The Burris Bunch
American mom of four, Riitta Burri, has lived in Beijing for over two and half years. When her husband got a job in Switzerland, she chose to stay behind for a few months with three of her kids (Niels, 10, Livia, 9, and Ellen, 7) to open a chic tote bag boutique, MyBag!, in the 798 Art District. The Beijing Burri clan are all set to up sticks and join dad and older brother Jan, 12, in their new home in Switzerland. Before they wave goodbye to the capital, they took some time out to share their family favorites with us. Ian Cook Photographed by Mishka Family Photography.
Want to share your Beijing favorites? E-mail editor@beijing-kids.com.
Kids Clothing
We like the market across from The Kunlun
Hotel – they have one specialty shop with brand names. There’s one little hole-in-the-wall clothes store that’s good for the girls. And for the boys, Zara at The Place.
Place to take Visitors
We go to the Temple of Heaven as a family, as well as the 798 District. Of course there’s the Great Wall, but we like to take visitors out to Mutianyu, up the back way, and we always go through the forest. Those are the three places we like to show our guests – the rest we let them
explore themselves.
Summer Fun
We like to go out to The Commune at the Great Wall. That’s always a nice excursion. They have good burgers there – we’ve tested them!
Date Night
We go out for sushi. Sushi is my husband’s favorite – there’s Hatsune, and Haiku in Block 8.
Break from Chinese Food
Metro is my children’s favorite for Italian. They like anywhere we can go for burgers, like Durty Nellie’s. For pizza, we like Annie’s, of course. Since coming to Beijing we’ve had this family tradition that every Sunday night is pizza/movie night, so we’d have pizza at Pizza Buono near Workers’ Stadium and then watch a DVD as a family.
Favorite Restaurant
The Taiwanese dumpling restaurant Din Tai Fung for jiaozi or The Orchard out in Shunyi.
Sweet Treats
They like to go to Cold Stone Creamery. But they also like the normal little ice cream shops that sell the Nestle and Magnum ice creams.
Indulgence
It’s difficult when you have four kids with the age differences, but there’s Merry Water World – it’s a huge pool with slides. We also like Happy Valley or the Sony ExploraScience Museum.
