Family Adventure in the Middle Kingdom

The People’s Republic of China isn’t known as a family destination. But what makes a destination a “family destination”? A steady diet of family trips to Disneyland is like dining on chocolate sundaes. Delicious, yes, but sooner or later it’s time to take a look at what else is on the menu that has some substance.

Our family traveled around the world for 12 months. Reflecting back, there were only a handful of places that opened the eyes of our children to the immense diversity of the wide world in which they live. China is one of those places. Here are some recommended sights and attractions along with few tips to help your children get the most out of a visit to China.

Required Sightseeing

The Great Wall

The Great Wall of China is an easy day trip from Beijing and captures the imagination of kids and adults alike. Highlights, other than just being at the world’s longest wall, include a hike along the top of the actual wall, riding a zip line down into a canyon and seeing the vast contrast between the affluence of Beijing and the poverty in the rural areas you’ll hike through. (Read John’s Great Wall feature and his daughter Katrina’s Teen Voice essay on her experience to the historic sight.)

Tiananmen Square/Forbidden City

Located in the heart of Beijing, the Forbidden City was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and today is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. Tiananmen Square, the largest public square in the world adjacent to the Forbidden City, is a cultural touchstone and home to the Tiananmen Gate and Zhengyangmen Gate (also known as the Qian Men Gate) as well as the site of protests and political events.

 

• A young boy tries to get his kite off the ground in Tiananmen Square.

Matt Forsythe

What’s in it for kids? Well, for starters, you can tell them why the city was forbidden. To protect the emperor’s bloodline, aside from the emperor himself, only eunuchs were allowed into the inner courtyards of the palace, where the imperial family and harem lived. Even the emperor’s male children were exiled once they hit puberty. The life of a eunuch was fascinating in a macabre sort of way. Poor families provided young boys as a way to elevate the status of the family; after castration, the youth dedicated his life to serving the royal family. Since all but the eunuchs were forbidden into the inner courtyards, some of the eunuchs wielded great power.

This may not be a discussion you want to have with young children, but it is a great segue into the politics of corruption for older children.

For younger children, kite flying is a Chinese obsession and Tiananmen Square is ground zero. Buy a kite from a vendor in the surrounding area and spend the afternoon trying to get it airborne. Western children are somewhat of a novelty, even in Beijing, and your kids will be the center of attention. Local children will be drawn in and want to fly their kites with yours. Use kite flying to bridge the language gap and then let the day unfold.

 

• Just your average day in a hutong.

Murrey Jacobson

Home in a Hutong Hostel

Typical western-style hotels can be pricey for a family, even in China. Hostels are keenly aware that people don’t like sharing sleeping spaces with strangers and offer groups—like families—a room to themselves. Hostels offer a lot of benefits beyond the typical tourist or business class hotel for a traveling family; they are generally cheaper, come with a kitchen and cater to the traveler. Meeting like-minded travelers is your best resource for things to do and places to go.

Our hostel in Beijing was in its own little world, known as a hutong (traditional alleyways). A hutong is bounded by a large city block but once inside, there’s an absurd maze of streets intended for pedestrian traffic even though the occasional car makes an attempt to snake through. Many of these old neighborhoods have been and continue to be destroyed to make way for modern structures. A few have been preserved ... for now.

This is where traditional Chinese socialize and play mah jong. Locals shop and eat in the countless markets and nameless shops that make up the soul of the hutong. A casual visitor to Beijing may see the wide streets and dazzling lights, but you can’t understand the soul of the city without stepping inside a hutong. It’s a metaphor for China as a whole.