Beijing activities

The Great Wall of China

A must-see! There are multiple sections that are relatively close to Beijing. The best-known is Badaling, but most Great Wall reviews says that Mutianyu is much better, mostly due to the insane crowds at Badaling.

Unfortunately, Mutianyu is harder to get to, requiring either a somewhat lengthy bus-then-transfer-to-minibus ride (which did not sound like fun with small children) or a taxi/private car rental (which would have required us lugging the car seats all the way from Shanghai). In contrast, Badaling is accessible via train -- much more manageable, and no car seats required. And we figured that the cold weather would likely keep the crowds down.

The S2 train goes from Beijing North Railway Station to Badaling. Finding schedules online was a little bit of a challenge. This page currently has schedules, but that might change in the future!

Beijing North Railway Station is accessible via the Xizhimen subway station (line 2). There is plenty of signage in Chinese and English to direct you from the subway exit to the train station. Allow a few extra minutes to buy tickets at the station (it was 12 yuan/about $2 per adult; the kids were free) and get to your train. We didn't... and ended up missing our train! If you find yourself in the same boat and need to kill some time till the next train, there is a nice mall attached to the subway/train station. Plenty of restaurants and shops, and a fantastic fish tank on the lower level. And regular toilets, unlike the train station :)

The train ride takes about an hour, but the nice thing about trains is that the kids can get up and walk around, go to the bathroom, etc. Way better than a bus ride of the same length.

We were a little worried about missing the Badaling station stop, but it was very clear. It was the only station stop where the announcements were made in both Chinese and English :) Plus, pretty much the entire train got up.

Once we arrived, it was a short walk (a little under a kilometer) to the base of the Great Wall. There were signs, but we mostly just followed our fellow train travelers.

Turns out we were right about the cold keeping the hordes of visitors away. This is the main parking lot. Apparently, it is packed in summer, but on our visit, it was a ghost town:

This worked out really well for us, but I do think I'd opt for Mutianyu in summer, despite the hassle of getting there.

There are a variety of restaurants at the base of the Great Wall, but none up at the top, so bring food/water if you think you'll need it during your stay. Also, you might want to use the bathrooms at the bottom. The bathrooms at the top were probably the foulest bathrooms I've ever used in my life. Chinese toilets (which are stinky under the best of circumstances), port-a-potty style... ::shudder::

You can either walk up to the top, or you can take a cable car. Since we were getting a late start on the day (due to missing our intended train) and since it probably wasn't a good idea for me to hike at altitude while pregnant, we opted to take the cable car. It was 60 yuan (about $10) roundtrip for my husband and me. The kids were free.

Once you get to the top of the wall, you just walk... and walk... and walk. There are lots of steps, uneven terrain, and steep inclines, so it's a bit of a challenging walk for kids, especially little ones like Noob. And I can't see any way that you could bring a stroller up there. Needless to say, the Ergo was an absolute lifesaver. In fact, Littles got tired midway through, and Noob wanted to walk anyway -- so it was into the Ergo for Littles!

(This carrier isn't a great fit for her anymore; you can see how it hits her very low on her back, and doesn't support her bottom from knee-to-knee. But it's perfectly safe, just not quite as comfortable as it once was, for child and wearer. Still, better than having to either force her to walk or carry her in our arms!)

Despite the challenging walk, the views were absolutely worth it. Truly spectacular, and a highlight of our entire China trip.

Forbidden City/Imperial Palace

This is easily accessible from the Tian'anmen East or Tian'anmen West subway stations (both on line 1).

Unfortunately, our visit was a bust. It was freezing cold and so just a few minutes into it, the kids were literally screaming because they were so cold. So we ended up seeing just a handful of things before turning around and heading back to the hotel for some hot chocolate :)

If you plan to go during times of extreme temperatures/weather (hot, cold, rain, etc.), know that it's a pretty long walk from the entrance to the entire Forbidden City area (right near the subway exits) to the entrance of the actual Imperial Palace, where you pay your admission fee and all that. Both kids were already pretty cold by the time we got to the entrance, and it didn't get any better once we got inside. There are many "buildings" inside the Imperial Palace, but they are all open-air pavilions that provide virtually no shelter from the elements.

We really should have saved ourselves the admission fee and turned around at the entrance. It wasn't worth what we paid (40 yuan/about $7 per adult, plus a little more for audio guides that we barely used) for the little that we saw. The walk to the entrance would've given us enough of a taste of what it's all about without tormenting the kids any more than necessary.

Tiananmen Square

This is directly across from the entrance to the Forbidden City, easily accessible from the Tian'anmen East or Tian'anmen West subway stations (both on line 1).

It's just a big square with a lot of monuments :) Plenty of room for the kids to roam, and gawk at Communist-era architecture and statuesque soldiers. There are a bunch of museums in the buildings surrounding the square, too.

There is a lot more to see in Beijing, but that was all we had time for! Still well worth the trip!

Shanghai activities

We did a lot while we were in China, and some activities require a more lengthy explanation than our typical activities while traveling. So I'll do separate posts on what we did in Shanghai and Beijing, and link to them from the overall trip log. (Which I will write up, one of these days...)

Shanghai Ocean Aquarium

A pretty decent aquarium, not on par with a place like the Monterey Bay Aquarium, but still a very nice place to pass a morning. Easy to find from the Lujiazui metro stop (line 2).

City parks

There were lots of little city parks scattered around Shanghai. This one was right across the street from our hotel, and was a nice place for the kids to burn off a little energy and explore. (Even in the cold and rain of Shanghai in January!) There were people practicing tai chi there every Sunday.

The Bund

This is always rated as one of the top Shanghai attractions, but I wasn't really sure what it was until we went :) It's basically a walkway along the Huangpo River. On the same side of the river, there are a bunch of historical buildings from the British colonial era. Across the river, you can see the newer buildings of the Lujiazui area (visible in the picture above). It would probably be a lovely walk in nice weather, but you can see that the weather wasn't really cooperating during our trip :)

The closest metro station is East Nanjing Road (line 2), but it's a pretty good walk, so definitely bring your walking shoes and a stroller/baby carrier for the kids. We were somewhat surprised to find that there were no signs in the vicinity of the metro station pointing to the Bund, but it's not too hard to find once you know where you're going: Just walk east down East Nanjing Road and stop when you hit the water :)

Huangpo River Cruise

This is perhaps an even better way to see the Bund: Less walking, and protection from the elements! We chose a nighttime cruise, which leaves from near the Oriental Pearl tower -- that's the distinctive tower with the ball on top. It leaves at 7 PM and you can buy tickets starting at 6 PM. To get to the dock, from the Lujiazui metro station (line 2), walk towards the Oriental Pearl and then go down the little side street until you hit the water.

The cruise lasted about 45 minutes. It went up and down the river, turning so that both sides of the boat got good views of both sides of the river. The kids loved riding the boat, and I loved that we weren't out in the rain and cold :)

There is also a ferry that leaves from the ferry terminal, which is maybe half a mile south of East Nanjing Road on the Bund. It has very regular departures going up until 10 or 11 PM, I think. We decided against it, because 1) we couldn't find any information on where the ferry would take us :), and 2) it is a really long walk from the metro station to the ferry terminal. But it's very, very cheap (just a couple of yuan, which is less than a dollar, if I recall correctly), so if you're feeling adventurous, check it out!

Evening in Lujiazui

We went out to dinner in Lujiazui one night (there are lots of great restaurant options in the Super Brand Mall) and wandered down to the waterfront for a good view of the Bund from across the river.

Yu Yuan Gardens

We really enjoyed this place! It dates back to the Ming Dynasty (1500's). There are tons of ponds, bridges, buildings, waterfalls, and other spots for kids to explore. Beautiful! We spent the better part of a morning here and could have easily stayed longer. On a chilly January day, there weren't a ton of other visitors, but I've heard this place gets quite busy in the summer.

The gardens are surrounded by Yu Yuan Tourist Mart, which features tons of stalls selling various souvenirs and other items. Very touristy, but... well, we were tourists, after all! Definitely put your bargaining hat on if you want to buy anything.

You can get here from the Yu Yuan Garden metro stop (line 10). Pay attention to the signs. We went out the wrong exit and ended up taking a very long walk to get to the gardens. I believe the correct exit was exit 3, but double check when you get there.

Qibao (Water Town)

There are lots of "water towns" in the Shanghai vicinity, offering shopping, boat rides, museums, etc. Probably the best-known (due to being closest) is Zhujiajiao. Xitang and Tongli also get rave reviews.

Unfortunately, getting to those water towns presented something of a challenge, especially with young kids. They require hiring a car, taking a lengthy bus ride, taking a complex combination of trains/buses, etc.

So we decided to go to Qibao, which is nowhere near as beautiful and "authentic," but has the distinct advantage of being accessible via metro (Qibao stop, line 9). That allowed us to get in a nice visit and still make it back to our hotel in time for lunch and naps.

What is there to do?

• The highlight for the kids was definitely the canal ride (pictured above). It was short, maybe 10-15 minutes, but that was plenty long enough for the kids. And at 30 yuan (about $5) for all of us, it didn't break the bank, either.
• Tons of shopping! Warning: There are lots of toy shops, and it can be hard to drag young kids away when they get their heart set on something! The good news is, everything is pretty cheap :) We picked up a $3 doll set for Littles and a $3 train set for Noob that they both played with a ton during the rest of the trip.
• One street was full of stalls selling all kinds of food, mostly unidentifiable to me. The sights and smells of that street were quite a cultural experience!
• There are a few small museums. We didn't go in any of them, though.

If I were going with older kids, I'd definitely want to check out some of the water towns that are further afield, but with younger kids, Qibao is just perfect.

Shanghai Museum

A lovely art museum. If you and your kids are into art, you'll probably enjoy it. My kids were more interested in running around like crazy people, so we didn't stay long :) Which was OK, because it's free! Fairly easy to find from the People's Square metro station (line 2), but it is a little bit of a walk.

Shanghai Science & Technology Museum

Truly awesome! We planned to stay for a few hours in the morning, but ended up spending nearly all day there. It was fascinating to see science from a Chinese perspective -- a little different from what we're used to in the USA :) The highlight for the kids was definitely the Children's Rainbow Land area. Tons of neat activities that were right at their level, super fun but also educational.

It's impossible to miss from the Shanghai Science & Technology Museum metro stop (line 2). There are a bunch of little stalls/shops attached to the metro station, where we found some awesome deals, like North Face gloves made of Goretex for 10 yuan (a little under $2) -- they retail for close to $100!

Navigating the Shanghai and Beijing subway systems

Noob and me on the Shanghai metro

As I mentioned in my last post, we navigated both Shanghai and Beijing by subway, almost exclusively. Much cheaper than taking taxis everywhere, and much more convenient and safe, too, when you're traveling with small children who still require car seats.

Finding your way around
If you've used subway systems just about anywhere else in the world, the Shanghai and Beijing systems are pretty easy to figure out. Ticket machines, station signs, and train announcements are in English as well as Chinese, so you don't have to worry about deciphering Chinese characters to find your destination.

Fares
Fares are pretty cheap by American standards. Most of our rides on the Shanghai metro were either 3 or 4 yuan (about 50 or 66 cents) one-way. The Beijing subway is even cheaper, with a flat fare of 2 yuan (about 33 cents) one-way. In both systems, kids under 1.2 meters ride free.

Security
Many stations have security checkpoints, where you must x-ray any large bags. There are no metal detectors or other security checks if you don't have bags.

Exits
Most stations have multiple exits. It's a really good idea to figure out the numbered exit for the place you're trying to get to, if at all possible. We took the wrong exit out of the metro when going to Yu Yuan Gardens, and ended up taking a roundabout walk of about 15 or 20 minutes to get there. On the way back, we followed signs to the metro, and discovered that there was a different metro entrance that was maybe 5 minutes away :)

Crowded trains
The trains can be quite crowded, especially on weekends and during rush hour. Noob was almost always in the Ergo, which helped tremendously: We didn't have to worry about cramming a stroller onto a packed train, or about him getting lost in the shuffle. We had to pay closer attention to Littles, to make sure she made it onto the train with us and didn't get crushed by passengers who didn't notice her!

Interestingly, we found that in Beijing, people were very accommodating and almost always went out of their way to give up their seats immediately for my mother-in-law (who is in her late 60s) and the kids, and for me if I was carrying Noob, even on the very busiest trains. In Shanghai, this happened probably less than 50% of the time.

Beggars
Technically, soliciting isn't allowed on the subways, but we ran into a couple of beggars on the Shanghai metro. You can usually tell when they're coming because for whatever reason, they all have these karaoke-type machines that they sing into. So when you hear random music on the subway, it's probably a beggar coming through.

One incident that still haunts me is when a woman came through with a boy who was maybe 10 years old. There was something wrong with his eyes. We had read that people do sometimes intentionally disfigure/disable kids so that they'll be able to get more money begging, and both my husband and I got the strong sense that that was the case here. If you've ever seen Slumdog Millionaire, it was like coming face-to-face with that. It makes me sick that someone could do something like that to an innocent child. We didn't give any money, so as not to encourage that kind of behavior to continue.

Littles did notice the beggars and so we explained to her in very simple terms what they were doing and why. With older kids, you may need to be prepared for even more of an explanation.

Where to stay
In Shanghai, we stayed near the Xujiahui metro station, which is on the 1 and 9 lines. We rode the 1 and 2 lines the most by far, so staying on or near one of those two lines is a good idea.

In Beijing, we stayed near the Jianguomen subway station, which is on the 1 and 2 lines. Again, these were the two lines that we rode the most by far. The 2 line basically goes in a big loop around the center of the city, and the 1 and 5 lines cut through the loop. Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City are both on the 1 line, and the trains to the Great Wall leave from Beijing North Railway Station, which is on the 2 line (Xizhimen station). So if those are your primary destinations, staying anywhere on the 2 line or on the 1 or 5 lines within the loop will put you in a good spot for sightseeing.

To/from the train stations
The subway systems in both cities connect to most of the train stations. Note that there are multiple train stations in each city, and they are often quite far away from each other, so you want to make sure you go to the right station!

The high-speed rail train between Shanghai and Beijing generally arrives at/departs from the Hongqiao Railway Station in Shanghai. This is almost at the western end of the 2 line, so it's a good distance from the downtown area. I think we allotted about 60-90 minutes to get there from Xujiahui.

On the Beijing end, the high-speed rail trains arrive at/depart from Beijing South Railway Station, on the 4 line. It took about 20-30 minutes to get from there to Jianguomen.

To/from the airport
We took a taxi from the Shanghai airport to our hotel, but on our way home, my husband took a taxi with all the luggage, while my mother-in-law, the kids, and I took the metro.

Pudong International Airport is the eastern end of the 2 line. Again, this means that it's a good distance from the downtown area. In addition, the trains serving the eastern stations are shorter than the trains serving the rest of the 2 line, and run less frequently. This means that at Guanglan Road, you have to get off your train to transfer to another train. This might not be so bad when you're coming from the airport, but going to the airport, we ended up being on one of 2 or 3 six-car trains that then had to jam onto a single three-car train. As you can imagine, it was absolutely packed! Honestly, if I had to do that journey again, I don't think I'd take the metro, at least not with small kids. And if you have large amounts of luggage, definitely forget about it.

It might be better coming from the airport, since you'd probably be able to get a seat or at least stake out some personal space right away, which would help if the train did fill up at subsequent station stops. Then at Guanglan Road, you'd be transferring from a small train to a bigger train, which shouldn't be a problem. But still, be prepared for a long trip. It took us about two hours total.

Another option is to take the high-speed rail train, which runs between the Longyang Road station (also on the 2 line) and the airport. This is a little pricier (50 yuan/a little over $8 one-way, or 40 yuan/just under $7 if you have an airline ticket receipt or other proof of purchase), but still way cheaper than a cab.

The kids' health and safety in China

By far the biggest challenge during our trip to China was ensuring that the kids (the two outside ones and the one inside, too) stayed healthy and safe. To be honest, I didn't even really research much about this topic ahead of time. In retrospect, this was probably a good thing, because it turns out there were a lot of considerations, and I might have gotten scared off from doing the trip at all :) I will say that I'm very glad that we went and would do it again in a heartbeat, even knowing what I know now. So keep that in mind as you read the rest of this post…

Water
Drinking tap water in China is not recommended. We used bottled water for drinking, cooking (the service apartment that we stayed in for most of our time in China had a small kitchen), and teeth brushing. We did use tap water for bathing, hand washing, and dish washing.

Bottled water is cheap to buy, and hotels also provide bottled water. In the service apartment, the room had a water dispenser (like a water cooler that you might see in an office in the USA). A big bottle of water for the dispenser cost about $2 and lasted for 3-4 days.

Littles is old enough now to get her own cup of water, so we had to make sure that she knew to always get water from the dispenser, not the sink like she does at home.

Food
I've never been so thankful for the FDA. Say what you will about it and its regulatory teeth (or lack thereof), but at least in the USA, I have some degree of confidence that 1) food is generally produced in a safe manner and 2) if there is a food safety problem, it will be publicized (in a language I can understand) and addressed appropriately.

I had no such reassurances in China. Milk has been tainted with chemicals, produce has been grown using human feces as fertilizer, etc. Since we were doing a lot of our own cooking, we did most of our food shopping at Western grocery stores, rather than Chinese markets. Much of the food there was imported, which meant that the prices were (significantly) higher, but we had more reassurance that the food had been produced under safe conditions. When eating out, we just used common sense, and stuck to restaurants that came recommended or otherwise seemed reputable.

As in most places where you can't drink the water, eating raw fruits/vegetables isn't recommended either, since they may have been washed in tap water. Even if you wash them yourself, they could have come into contact with bacteria that water won't get off. I was really careful about this, since I had Q to worry about -- some bacteria can have little/no effect on a healthy person, but can greatly affect a fetus. The others were slightly more lax, and were fine (for the most part). As much as possible, I did try to get fruits/vegetables with a peel for the kids to snack on (bananas, kiwi, oranges, even stuff like apples or carrots) so that I could take the peel, and hopefully any bacteria, off before eating it.

Unlike many places where you can't drink the water, ice in restaurants isn't a concern. For starters, it's rare to get water in restaurants (tea is offered as the drink of choice), and if you do, it's usually warm (apparently, the Chinese believe that cold water is not good for you). But restaurants that do offer ice usually make it out of boiled or filtered water.

Food allergies
Noob is allergic to peanuts, and Chinese dishes often have peanuts in them. We steered clear of restaurants that didn't have English translations for their menus, to avoid accidentally ordering a peanut-containing dish. Sometimes, this meant choosing a less-desirable restaurant option, like the time that we needed a quick meal and we chose McDonald's over a Chinese fast food place that had a Chinese-only menu. But I'd take a McDonald's meal any day over a trip to the hospital to treat anaphylactic shock.

Car safety
Things I learned about cars and driving in China:

• American driver licenses are not valid in China, so we needed to take a taxi or hire a car/driver whenever we needed to drive somewhere.
• LATCH (or ISOFIX) seems to be completely non-existent. This meant that Littles’ Go Hybrid Booster could only be used as a booster, not as a harnessed seat.
• The seat belts I saw did not have the auto lockoff capability that is common on cars sold in America. This meant that I had to use the built-in lockoffs on Noob’s convertible seat when installing it using the seatbelt (which was, of course, my only option, since LATCH wasn’t available).
• Many taxis have a cover over the back seat that prevents you from accessing the seatbelt entirely, making it impossible to secure a car seat.
• There are no car seat laws in China, so you won’t get arrested for not putting your child in a car seat. Of course, if you get in an accident, the laws of physics (specifically how they relate to unrestrained children in cars) still apply…
• And just FYI, emergency services are not as reliable in China as they are in the USA. We went out to dinner one night with some of my husband’s Chinese co-workers and passed an accident on the way. I asked the Chinese about how long an ambulance would take to arrive. They laughed. “Oh, maybe an hour? Maybe more?”

Due to all of this, we took public transportation whenever possible. We found the subway systems in both Shanghai and Beijing to be very cheap, convenient, reliable, and safe. And no concerns about waiting an hour for an ambulance after my unrestrained child went flying through the windshield.

Pedestrian safety
As scary as driving was, sometimes walking around didn’t seem much better :)

• We had to be heads-up at all times while walking on the sidewalk. There were tons of little motorized scooters that drove at relatively high speeds on the sidewalks, and sometimes the random car decided to hop up on the sidewalk as well. We had to keep a close eye on Littles, in particular. (Noob was usually on my back in the Ergo, so he was less apt to wander into the path of an oncoming scooter.
• Red traffic lights seemed to be treated as a gentle suggestion to stop :) Even with pedestrians waiting to cross the street – or actually in the process of crossing the street. This was especially true of the motorized scooters, as well as bicycles. I usually tried to hide behind a couple of other pedestrians crossing the road, figuring the cars/scooters/bikes would hit them first!
• The subways could be very crowded at times, with lots of pushing, and people weren’t always aware of the kids. The Ergo really came in handy, as it prevented us from having to deal with a stroller, and put Noob more at adult eye level. But we had to make sure one of us always kept a firm grip on Littles’ hand when boarding/disembarking, to prevent her from getting lost in the crowds, and sometimes we had to keep her from getting totally squished.

Despite all that… we all survived! We just had to be a little more careful about things than we do back home.

Jet lag

Ahhhh, jet lag. Always "fun" to deal with. Even more "fun" to deal with when you're dealing with your own and that of two small children.

Small time differences (1 to 3 hours)
Since most of our travel has been within the Americas (lower 48 states, Canada, Mexico, Panama, etc.), we're generally dealing with small time differences of 1-3 hours. These aren't too bad.

Back when we lived in California, during Littles' first year, we traveled frequently to Texas (2 hours ahead) and the East Coast (3 hours ahead). We found it was actually good to keep her on roughly the same schedule, i.e. if we started her bedtime routine at 7 PM in California, we started it at 10 PM on the East Coast. Since we were often visiting friends and family, it was nice to be able to, say, go out to dinner at a normal hour and not deal with a cranky, overtired baby. But I don't know how well this strategy would work with an older child, who might naturally start to adjust to the new time.

Now that we live in Texas, we're usually dealing with 1-2 hour shifts. When we travel west, we expect a few mornings of early wake-ups, but the kids usually adjust completely within 2-3 days. When we travel east, we hardly notice a difference.

Medium time difference (6 hours)
We took Littles to England a few months after her second birthday. It's six hours ahead of Texas.

When we arrived, we had a few mornings of really struggling to get her out of bed. Luckily, we were there for a wedding, so we had good motivation to get her up at a reasonable hour, and then there was plenty of activity to keep her up until it was time to sleep again. We were in England for a full week, and while she did tend to sleep a little later than she does back home (waking up between 8-9 AM, rather than 7-8 AM) for the entire time we were there, that still allowed us time to do lots of stuff during the day.

When we returned home, she woke up earlier than usual (about 6 AM) for a full week, but eventually adjusted back to her normal schedule.

Large time difference (14 hours)
China is a full 14 hours ahead of Texas, so jet lag was a big issue on this trip!

We arrived at around dinnertime on Sunday night. The kids had not slept very much on the plane, and conked out pretty quickly that night, so we figured they'd sleep well and be on their way towards adjusting. Wrong! They were both up in the wee hours of the morning on Monday. Then they crashed at around 11 AM, and slept till after 9 PM! (They were just hanging out at the hotel with their Grannie while my husband and I worked, so it was fine for them to sleep most of the day away.)

After that day, we started enforcing a more normal nap/nighttime schedule, waking them up when they slept too long. Still, Noob in particular continued the wee-hours wakeup for a good week after arriving. I was usually the one up with him, and I let him play quietly but kept the room dark. He usually got bored after an hour or so and curled up with me to sleep some more. Both kids also woke up a tad on the early side (around 6 AM) for the first week. By the second week, they were back on a fairly normal schedule.

When we arrived back home, we had originally planned to keep the kids out of school for a day or two to adjust. (Especially Noob, who was starting at preschool for the first time.) But then we figured that school was actually the best place for them to get back on track schedule-wise! So we arrived back home on Tuesday afternoon and they were both in school on Wednesday morning. We warned their teachers that fatigue might lead to cranky/bad behavior, but both kids did well with it. Sleep-wise, Noob adjusted back to a pretty normal schedule within a few days, as did I. Littles woke up earlier than usual for over a week, but my husband was doing the same and so he usually got up with her and they hung out. Within two weeks, both kids were fully adjusted.

Free kids

Free kids, you ask? Am I looking to give Noob away to avoid having to do any more long-haul flights with him?

Nah... the flights weren't that bad. (I'll blog about those separately). Anyway, what I mean is that our kids were able to get in free to just about everything we did in China, from attractions to transportation.

This wasn't too unusual for Noob, who is just shy of 2 and is still able to get in free to many things in the USA. But even Littles was free, at age 4.5. Most places we went only charged for kids over 1.2 meters, which is just a little under 4 feet. Some places were even more generous and allowed kids under 1.3 meters to get in free.

I think Littles is pretty average height for her age, but she is well under 1.2 meters. Here she is at a height checker in the Beijing subway. You can see that she's well below the 120 cm line, even with her hat.

The two places where the 1.2m rule didn't apply:

• At the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium. They charged for kids over 1 meter. Littles just barely squeaked in.
• On the high-speed train from Shanghai to Beijing. Well, the kids could've ridden free... if we didn't mind holding them in our laps. For the 5-hour journey, we decided to splurge on child tickets, which were half the price of adult tickets. Still way cheaper than flying!

Almost everything we did was pretty cheap compared to similar attractions in the USA, and not having to pay for the kids made them an even better bargain.

Chinese toilets

Yes, this post will talk extensively about toilets. You have been warned.

Most toilets in China are just like the ones bck home. But at some point, you'll likely encounter a Chinese toilet, or squat toilet. If you've never seen one before, it looks like this (courtesy of Wikipedia):

(You may encounter these elsewhere in the world, too. For example, I used one on a trip to Japan, and one of my friends said that she had to use one at an Italian train station.)

Needless to say, these posed a bit of a challenge for Littles during our travels in China. Aside from the fact that, well, they're just different from the potties she's used to back home... she was physically too small to use them properly. The leggings or tights she wore did not allow her to separate her legs enough to straddle the toilet as she needed to.

What I ended up doing was this:

1. I had her face me, with her feet just in front of the longer narrower part of the toilet, while I faced her/the toilet.
2. She pulled down her leggings or tights.
3. I held her under her arms and lowered her bottom towards the toilet so that she could go.

I would strongly recommend being with your child the first time they encounter one of these toilets. Littles' first time was with my mother-in-law. Her solution to the squatting problem was to remove Littles tights. Which required removing her shoes. Then, Littles was indeed able to squat over the toilet... barefoot! I'm not easily grossed out, but that still makes me shudder, over a week later. I made sure to go with Littles the next two or three times she used a squat toilet, and by then, she was a pro and could use one with assistance from anybody. With her shoes on.

Even older kids who are fully bathroom-independent back home may need some help with these toilets the first few times, so be aware.

This should be less of an issue for boys, since they can just stand up to go, but I was still very glad that Noob was still in diapers for this trip :)

A couple more tips for these types of toilets:

• Some places have both types of toilets -- for example, on the train. They had little pictures on each stall door showing which type of toilet was in that stall.
• Bring toilet paper (or Kleenex) and hand sanitizer/wipes. Toilet paper and soap is often not provided.
• Hold your breath. Most of them stink. Really, really badly. (Which makes Littles' barefoot incident even grosser. Ugh)

American kids in China

The kids attract a lot of attention here in China. I guess they are a curious sight, given that they are young Western faces and that there are two of them! We've seen hardly any other Western kids during our stay, and thanks to the one-child policy here, it's rare for us to see two Chinese kids from the same family. Literally, I can think of maybe two or three instances of each of those that we've seen, in two weeks here -- and none of both combined, i.e. two Western kids from the same family, like my kids.

(Too bad I'm not showing more with Q. That would really blow everyone's mind :)

Sometimes this attention is welcome. Like when we got to the long line to clear immigration at the airport and an official took one look at the kids and waved us to the front of the line. Sometimes, it's not-so-welcome. Like when Noob throws a tantrum on the subway and I look up to see every face on the train turned our way. Just a typical toddler tantrum folks, nothing to see here, move along... please?

Noob attracts noticeably more attention than Littles. I don't know if it's a preference for his age, his sex, or his blue eyes. (Blue eyes are rare here. Littles' hazel eyes are closer to typical Chinese coloring.)

The attention often takes a form that Americans would consider quite intrusive and rude. For example:

• Apparently, we don't dress the kids warmly enough, by Chinese standards. So people come up to me and point out that there's a gap between Noob's pants and socks when he's sitting in the Ergo, or that Littles is only wearing tights (not the thick winter pants that Chinese kids wear) underneath her dress. They tell me in Chinese, of course, so while I know what they're referring to by now (after being told a million times), I don't understand the words at all. My blank stares don't deter them from going on. And on. And on. This happens, on average, about once per outing.
• If I don't put Littles' hair back before we go out, people will come up and brush it out of her face for her.
• People are constantly trying to touch Noob, play with him, even pick him up. He has some stranger anxiety and so this really seems to bother him. Keeping him in the Ergo prevents some of this type of attention, but not all.
• People frequently take pictures of the kids when we're out and about. They rarely ask our permission.
• Lots of staring. Not just when Noob is throwing a tantrum. It's pretty much constant. Often, the stares are accompanied by friendly smiles, but not always.
• On the train from Shanghai to Beijing, the kids were standing by a big window in the snack car. Noob was being an obnoxious little brother and pushing Littles out of the way -- hey, it happens. So I put him in timeout in the corner right next to the window. He wasn't crying or disturbing the other passengers, but almost immediately, one of the train attendants came up to him smiling and cooing in Chinese, picked him up, gave him a hug, and plopped him by the window next to Littles again. Timeout FAIL.

After two weeks of this, I've kinda gotten used to it, but it was definitely unnerving at first! If we ever return to China when the kids are older (and therefore more aware of others' reactions to them), I'll probably prep them directly about this. Otherwise, they might spend the first week wondering if there's something on their face or some other reason why people are staring at them :)

Getting a Chinese visa

I'll do a trip log for our China trip, just like I always do. But I'm finding that China is much more difficult to navigate than our typical destinations, and it's harder to find the information I need to do it effectively -- especially with kids. (I'm guessing that much of the information I need is out there... in Chinese.) So I'll do some shorter posts covering some of the details, and link to those from my all-up trip log.

The first step to planning any trip to China is getting a visa. They are a royal pain to obtain! For starters, they're ridiculously expensive. A normal tourist visa costs $140! That's more than a US passport! And while a passport is good for 5 years (for kids) or 10 years (for adults), a Chinese visa is good for only a single entry. You can get a multiple-entry visa for the same price, but even then, it's only good for a few months. What a rip-off!

Also, you cannot mail in a visa application, or get your passport with your visa mailed back to you. If you're lucky enough to live in one of the five US cities with a Chinese consular general, this isn't a problem. Houston is one of those cities, and we briefly considered driving down to get our visas done, but it would have been a full-day expedition (it's about a four hour drive from Dallas, one way). Then, we would have had to either pay even more for same-day service, or plan on repeating the journey a few days later to pick up the visas.

Instead, we decided to use a visa service. A quick web search for "cheap Chinese visa service" turned up a link to Chinese Visa Express. It's a little scary mailing your passport off to some random place, just weeks before you're supposed to leave the country. So I called beforehand to ask a question about the application, and was encouraged when someone picked up the phone immediately and helped me with my question. At least I knew I could get ahold of a human being if my passports disappeared!

This service worked out well for our family because they will send up to five passports back under the same return shipping fee, rather than charging a flat rate per passport. So "all" we had to pay (on top of the actual visa fee) was a $16.95 service fee + $4.95 processing fee per passport, plus a single return shipping fee of $23.95, for a total of just under $90 for the kids and me. Not too bad, considering my husband's visa service cost nearly $100 -- thankfully, paid for by his work, since this was a business trip for him.

The actual visa application process wasn't too hard. Chinese Visa Express provides a link to download the application forms (in PDF format) from their website. You have to fill out the form on your computer and then print it -- you cannot print it and fill it in by hand. You also need to provide a recent passport-size picture. As I mentioned previously, I used ePassportPhoto to do this easily and cheaply.

Even though we were doing all this over the Christmas holiday, the passports were returned very promptly, about 1.5 weeks later. This was for their regular service. They do offer various levels of expedited service if you need your visa back faster.

I would definitely recommend Chinese Visa Express if you need to get a Chinese visa.

Updated: Making a child's passport photo

I've updated my post from a few months back on making a child's passport photo. We recently had to apply for visas to China, which required a passport-style photo, and I discovered the wonders of ePassportPhoto for easily making passport pictures. Way easier than the process I outlined previously! Full details are in the updated post.

Trip log: Panama

Locations: Playa Blanca Resort, Panama City

Dates: July 7-17, 2011

Ages: Littles = 4 years 1 month, Noob = 17 months

Methods of transportation: Flying to get to Panama. We had to go through Miami, as there are no direct flights from Dallas to Panama City. We opted to do overnight layovers in both directions, so we left the Miami airport and spent the night in a hotel, rather than doing straight shots between Dallas and Panama City.

On the ground in Miami, we relied on taxis and hotel shuttles to get around. In Panama, we rented a car.

Accommodations: Vacation rental at Playa Blanca Resort, found through www.vrbo.com. Regular hotel rooms for two nights in Miami and one night in Panama City.

Sleeping arrangements: We spent the bulk of the trip (7 nights) in the vacation rental. It had three bedrooms, so Hubby, Noob, and I stayed in the master bedroom, my sister-in-law stayed in a second bedroom, and Littles had the third bedroom to herself. Noob slept in a pack-n-play provided by the vacation rental owner; the rest of us slept in beds.

In the hotel rooms, Noob slept in the Peapod Plus, and Littles slept in one of the beds.

Eating arrangements: We bought food at a grocery store in Coronado (about half an hour away) and cooked almost all our meals in the condo. The vacation rental provided a high chair, which made eating with Noob much easier.

Activities:
Hanging out at the beach. In addition to the beach at Playa Blanca itself, which was just a short walk from our condo, we also visited two other beaches (El Palmar and Santa Clara) located nearby. There are lots of these up and down the Pacific coast from Panama City, so you can take your pick. Many of these are open to the public but do charge an entry fee -- El Palmar cost $10 per car, and Santa Clara cost $3 per adult.

Riding horses on the beach!

Hanging out in the pool at the condo.

Visiting El Valle (about 40 minutes inland from our condo), a cute little town with a nice arts and crafts market, along with the Chorro Macho waterfall.

Watching ships pass through the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal, from the terrace of the excellent visitors center.

Key piece of travel gear: My solarveil mei tai carrier. We were in and out of the water all week, so it was nice having a carrier that I could use wet or dry. Also, the ocean was sometimes a little rough, so on those occasions, I loved putting Noob in the carrier so that he could dip his toes without being washed away.

Biggest challenges: Getting Noob's passport, as I explained in a previous post! Also, during the trip itself, we were worried about the kids and/or us getting sick from the food or water, so we were cautious about what we ate and drank, especially at first. But we found that food/water standards in Panama are much higher overall than they are in many other Latin American countries. None of us had any problems with illness.

What worked well:

• Overnight layovers in Miami. This did extend our trip slightly, but it was so nice not having to get off one plane and get right back on another one. It also greatly cut down on the stress of trying to make our connection, especially when our outbound flight was delayed by an hour.
• Mia's car seat. This was our first trip traveling with the Safety First Go Hybrid Booster, and it worked out beautifully. I'll write a full review later.
• Using a vacation rental. Some of our favorite features of our condo, compared to a hotel room:
  • Separate bedrooms and a living area. This allowed the adults to hang out in the evenings while the kids went to sleep.
  • A full kitchen. Our food costs were ridiculously low, and it was so much less stressful eating in the condo vs. packing up the kids to eat out.
  • Washer/dryer in the condo. This allowed us to cut down dramatically on the clothes we brought.
  • Little extras, like the pack-n-play and high chair for Noob, a telescope for Littles to play with, a collection of kid-friendly DVDs, etc.
• Being within walking distance of the beach. For example, this allowed all of us to go to the beach after breakfast, and then one of us could walk back to the condo with Noob when it was time for his morning nap.

What didn't:

• Having to install/uninstall the car seats multiple times (due to the Miami layovers), in multiple unfamiliar cars.
• Not speaking much Spanish. Luckily, my sister-in-law (who lives in Panama) was able to translate.
• Line drying. Being in the tropics during rainy season is not conducive to swimsuits, towels, etc. drying quickly!
• Sharing a bed with Littles. On our outbound layover in Miami, we booked a room with a single king bed to save a little money, and on our last night in Panama, Littles shared a fold-out couch with my sister-in-law. Littles is all over the place when she sleeps, and so the adult(s) did not get much sleep those nights :)

How NOT to get a child's passport

Getting Littles' passport four years ago was a breeze, so when it came time to get Noob's, we thought it would be the same. Instead, we ended up doing so many things wrong that I realized I could write a post detailing what not to do when it's time to get a passport for your child.

1. Wait till the very last minute.
This page gives the current processing times for passports. As of this writing, it can take up to 6 weeks. If you wait till 6 weeks before your trip and then start the process... Murphy's Law will inevitably kick in, you'll hit a bump in the process, and you'll end up having to pay an extra $60 to expedite.

We started the process about 8 weeks before our trip. Plenty of time, right? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

2. Lose (or forget to request) the child's birth certificate
You need to provide proof of citizenship to get a passport, and by far the easiest proof to provide is a copy of the applicant's birth certificate. So, if you've misplaced your child's birth certificate, or if you never requested a copy, you'll need to do so.

If you still live in or near the county where your child was born, check with the county clerk's office first, as they may have a copy there that you can quickly request in person. Otherwise, you'll need to go through the state capitol.

Noob's birth certificate had not been sent to our local county clerk's office, so we had to go through Austin. We opted to have it mailed to us, rather than doing a road trip to pick it up in person. They said it would take 10-15 business days. It took 15 business days on the nose.

That put us at 5 weeks before our trip, so we knew we'd need to expedite the passport.

3. Lose (or forget to request) the child's Social Security card
You don't need the actual card to apply for a passport, but you do need to provide the application's Social Security number. So if you haven't memorized your child's SSN and you can't find the card, you'll need to get that straightened out before applying for the passport.

We have Noob's (and Littles') Social Security card tucked away in a safe spot in our house, so this wasn't a problem. Yay!

4. Just show up to your local post office to apply for the passport.
Not all post offices have passport facilities, and those that do may require an appointment. Check this page to identify a post office or other nearby facility that accepts passport applications. It states whether or not the facility requires an appointment and also gives the hours, but you should call to confirm both.

We knew our local post office did have passport facilities, and when I checked the page above, it stated that appointments weren't required. So we just showed up... and found out that they had started requiring appointments about two weeks before. When I pointed out that the website said no appointment was required, the lady told us, "Oh yeah, they haven't updated that website yet." Great.

She gave us the option of scheduling an appointment for mid to late June (for a July 7th departure!) or going to our city's main post office, which did not require appointments for passport applications. We chose the latter.

In retrospect, it would have been a better idea to call other nearby passport acceptance facilities, to see if any of them had appointments sooner... but we didn't.

5. If you don't have an appointment, expect to be in and out in an hour.
We arrived at the main post office at 9:30 AM. We didn't leave until after 1 PM. We packed the diaper bag and snacks for Noob, but left them at home -- oops. Luckily, I had plenty of time to run home midmorning to pick them up, because we definitely needed them.

6. Send just one parent to apply for the passport.
When applying for a child's passport, unless one parent has sole legal custody, the child and both parents need to appear in person, or one parent must appear with a notarized Statement of Consent. (Full parental consent requirements are here.)

Thankfully, we knew this, but woman directly in front of us in line did not. And so when she finally got to the front of the line after waiting for nearly 4 hours with her two kids, she was told to go home and get her husband. Ouch.

7. Wait till you get to the passport acceptance facility to fill out the application.
It's faster to fill it out online and print it at home. That also gives you the chance to gather all the required information ahead of time.

We were almost ready to leave for the passport office when I thought, "Hey, why don't I take a minute to fill out that application online?" Good thing, because we don't have Noob's Social Security number memorized, and as I mentioned earlier, it's required on the passport application. Filling out the application ahead of time saved us another trip home to get the card.

8. Wait till you get to the passport acceptance facility to take your child's passport photo.
Again, not all facilities have photo capabilities, and even if yours does, it might be hard to get a good photo with your young child. I explained how to make your own passport photos at home in a separate post.

After all that, we finally managed to get Noob's darn passport... so now we can forget about this whole process and just renew it by mail in 10 years, right? Wrong.

9. Forget that kids must renew their passports every 5 years, in person.
Adult passports expire after 10 years and can be renewed by mail. But kids' passports expire after only 5 years, and must be renewed in person -- essentially using the same process as first-time applicants. That means that we'll be going through this entire process again for Littles next year. I plan to not follow the advice in this post :)

Making a child's passport photo

UPDATED January 2012: We recently needed passport photos for our Chinese visa applications, and I discovered that you can use ePassportPhoto's free service to easily create passport photos. This replaces steps 6 and 7 in the instructions below. I've left them in here for reference, but I highly recommend ePassportPhoto now. See more details below.

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We are leaving today for Noob's first international trip! Preparations started weeks ago, because we needed to get him a passport. The first hurdle was getting a good passport photo for him. He is in a serious separation anxiety phase right now, so I knew that taking him to a passport photo place would be a no-go, because this type of expression is probably not acceptable in a passport photo:

"Hey! That's Mommy over there! Mommy! Come saaaaaaaave me!"

Instead, I did his passport photos at home -- just as I did for Littles when she got her passport. It's really quite easy!

Step 1: Review passport photo requirements
This State Department page explains the requirements for passport photos, so you'll want to start off by reviewing it carefully and ensuring that you understand all the requirements. Don't worry too much about the exact sizing requirements right now; focus on things like avoiding background shadows, eyes must be open, etc.

The Photo Examples page is also very useful, showing examples of correct and incorrect passport photos.

Step 2: Find a white (or off-white) sheet to use as a background
We use white sheets on our bed, so finding a white sheet is easy. The hard part is getting all the wrinkles out, since the background needs to be non-textured :) This was my first attempt at Noob's pictures. See all those wrinkles? Ugh.

Step 3: Set up the picture
Littles was about a month old when I took her passport pictures, so I just laid the sheet down on the floor and then laid her down on the sheet. Super easy!

Noob is much older and more mobile, so I had to figure out a way to restrain him for the pictures. I ended up draping the sheet over the fence in our backyard, then putting Noob in his booster seat on a chair in front of the sheet:

Step 4: Take the picture. And then take another. And another. And another...
Seriously, this is the great thing about doing pictures at home. I took over 20 pictures for Littles and over 70 pictures for Noob, all in the space of less than 5 minutes! Just keep shooting, because a lot of them will look like the pictures above, i.e. super cute but totally unusable for a passport photo.

Remember that your child needs to be directly facing the camera, so you'll need to get directly over a child who is laying on the floor, or crouch down to the level of a child sitting in a chair.

If you feel comfortable using the links above and the information on this page to get the sizing right on the pictures you've taken, you can skip the rest of this post. If you don't, read on...

Step 5: Download the pictures to your computer and sort through them, looking for one that meets the photo content requirements
You still don't need to worry about the sizing requirements in this step. Just for a photo where your child is looking at the camera, has a neutral facial expression, etc. If you can't find any, go back to step 4.

Here are the pictures I chose for my kids:

UPDATED January 2012: You can skip steps 6 and 7 below, and instead use ePassportPhoto to easily create passport photos with the right dimensions. All you have to do is upload your raw photo (like the ones shown above) to the site. It provides a photo editor with a box that shows lines denoting where the top and bottom of the head should be. You get the head in the photo properly positioned in the box, and voila! Perfect passport photo! ePassportPhoto then creates a 4"x6" image with four copies of your passport photo, suitable for printing (see step 8).

This saves a ton of time! I recently had to do photos for all of our Chinese visas, and it took me less than five minutes per photograph.

Best of all, it's completely free! The trickiest part of the whole process is finding the link to download the free copy of your passport photos. ePassportPhoto also provides a couple of paid services (which are a rip-off, in my opinion, as they cost the same as getting passport photos done locally), so you have to look closely for the "No thank you" link that allows you to bypass those and just get the downloadable image of your photos.

I've left the old steps for doing this in here for future reference, but I highly recommend using ePassportPhoto instead, if at all possible.

Step 6: Crop and size the photo
OK, this is where you need to start worrying about the photo sizing requirements. This page explains the precise sizing requirements.

For Noob's picture, I just used the good ol' Paint program that comes with Windows 7. And a little bit of basic math :)

Paint comes with a handy option to show picture sizes in inches, rather than the default of pixels. This is the Properties page under the File menu:

And it has another handy option to show gridlines on the picture:

I counted the number of "boxes" between the top of Noob's hair and the bottom of his chin. It was a little over 8 boxes. I knew from the photo composition page that in the final picture, this measurement needed to be between 1" and 1 3/8". I shot for the middle and tried to make it 1 1/4". That meant that each "box" in Paint represented 1.25" / 8 boxes = .15625 inches per box.

Going back to the photo composition page, the eye height must be between 1 1/8" and 1 3/8" from the bottom of the photo. Again, I shot for the middle and tried to make it 1 1/4", or about eight boxes. I counted down 8 boxes from the row containing Noob's eyes, and that gave me where the bottom of my photo needed to be. I've put a red line in the picture below to show this:

The cropped picture needs to be a 2" square, so 2 inches / .15625 inches per box = a total of 12.8 boxes. I rounded it off to be an even 13 boxes.

Of course, I knew where the bottom of that box was (the red line shown above), so I knew where the top needed to be, too. For the sides, I counted how many boxes wide Noob's head is (about 7 boxes), and then "padded" appropriately on each side of his head to get to a total width of 13 boxes (so, 3 additional boxes to each side).

Then I used the select tool to draw my square. My calculations were a little off and I had to add another box to the width to make things look right. That's fine, as long as the final square really is a square :)

Then I used the crop tool to crop out the rest of the picture:

Now I had a picture that should be the right proportions, but I needed to resize it to actually be 2" by 2". It would be really nice if Paint allowed you to resize to a specific size in inches, but unfortunately, it only lets you resize by pixels or percentage. So, I choose a percentage that I knew would get me close to 2" by 2", but would still be a little larger. Then I started resizing one pixel at a time until I get to exactly 2" by 2":

The final pictures for my kids:

Step 7 (optional): Create two copies of the photo
You'll need to have two copies of the same photo, so to save paper when printing, you may want to create an image that has the two copies side-by-side. To do this in Paint:

1. Press Ctrl-A to select the entire picture.
2. Press Ctrl-C to copy it to the clipboard.
3. Go to File | New to create a new blank image.
4. Go to File | Properties and enter the size that you want the new image to be. I knew I'd be printing on 4" x 6" photo paper, so I used that as the size for the new image.
5. Press Ctrl-V to paste the picture into the new image.
6. Press Ctrl-V again. This will paste another copy of the picture. It will be directly over the first copy at first, but you can drag and drop it to somewhere else in the new image.
7. Save the new image.

Step 8: Print
I printed a low-resolution copy on regular printer paper first, then got out a measuring tape and made sure that all the sizing was accurate.

Then I printed the final version on photo paper. You can find this at just about any store that sells printer paper. I even saw some in the check-out aisle at Dollar Tree a few days ago!

UPDATED January 2012: For Noob's passport photo, I printed myself, and it was accepted just fine. For our Chinese visas, our visa processing service recommended not using printed-at-home photos. Since we were in a bit of a time crunch to get the visas, I didn't want to do anything that might put us at risk of rejection. So I "splurged," and sent the images to Walgreens for printing. Normal price for this is about 20 cents a print, but there are always coupon codes floating around online that will give you a significant discount. I ended up paying a whopping 38 cents total, to print all four of our passport photos. Not bad at all.

And that's it! It does take some time fiddling around to get the sizing right [UPDATED January 2012: a lot less time if you use ePassportPhoto!], but for my kids, at this age, it was worth it to avoid the trauma of attempting to get a professional picture done.