Day 117 Children’s Day, Beijing, China
The 1st of June is Children’s Day in China. We were due to fly to London today but changed our flight plans so that we could experience Children’s Day in China. We had no idea exactly what Children’s Day was all about but since we were travelling with two chidren we thought it was a good enough reason to find out!
As it turned out we decided to celebrate Children’s Day a day early because it would be easier to do what we wanted without all the extra kids around! I researched movie cinemas in Beijing and found the Sanlitun Village shopping mall with a Megabox cinema. It screened films in English with Chinese subtitles.
We successfully got a train and then our first bus in Beijing very easily to the mall and bought tickets for ‘Kung Fu Panda 2′. There is no way we could leave China without seeing ‘Kung Fu Panda 2′! The other reason for bringing Children’s Day forward; cheap movie day on a Tuesday with 1/2 price tickets. Cost us $20 Australian for 4 tickets; still a cheap movie for 4 people by Australian standards but the 2nd most expensive movie outing for us in Asia (Harris and I paid $12 for two movie tickets in Hong Kong).
The movie was great and we all enjoyed it. For lunch the boys chose McDonalds; Steve and I chose to eat noodles from the supermarket food stall which cost just 5 yuan and 9 yuan each ($2 in total for both meals!) It is traditional that children are given money on Children’s Day so wanting to keep with tradition we gave our boys 100 yuan each. This can buy a lot in China. Patrick became the proud owner of a new Hot Wheels car for 45 yuan and Harris bought a small Chinese figurine for 15 yuan. Both were keen to spend the rest of their money but didn’t find anything else that they liked.
We ate our lunch sitting outside in the open mall area of Sanlitun Village. There is a water fountain in the main courtyard that becomes the central attraction as kids and adults run through it; some successfully and others walk away drenched. During the time we ate lunch the attraction for everyone was one small toddler that would sometimes bravely walk towards the water spouts by himself and sometimes insist on the company of a parent. He was captured on many a camera! Harris joined in the fun and got quite wet. Lucky it was a warm day and he dried in time to catch the bus and train again.
The boys enjoyed their Children’s Day and asked if they could celebrate it every year.
We said “Yes … every year that we are in China for it!”
Fantastic! Can’t wait to see Kung Fu Panda 2. But to have seen it in China is an outstanding effort! Well done! And love the fountain!