Downtown v Shunyi
Where is the best place to raise our kids?
I wouldn’t live in Shunyi if you paid me my weight in French vanilla slice. And that’s alotta slice. It’s no slight on the place – in fact, I actually like to visit and know many sane, worldly and wonderful people who live there very happily.
It’s just not for me or my family. We don’t believe we would be happy there. I wouldn’t, my husband wouldn’t and my kids wouldn’t. There are many reasons (proximity to work, school, etc) but in a nutshell it’s because we are mini urbanites.
We love the buzz and the vibe of the city – the every day hubbub and challenge of intermingling on its thickly coated streets. We love being close to Gustomenta and Fun Dazzle and back-to-back local restaurants and little alleyways hiding local treasures like babies in those bamboo perambulators and grannies cooking on outdoor woks.
We like to actually live in Beijing whilst living in Beijing, rather than the TrumanShow-esque reality of Shunyi compounds. Although these compounds are most certainly beautiful and convenient – at what price? Who wants to be an Australian living in China inside a mini Australia? Or an American living in China inside a mini America? (Or South African, Hungarian, Mexican, Swiss… you fill in the gaps.) No way, not me. I can live in Australia when I go home.
I truly think that part of the rich, varied and highly enlightening experience of living in a foreign country (this is my kids’ first, but the third for my husband and I), is the host-country experience. The language, the culture, the vast differences and the quirky parallels, the idiosyncrasies that sweep us up and pull our brains and our souls from pillar to post. This is good for us, great for our kids and something that simply cannot be paralleled in any other environment.
Living in Beijing is such a unique experience. Why live inside an expat pocket?
Sure, some people have no choice but to live in Shunyi.
Others actually prefer it to Downtown, for varying reasons.
Some people live in this Shunyi expat pocket then immerse themselves in the “real” Beijing on weekends.
Some even live in a pocket whilst living Downtown (pockets aren’t necessarily Shunyi-exclusive).
Everyone is different and no blight on anyone who chooses to live in pockets. I just don’t want to do it.
Which leads me to ask the question – why? Why would someone choose to live in Shunyi and raise kids there? What is the “best” environment to raise kids in? Shunyi or Downtown? And what comprises “best” anyway? What’s best for one family may not be best for another.
Is there really a difference between these two main living environments for expat families?
What has Shunyi got that Downtown doesn’t and what makes it better living for kids?
Same question, in reverse.
Tania McCartney
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I'm the elder daughter in a family of four who lives in the "expat pocket" of Beijing that you mentioned in the above article.
For my family, it was a matter of convenience and safety that we chose to live in Shunyi. Both me and my younger sister attend a school in Shunyi, and living here means that a ride to school doesn't take an hour, but about five minutes. I can go to school on weekends if there's something I can only work on there or if I've forgotten something important there, and the majority of most other students I know live in the district. As well, Shunyi's not the busiest place on earth, which means traffic around the area is not at a constant standstill during the hours when people are let off work.
In addition, compared to the city, Shunyi provides a safer environment for kids, teens and toddlers alike. And opposed to what you said in your article, I don't feel that my life is exempt from embracing Beijing culture because of where I live. I don't feel like my family has "no choice" but to live in Shunyi.
There are plenty of locals here as well as in the city, and as a kid, I played with them. I've decorated my house with locals at my compound during halloween. Aren't these people who make up the culture and society of Beijing as well? I don't find interacting with the local people a part of the culture that one can only find when living in the city. There are art districts and other relics within a fifteen minute drive of Shunyi, and not only does my family visit those, but even my school offers visits there, particularly to art students and enthusiasts.
Not to mention, Beijing culture isn't centered around the city, unless you're aiming for strictly urban culture. You speak of mini-America's popping up in the Shunyi district, yet isn't it in the city that foreign brands open their stores to both expats and locals there? Aren't the overpriced YaShow stall-owners speaking broken english at their customers, rather than chinese? As far as I can tell, it is in the city that the government slowly demolishing the old culture to replace it with new, internationally influenced commercial structures and lifestyles.
So I believe I speak for all of us out here in Shunyi when I say, unless you're living in one of those hutongs, I doubt that you're any closer to Beijing culture than any of us in Shunyi are.
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I liked reading this piece on Shunyi - thank you for posting it.
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I'm not good at writing in english enough to express my opinion about the article. But as an expat in Shunyi, I totally agree with Ceriene. Thank you for your posting, Ceriene
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We live a couple of blocks from 798 Dashanzi Art District. We didn't get to choose, but I love it here and am so glad we don't live in Shunyi for the reasons you mention.
Honestly, those kind of developments creep me out back in the US, too.
One of the things I dislike most about Shunyi is that there don't appear to be any parks. From the maps I've seen and my experience, it looks like you're expected to just stay within your compound and use their facilities.
My kids often stop and play with Chinese kids on the street or in the restaurants here. At the parks, we almost exclusively find Chinese kids despite the fact that there are a lot of expats here. I'm not sure why that is, but I prefer it to them not meeting any Chinese children.
We walk whenever possible and take the subway when we can. We've made a real connection with some of the locals in our neighborhood.
But not everyone came to China for the same reason as my kids and I. We didn't want to be separated from my husband, but we also really wanted to experience a new country. We were excited to have this opportunity and look forward to future travel, too. I know some families would prefer to have their breadwinner be able to work in their home country. For them, I guess being able to make China as much like home as possible is the only way to stay sane.
I say to each his own, but I do think my kids are learning something valuable by truly being immersed in the Chinese culture and seeing it as we move among the locals in our daily life rather than it being approached as a field trip on an occasional weekend.