This year’s Beijing news has been good, bad, and ugly. Some of the blogs were written last year and years before but still remained relevant for families searching information on issues such as where to buy toys, rabies shots, online shopping sites, pollution, and more. Here are the ten blogs that caught the attention of our readers in descending order. Happy New Year!
Beijing French School Teens Believed Abroad Malaysian Airlines Flight
The saddest story of the year to hit the expat community was learning that members of the community were on board the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. Find out more about who was on board here.
5 Chinese Online Shopping Sites to Rival Taobao
This was written by one of our interns last year, which was a constant in out monthly top blogs as people searched for alternative online shopping sites to E-commerce giant Taobao. The sites do have an English interface that makes them easier to navigate.
Coming to Toytown: Beijing’s Best Toy Shops
Well kids outgrow toys faster than clothes! Parents searched our site to find out where to get toys in Beijing for purposes of getting birthday presents, or just to increase playing time. Find the places where to get toys and bookmark the page just to keep going back to it.
10 Things You Might Not Know About The Year of the Dragon
One of the interesting things learning about Chinese culture is the Shengxiao known in English as the Chinese zodiac getting to know which Chinese year of birth you belong to. The most viewed was the year of the Dragon find out if its a good or bad thing to be born in this year. Also, this is a blast from the past blog written in 2012 but still fresh!
The Painted Skin and Other Scary Tales: A Chinese Ghost Story Primer
Well this is a blast from the past that has stayed relevant over the years. This was written way back in 2011 and people still find it interesting to find out about Chinese folklore and urban legends that would make good movie creations in this day and age of really good effects.
Smogcast App: Tomorrow’s Pollution Forecast Today
Tomorrow’s dress code is sometime determined with a daily check of the weather report. Whether families need to make sure that air masks are out is what made this app popular. This app review was written last year but remains relevant for those wishing to be prepared for the next days. But sometimes a check in the morning works as well.
What’s That Air Purifier Really Doing for You?
Former beijingkids Deputy Managing Editor, used to work for an air purifying company where she was accustomed to answering queries about importance of an air purifier so she wrote this blog to help clear things up about having an air purifier in smog central.
Dumb and Simple: The Trick to Using Taobao without Alipay or a Chinese ID Number
The roadblock most foreign Taobao enthusiasts found was the payment method that was singularly based on credit cards, Alipay, and/or a Chinese ID card number, which made buying difficult. This step-by-step guide shows the use of a debit online banking method that overcomes the mentioned road blocks.
I Was Scratched by My Dog and Had to Get the Rabies Shot
A dog bite is not the only way to contract rabies but even a scratch is just as deadly. Find out how to go about getting the shots to keep rabies away for those without a vaccination. The good news is you can await it out to get the series of shots when your either scratched or bitten but the bad news is you’ll be either scratched or bitten.
Shunyi Foreign Foster Parent of 11 Disappears, Critically Ill Child at Hospital
The reports about American foster father to 11 ethnic Chinese children, Ray Wigdal hit the press after claims of child abuse rose when one of his foster children was hospitalized. This story evolved to our sister publication getting an exclusive interview with the man himself here in Beijing.
Photos: file footage
