When my daughter was born, I went on a panic spree about baby gyms and ended up on the calling lists of all the big ones in the city. But as she got older, I mellowed out about the “need” to sign her up for a baby gym, opting for an unlimited free play membership for kids 0-3 years old instead.
Recently, as my daughter is about to turn 16 months old, the gyms seem to be going through their Rolodexes (Yes, I’m old enough to remember those!) and giving me their sales pitches all over again.
There are plenty of these baby gyms in Beijing because, as the locals say, it’s too easy to make money off of kids. The gyms channel parents’ FOMO (fear of missing out) for their kids, and use that to sell rather expensive packages that (for those who might relocate out of Beijing) aren’t hard to commit to because you’ll finish using them all .
My colleague Julie Wolf recently gave new parents like me a list that includes red flags to look for at these baby gyms. But the baby gyms in Beijing are slightly different from those in the US.
Here are my tips based on many (many) trials.
1: Find a gym that’s convenient for you. Just like with grown-up gyms, you want a baby gym that’s convenient. Gymboree, for example, has multiple locations in Beijing, and as hard as their Joy City location sales rep tried to convince me to go try a class there, what’s the point? There’s no way I’m going to want to get in a Didi for a 20-minute drive there when I can simply walk to Solana.
2: There’s always a trial price. No matter which baby gym you’re interested in, it’s always good to try it out before you pay. Most of these places will happily tell you about their trial price, which you can either pay on site or through Dianping. Sometimes the price can be as low as RMB 10. But there are also places that won’t openly promote their trial price for whatever reason. In these situations, you need to tell the sales rep to arrange one for you. It’s really important for you and your child to try the place out before making a decision. Just because it’s an international brand, or they’ve got cool equipment, doesn’t mean they’ve got good teachers leading the classes. And as Julie Wolf always stresses, it’s the teachers who make the difference.
3: Is language that important to you? There’s a bit of inconsistency when the big international brands come to China. For example, the last family my ayi worked for lived in Haidian, and the MyGym they went to taught their classes in both English and Chinese. The one I took my daughter to taught the classes completely in Chinese. And even if they tell you that the classes are going to be taught in English, it doesn’t always mean much. We tried a baby gym (that shall remain nameless) where the class would have been better in Chinese than whatever unfortunate mix of languages the teacher was attempting. If having the classes taught in English is an important factor for you, I highly recommend Spring in Solana. They’re pricier than your average baby gym, but their curriculum and teachers are exceptional.
4: Price is always negotiable. Don’t take the price they show you on the sheet. Ask them for discounts and extra perks (like additional classes) to be included in your package. Most of the time you’ll be offered a “discounted” rate right off the bat, but if you keep asking there’s always more wiggle room. This is the reason why they don’t openly post their pricing online or in the store. Each salesperson has a target and makes a commission off of their clients. They have an incentive to sell to you and they’re all authorized to give discounts to make it happen. If they try to brush you off by giving you branded freebies, well, that’s nice, but a RMB 400 branded kid’s suitcase filled with toys that cost even less since they purchased them in bulk is only cute for a day or two. After that, it’ll most likely end up tossed into storage. Ask the gyms for stuff that actually matters.
5: Is there unlimited free play and how popular is it? It was important for me to find a place my ayi can take my daughter to play during the winter and on days when the air quality isn’t great. Most places will offer unlimited free play time in their public areas, and a designated gym classroom for their members, but some will restrict how many hours a kid can play there each day. It was also important for me to find a place where my kid could play with lots of other kids the same age, and the Gymboree at Solana, for example, is relatively empty during the weekdays while classes aren’t in session. Which means that if my ayi took my daughter there, she’d be playing on the beautiful baby gym equipment in a quiet, practically empty room by herself, or at the most with one or two other kids of various ages. If you don’t need a place that has unlimited play hours for your days, Spring and Little Oasis both have amazing free play areas outside of their classrooms that are available to members.
Check out our video channel for real videos of baby gyms, as well as recommendations for unlimited free play places all around Beijing. Or, if you’d like to find like-minded parents with kids around the same age for playdates, add TBJButler on WeChat and ask to join one of our many WeChat groups.
Images: Mina Yan
