Rediscovering Beijing: Temple Fairs

Someone needs to explain to me the reason for and appeal of Temple Fairs. We decided to go to one since someone kindly gave us tickets to the one at Taoranting Park. It was easy enough to get to by subway. Then the first thing we saw on entering was the amusement park. So guess where we spent most of our time and money! But even when we coaxed the kids away all we saw was rows of food stalls, at least what we could see through the crowds. And don’t even get me started on the bathroom crowds!

There must be something we are missing. We just spent most of the time frustrating the kids because we refused to buy everything on offer. And eating some kebabs to the sounds of Gangnam Style on continuous loop. By then we were about frozen and headed out. What’s the deal?

Rediscovering Beijing: The Planetarium

Yesterday the kids were begging to go out and I was tired so I thought about where we could go that would be easy by subway. It was freezing and windy so it would also have to be indoors.

Finally settled on the planetarium just three subway stops down and across from the zoo. They'd been there when thu were three so it was almost new. We picked a film that was starting soon and ended up being in the dome. They learned about the constellations and I traveled back to my childhood when I loved visiting planetariums. They isn't even complain about not watching the 3d or 4d cartoons.

For this and entrance for me and two kids paid 115 rmb.

The museum itself didn't hold a lot of interest for my overactive 7 year olds, mainly pictures and and long explanations.

We had lunch at the museum canteen, got huge portions for 30 rmb each.

The Spring Festival Experiment

So, it's impossible to book an affordable trip during Spring Festival anywhere Chinese people go, in or out of the country.

So, we're going to have fun close to home in Beijing. Kids are off school, I've quit my job effective Feb 1, the city will empty out and there is lots we haven't done or seen.

My list so far:

Hutong tour
Water cube
Nan Shan snow park
Science museum
Aquarium
Great wall
World park

Just a not very original rant about stereotypes

I get tired of hearing Chinese people are like this or that – they are aggressive and selfish, they are kind and giving and hard-working. Surely they are both those things, and more, as are all people groups in the world.

Let me illustrate with a story that just happened to me. I decided to take my three kids to the Olympic Forest Park by subway. So we didn’t go the most efficient route and we spent longer traveling than at the park. But that’s another story. As we got on the first subway train, the seats were all taken but I was fine standing with Joshua (3) for just a few stops. Still, a lady got up to give Joshua her seat, and before I even realized that she had, a young man sat down in the seat, apparently to be next to his girlfriend. The woman started berating him, gently but firmly, but he just stared at her and didn’t budge.

I was shocked and honestly speechless trying to process it. I felt so bad for this woman and regret that I didn’t yell at him myself or get out my camera and ask him again. Sure you can’t force people to give up their seat but to take someone else’s that they were giving up for a child is beyond disgraceful.

I tell this story to show an example of someone kind and thoughtful and someone who is a complete jerk. And they are both Chinese. In fact, by the time she’d given up and stood by the door, some other men gave up their seats for all of us. And for the rest of our journey on all but one train people moved for us.

Their father said he would have basically beat the guy up if he had been there. I said you can't do that or you will make yourself more of an ass than he was. And in fact there was a newspaper article a few days later about a man who did just that and was arrested. And in fact, public opinion was in favor of the man who didn't give up his seat for a woman with an infant (he had a health reason apparently). Yes, you can't make people, but communicate people and be courteous when you can.

At work, when breakfast is delivered (yes we get meals of sorts delivered), there are what I call vultures just waiting to take most of it and certainly the best of it. There can be such a culture of me first here that at times I want to slug people myself. But then others of my immediate colleagues will themselves haul some food away and offer me some. They don't like this behavior either.

Suddenly Seven

I admit with some shame that when my twins were born, for the first months all I could think about was how long it would be until they turned 18 and left for college. I didn’t realize that in fact once the “blur years” were over, it would get fun much faster.

Now they are turning 7 and, like every parent when a birthday comes around, I wonder how it passed so quickly. How the nursing and bottle feeding turned into eating sub sandwiches. How the diaper changing turned into locking the bathroom door to do their business. How the tottering turned into dreams of flying. How the scribbles turned into Chinese and English words

I think too of the (positive) things that haven’t changed. The laughs. The smiles. The need for mama. The dirty knees. The spaghetti, and chocolate, faces. Ethan the adrenaline junkie and artist with a love of drawing and dancing and a stubborn streak I don’t know where he got. Isaac the fearless sports player so eager to please and to be a big kid.

Suddenly Seven. And too Soon Seventeen I fear.

My Kids are Failing School (And I’m Proud of Them)

I suppose when my child brings home a 52 on a test, I should feel ashamed. I should push him to study more. I should devote more time to his education. I do do all those things, but mostly I feel proud.

You see, my twins are in a Chinese public school after living the first 5 years of their lives in the US not speaking much Chinese besides farting words and watermelon. After a year of immersion in a nursery school, then pre-school, they entered primary school.

They’ve tolerated it very well, even thrived. Yet we constantly battle the high expectations that most parents have of their children – understandably in an overpopulated country. Fortunately for us, as bilingual kids with a US passport, they will have plenty of opportunities in life so we can be relaxed.

Don't get me wrong, we do expect them to be constantly learning. So when they bring home a semester report card with a 100 in English, 92 in Math (amazing by itself considering the emphasis on math here and that problems require reading Chinese) and 50 in Chinese, I’m quite okay with that.

Chinese Education in Action

Last week the twins’ school had an open house, which of course we found out about a few days before and had to rearrange our work schedules. We took turns in each class, with me sitting in on Ethan’s during the math lesson.

Sitting there watching him squirm in his seat as others sat erect with their arms folded as instructed, I wondered if he was really ready for real school. It didn’t surprise me that he wouldn’t raise his hand to answer questions (or rather did only a couple times and very half-heartedly) - as in any school there are those who always raise their hands and those who don’t and his Chinese is still behind. Still, the teacher tried to call on everyone fairly (at least when parents were watching) and when Ethan didn’t raise his hand, she called him up to answer a question. He stood there still squirmy but listening and he answered the question correctly and loudly enough to meet her standards.

I decided he will do fine for now. During the usual lecture to parents part of the morning, the teachers listed the names of those who were doing well (not sure how that would go over in a US classroom) and both of their names made the list (although I may have misunderstood and those are the kids doing well in English!). I’ve heard that they sometimes use them as examples for other students who don’t get their homework done, as in “look, they have two and they’re still learning Chinese and they still do their homework”. We don't worry about grades at this point, just that they are learning - a 62 in Chinese, a 94 in English is normal (though I wonder how Ethan can miss the difference between a rabbit and tiger in English!) .

I only got to see Isaac in action during art class. The teacher put up all these nice pictures of cakes and things made of playdough and went through all the instructions for making the different shapes. So most of the kids made these small round shapes and little balls and some made some very intricate patterns and designs. Isaac, well, he made a big lump of what most people thought was an airplane but was in fact supposed to be a lizard. I was kind of cringing waiting for him to be told that wasn’t what he was supposed to be doing, but other parents appeared to be impressed, even taking pictures. And when five students were called up to get recognition, he was one of them. I was glad to see thinking outside the box rewarded. And I was also glad he knew how to say lizard in Chinese, because I wouldn’t have been able to help there!