温榆河公园 (Wēnyúhé gōngyuán) Whenyuhe Park, which just opened last year, is my new favorite natural space in Beijing for so many reasons:
- Admission is free!
- It is within the 5th ring road and a one-and-a-half-hour drive from downtown Beijing.
- It is huge, with wide-open spaces and green rolling hills, plus no amusement parks in sight! (Though there is a train the kids can ride.)
- There are bookstore cafes on the premises where you can simply read and sip tea or coffee.
- There is a sandy beach area by the river which offers water activities like boating.
- Camp Leopard!
Take a walk through the park with us in the video below!
Camp Leopard is a newly-opened day camping facility minutes away from the park’s lake and beach area, offering up to six hours’ worth of family-friendly activities. You can book one of their rustic little tents for just under RMB 700 and choose from a variety of tents overlooking the camp’s golden sunflower field. Enjoy their homemade fruit pizzas, ice creams, or juices (which are included with each tent booking) while sitting inside or outside the tent on a cushy chair. You are also welcome to bring your own picnic lunches.
There’s a small trampoline, hammock, and small kids’ toys available at the campgrounds to keep the kids occupied. Though just exploring nature will already keep your kids busy and out of trouble. For a small additional fee of around RMB 200, the camp’s super-friendly staff will lead the kids in a host of nature-driven activities that include painting a straw hat, learning to identify insects and to catch them, planting rice saplings in the paddy fields, and catching mudfish. Older kids can even learn to cut down the mature rice plants and harvest the grains! This involves handling a small sharp scythe so some parents may want to supervise, but the staff – all of whom are farmers themselves – are more than capable of managing the kids safely.
This brings me to my next point: parents can be as hands-off as they want, or participate in the activities. We sat around and chatted while the kids attended the straw hat-painting and insect identification classes. When it came time for insect catching though, most of us trekked through the tall grass alongside our kids to help them find grasshoppers and crickets, which we later chose to release. (You can bring them home as pets too.)
Even though the kids will don wet gear that covers them up to the chest, be sure to pack at least one change of clothes, for both parent and child, as we all got splashed aplenty as we excitedly stood around the mud pool pointing out mudfish for the kids to catch. Again, you can choose to release the mudfish you catch or bring them home. Apparently, they make an excellent dish served with tofu.
If you are staying in Beijing during the upcoming Golden Week and need a place for the kids to run off some steam, Whenyuhe Park and Camp Leopard are an absolute must.
Address:
北京市朝阳区孙河乡来广营北路1号院、2号院
Sunhe Township, Chaoyang District, Beijing, to Guangying North Road
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Images: Vivienne Tseng-Rush, Qi Shu
