So this year I finally took the kids to China. Part of growing up, my passport did not allow me to go to China and my parent's insistence on sending me to Chinese school and their line, "but a billion people speak chinese" met with my skepticism of... well I can't ever go visit china. I had little interest in China.
In trying to make it different for my kids. We speak to them in chinese, they get sent to as much of a chinese school as possible (the 18 months at CNIS has made a difference) and I want to take them annually over their summer holidays for exposure, blocks that I feel if I had I would have had a better interest in the language (I have been making up for lost time and tell my parents they should have increased my chinese tuition).
So this was our experience... my two kids are 4 and 6. We booked a Service Apartment in a local community, took air asia from KL to Guilin as it is a direct flight (and we have rellies to bunk in with in KL) and stayed for 2 weeks.
We managed to get the kids into the local "Children's Palace" (which is a place in all chinese cities for children to do all types of activities from wushu to english to painting, dance and music). They took Wushu every other day with local kids, the teachers were quite good even if the classes were large and the kids had a great time. The classes were long too at 100 minutes. My sons started to make friends at about the time we had to leave.
We also too them to the following places:-
1.) cable car and luge at Yao Shan (german techonology), lovely views, highly recommended
2.) Gudong natural park, very well kept, I would say even to the standards of japan, no plastic, many waterfalls for the kids to climb, again highly recommended.
3.) Tiger and Bear Park - unless you like tigers or bears, highly NOT recommended. We did see something that I never thought I'd see, which was a mountain goat doing a tightrope walk.
4.) Boat paddling at I think it was Xihu.
5.) They have a big local park (Seven Star Park) with a zoo and the best vegetarian restaurant in the city. It was a hot day, it looked like we could have explored more.
6.) A nice cave whose name I forget but there are many interesting caves.
7.) Swimming with the locals at the end of one of the lakes (do check which lake)
8.) There are farms and farmers around, easy to show the kids different food plants
We also went to Yangshuo and had a bad experience with a travel agent so did not do as much as there is to do there. But they have a large park in the town for kids, there are mountain resorts to rent too that is very nice (will find the website if anyone wants), owned by an american. Some bamboo boat rides that the kids got to try their hand at steering and they also liked that big production that Zhang Yimou put together. The butterfly park (so-so).
The yogurt or sour milk as they call it, is something the kids took to. We did have to ask for no MSG at every restaurant. It was hot when we went and the traffic was a bit hectic but the scenary was great.
For those interested, PM me I can provide more details like recommended guides. We also spent a night at the Shangrila, which is on 50 to 70% off as they are not fully opened yet. Nice pool and playground for the kids and I never thought I'd say this... but it was nice to hear some Manglish and Singlish. 2 weeks was maybe too long with kids full on and I think 2011 - we may hit Guiyang (am here on business now and really liking the city).
The result... my kids spoke almost entirely chinese for about 2 weeks after the trip, they love their Wushu shirt and pants from Childrens Palace. Hope they are gung ho for next year's adventure...
