the kids, it’s because of kid stuff. We live in the middle of a major city, not the desert! So ask yourself, do we really need three water bottles, four snack options, half a dozen toys, a full liter of hand sanitizer, and the Nintendo Switch for a one-hour trip to the park? A friend of mine used to have a house rule that if the 3-year-old couldn’t fit it in her mini-backpack it couldn’t come. Occasionally they would need to buy a bottle of water or some extra SPF, but I never knew her to be woefully unprepared. 

No matter how you get where you’re going remember we’re expats, travel is kind of our thing, so make it fun! Explore some new options of getting around the city; it’s really is as easy as riding a bike. *wink 

KEEP READING: Beijing Students Say the Darndest Things!

Photos: Unsplash

Occupying a full one-sixth of China’s total territory and offering an amazing variety of natural and cultural resources, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region never fails to intrigue tourists despite the mafan that’s involved in actually getting there.

Due to ongoing political tensions, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for foreign passport holders to travel there on their own, and in general, planning a trip to the area can be stressful. But now, China Railway Travel Service (CRTS) is offering a 16-day package tour which includes a round trip by the special Y201 (westbound) and Y202 (eastbound) trains which shuttle between Beijing East Station and Turpan in Xinjiang and costs RMB 5,280 for adults, and RMB 2,680 for children. For those that want to explore the fascinating, far-western corner of China, and aren’t short of time (or cash), this package tour looks to be quite a good option.

A man prepares traditional nan bread

The first service of this new train journey departed Beijing on Jun 23, carrying some 500 passengers. Equipped with hard upper and bottom sleepers (four per carriage), it will follow a Southern Xinjiang route, and traverses seven regions and cities – Turpan, Hotan, Qira, Moyu, Kashgar, Korla, and Kumul before heading to Dunhuang and Zhangye in neighboring Gansu, stopping in each for an average of one-and-a-half-days. Tourists will be able to visit countless scenic spots along the route, including ancient mosques, natural wonders, minority villages, old temples, and the relic sites of the Silk Road along the route (although for unknown reasons, foreigners won’t be allowed to visit Luobu, an ancient village in Korla which is best-known for its rigorous religious practices and traditional lifestyle).

When it comes to booking the tour, CRTS handles everything. As a foreigner, you’ll be asked to submit your passport details before getting official approval for the trip, a process that will take three to four days.

A local sells pottery outside a mosque in Kashgar

During the trip, tourists are expected to stick to the group traveling schedule, so if you want to work in any free travel time, you’ll need to submit an application in advance. According to the staff we spoke to, the paperwork is very simple, but of course, there are no guarantees your application will be approved.

Accommodation and food are included in the package fee, and tourists either spend the night at a local hotel or on the train itself, since the train sometimes runs during the night. The package fee does not include entrance ticket fees to sites visited during the trip, which vary between RMB 15 to RMB 100.

The ruins of the ancient city of Jiaohe in West Turpan

While the trip is presented as a 16-day journey, it must be noted that it is bookended by two 29 plus hour non-stop stretches while the train gets between Beijing and Zhangye, which are some 1,374km apart. So choose your traveling companions wisely, and bring a really good book (or three).

The trip operates every sixteen days, with the next departures from Beijing scheduled for Jul 30, Aug 16, Sep 1, and Oct 12.

Click here or contact 5183 1886 (Chinese-speaking) to reserve your spots.

Prefer something a bit shorter? You can now get from Beijing to Qingdao in under 3 hours

Photos: Mariam Soliman via Unsplash, Paul Piebinga via Instagram

Whenever I return to Shandong (Zibo) with the kids to see their Chinese relatives, I have to pick up my train ticket in person before I can board the train returning us safely to Beijing. As I carry a passport and not a shenfenzheng 身份证 （Chinese ID card), I must pick the return ticket up in person rather than from the automated machines. I am used to this. The line-ups are often long but we factor in the time necessary and eventually I make it up to the window and collect my ticket. On this particular occasion, I fully appreciated the design of the turnstiles—something I’ve appreciated for years—and wanted to share.

Years ago, in 2007, when I first came to China on vacation (not yet to live), I was travelling alone to Shanghai and Suzhou during the October holidays. The line-ups to the train ticket windows were so dense, it was difficult to see the shape, let alone the progression of the queue. When I finally got to the window, I required elbows of steel to stop people from pushing themselves forward and in front of me to wave identity cards and money at the tellers in a completely uncivilized and impolite manner. It was a frenzy, to say the least. I can’t imagine how the tellers felt. (Besides relieved to be protected by glass!)

Looking at the design of these turnstiles, I am amused by this memory of my 2007 travels. Clearly, someone had to think of a way to force people in China to identity a queue and then take their turn.

These spinning circles provide one “pie-shaped” space for the person being served and another “slice” of space to the person who comes next, happily separating them in a diagonal distance that disallows the person behind the opportunity to lean forward and jump the queue.

When the person being served is finished, he or she then spins the turnstile to get out, which directly allows the person next in line to be “spun” and then “spit out” at the window. The design is brilliant. And Shandong, Zibo’s train station is very civilized and orderly. No need for elbows of steel. The turnstiles and their steely elbows have done the job for us.

Only in China!

Photos: Charlie fong (Wikipedia) and courtesy of Ember Swift

We are heading for Harbin for the Ice Festival, and have decided to take the sleeper train. If you come from North America or Australia, this might not seem like such a novelty, but Britain is so small, you can hardly go anywhere that takes longer than forty winks. The boys are dizzily excited, and the most mundane things become thrilling innovations.
“This is a sofa! But it’s also a bed! It’s a sofa-bed!”

Joseph reclines luxuriantly on his bunk.
“This is the life,” he says.
“I always thought the life would be bigger,” Noah muses, surveying our cosy compartment. He tries to climb to the upper bunk, with little success, and has to be shoved up in undignified fashion. (It is only afterwards that we find the fold down steps by the door.)

Once aloft he is noisily delighted with his elevation, and Joseph becomes jealous. I tell him he can’t sleep up there, but I lift him up to see what it’s like.
“This is amazing,” Joseph says. “It’s like I’m exploring a different world.” He looks around. “Can I get down now?”
The voyage of discovery has taken around fifteen seconds, and there are still ten minutes till the train goes. Excitement risks degenerating into shenanigans.
“Now, what can we play with to pass the time?” Karen says in her brightest teacher voice.
“I’ve brought a tennis ball,” Noah announces proudly, and we all stare at him in disbelief.

Instead we play cards. The train outside the window begins to slide past.
“It’s moving,” Joseph says.
“No, we’re moving.”
Downtown Beijing at night I always find exciting. The city is a different place after dark, and when you have children it’s easy to forget this other side exists. Tonight the pyrotechnics are provided not only the neon lights but also by New Year fireworks, bursting and glittering to illuminate our departure. Joseph, cocooned in his bunk, gazes out of the window.
“This is just the best night of my life.”
Harbin has a lot to live up to.

Photos: Andrew Killeen

Net Savings is a regular series in which we spotlight businesses and services that accept mobile payment methods like online banking, Alipay, WeChat Wallet, and Baidu Wallet to help you get the most out of life in Beijing.

Back in 2010, when I was still a student at Renmin University, buying train tickets was a pain in the tunbu. Not only was the pre-sale period for regular trains a paltry 10 days (meaning you could only purchase tickets 10 days before departure), but we had to line up for hours at a hole-in-the-wall ticket window ahead of major Chinese holidays.

What a difference five years make! The pre-sale period is now 60 days before departure on the official China Railway website and 58 days at railway stations and ticket outlets. With mobile payment methods like WeChat Wallet and Alipay, you don’t even have to leave the house anymore.

Last month, I used WeChat Wallet to buy train tickets for an upcoming wedding in Wuhan. The interface was a bit clunky – I couldn’t buy roundtrip tickets in a single transaction – but the tickets were painlessly delivered to my house the very next day.

First, go to “Wallet” under “Me” and select “Rail & Flights.”

The interface switches to Chinese here, but it’s nothing complicated. At the top, you’ve got your departure point (Beijing 北京) and your destination (Shanghai 上海). Choose a departure date, then tap the green button.

There are a number of ways to refine the search results at the bottom of the screen. By default, they’re ordered by departure time (出发时间, chufa shijian). You can also order the trains by travel time (耗时, haoshi). The third option, 筛选 (shaixuan) offers some nifty filtering options.

Tapping it brings up this menu. I recommend only looking at high-speed trains (that’s the option with the check mark next to it). G stands for gaotie, the fastest rail class.

The menu on the left-hand side also gives you the option of filtering the trains by departure time, arrival time, departure train station, and arrival train station. When you’re satisfied, click the green confirm (确定) button.

The next step is to select your seat type (second class, first class or business class). That is, if you want to pick up the tickets yourself.

But since we’re lazy, we’re going to select the home delivery option (送票上门, song piao shang men) right off the bat. The service costs an extra RMB 30 per passenger but it’s so worth it.

You’ll be taken to this screen, where you can change your seating type at the top (default is second-class). To add passengers, click on the green words with the + sign.

For each passenger, first enter the name and surname without any spaces (e.g. SijiaChen).

If you have kids, tap the second dropdown menu and select 儿童票 (ertong piao). Otherwise, leave it as “adult ticket” (成人票, chengren piao).

Under “ID Type” (证件类型, zhengjian leixing), make sure “Passport” is selected as in the above screenshot. Enter the passport number in the next field, followed by the date of birth and sex (男 for male, 女 for female).

Each passenger’s details will be automatically saved in case you buy plane or train tickets in the future.

You’ll be taken back to this screen. Now to enter an address; tap 配送地址 (peisong dizhi).

You can use any addresses already on file in WeChat Wallet or add a new one. Click “Done” on the top right.

Check out as usual using WeChat Wallet, then repeat the procedure to buy return tickets. Yes, it’s annoying, but think about how much more annoying it was five years ago and be grateful. The layout is pretty much exactly the same on Alipay, so I won’t go into that.

Ta-da! The tickets should arrive within three business days. Happy travels!

Sijia Chen is a contributing editor at beijingkids and a freelance writer who has covered travel, tech, culture, parenting, and the environment. Her work has appeared in Travel + Leisure, The Independent, the Beijinger, Midnight Poutine, and more. Follow her on Twitter at @sijiawrites or email her at sijiachen@beijing-kids.com.

Photo and screenshots: Sijia Chen

Some general news from the Talking Travel desk this edition, much of it relating to airlines.

This deal from Hawaiian Airlines won’t benefit Beijingers directly, but for people with family or friends in Hawaii who would like to come visit will like it. Book between now and August 29, and travel on Hawaiian Airlines to Beijing until December 31, 2014, and receive 50 percent off a companion ticket. Other discounts and incentives apply, including 30 percent off on visa processing fees. Full details are here.

AirAsia X, the Kuala Lumpur-based budget airline, will increase its service to Beijing from seven flights per week to nine, starting October 1. Seems that not all airlines from Malaysia are having a bad year.

On Monday the Beijinger Blog reported that a passenger on a July 31 Air Canada flight from Beijing to Vancouver had contracted measles, and that other passengers were advised to check their immunization status. Think it can’t happen to you? Yours truly contracted the measles in Beijing in 1997, after having been inoculated as a child. It wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t fun, and, well, you certainly look different for ten days to two weeks.

American Airlines will be reducing its daily service from Chicago to Beijing from January 10 to February 7, 2015 to five times per week. That just happens to be after the Christmas travel period and just before Spring Festival/Chinese New Year.

Please note that disruptions to passenger air service along China’s east coast are expected to continue until August 15. Take. The. Train.

Arrivals from the PRC in Singapore were down 27 percent for the first five months of the year. Singapore has lost its luster as a shopping destination. Interesting story about the whole phenomenon here.

That’s it for this edition. See you Saturday. One road flat safe.

This post first appeared on thebeijinger.com on August 5, 2014.

Photo: The Beijinger

To begin, the image below is from the cartoon The Oatmeal. He, like Richard Branson, appears to be on the same wavelength with your Talking Travel writer when it comes to the need for reform of air travel.

Never a dull moment here at the Talking Travel desk. News reports earlier this week indicated that increased air delays can be expected throughout eastern China until August 15. If anyone’s flying between Beijing and Shanghai or similar destinations, I have to ask, why? Why roll the dice on an on-time arrival, when even the slightest hint of rain, so common this time of year all along that corridor, or the mere threat of air force activity will keep you on the round for hours? Don’t do it. Take the train. Really. It’s the best part of domestic travel in China.

Congratulations to Cathay Pacific Airlines on being named the World’s Best Airline 2014, for the fourth time in 11 years. I mention this because high-quality air travel is one of the benefits of living in Asia. Between Asian airlines like Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines, with a little competition from Middle Eastern carriers like Emirates, we’re reasonably spoiled. In any case, you can get to Hong Kong from Beijing on Cathay Pacific (actually most of the flights are on Cathay’s sister carrier, Dragonair) during the second half of August for RMB 2,135, including tax. That’s a good deal that I’m going to be using, inshallah. Sure, Hong Kong is hotter than hell then and it’s typhoon season, but it might just be worth it.

By the way, Air China has delayed adding a planned fourth weekly flight to Pyongyang until August 31. DAMMIT! The outcry from aid workers and journalists will be negligibly deafening.

‘Til the next blog, one road flat safe.

This post first appeared on thebeijinger.com on July 24, 2014.

Photos: The Beijinger

Photo by Wikimedia commons

It’s summer holidays and you want to get out of Beijing to hit up the Big Smoke that is Shanghai. The last thing you want to do is take tired kids on a ye olde train, right? Wrong!

The new CRH speed rail is here! And roaming blogger Matt Wester told us all about it:

Just in time for the CCP’s 90th, I had the pleasure of riding the latest glorious addition to China’s infrastructure, the high speed CRH railway linking Beijing and Shanghai. Specifically, my trip was the Northern route, beginning in Shanghai and ending in Beijing.

My arrival at the CRH station in Shanghai was not unlike preparing for a flight. Security, however, was a breeze. Bags were loaded directly into a massive X-ray machine while we stepped through an arch that must detect something – we were able to walk through, belts still buckled, smelly feet still sheathed, and cell-phones in our pockets.

To read the rest of this blog (and to see if this new fancy pants speed rail has decent toilets), click here.