Get in quick before you find yourself on the slow boat from China

I started this Beijing countdown fifteen weeks ago. I remember the day I first blogged about it and how utterly immediate those four months seemed to me back then – so immediate, my breath seemed permanently caught in my throat.

Now, I have just four days. I don’t think I’m breathing at all – just in case I miss something precious.

I suppose being so grief-stricken over leaving a city is perhaps a little odd. I feel like someone has carked it (Aussie slang for died). Really. I keep doing those really deep, woeful sighs and my eyes are on automatic tear-up; I have absolutely no control. And to make matters worse, today is the 19th anniversary of the day I lost my mother. So, it’s a heavy, heavy day.

This past week has been typically busy for a family leaving Beijing, but it’s also been a time for us to stop (very occasionally) and pause and appreciate this illustrious town. In keeping with my passion and adoration for the capital, I have kept my eyes wide open as I’ve scurried around town, seeking out the things I want to appreciate just one last time.

Most of us stay here a while, but that while evaporates so quickly, I can hear the lamenting “woulda, shoulda, coulda’s” all over town. So don’t lament. Plan early and get busy.

Thusly, here is my must-do list for families during their last year in Beijing…

• Drag your carcasses across Hou Hai lake on a skate chair.

• Crack your teeth on crab apple toffee sticks.

• Meet Mr Magic.

• Nibble the legs of a centipede at the Wangfujing Night Market.

• Have ayi show the kids how to make jaozi and bing.

• Eat from a jian bing cart on the street.

• Suck the juice out of a pork jiaozi at Ding Tai Fung.

• Trawl toys at Hongqiao Toy Market before it closes (soon!)

• Stick your noses into flowers at Lai Tai and Liangma flower markets.

• Visit a temple fair during Spring Festival.

• Take gong fu lessons with your son or tai chi lessons with your daughter.

• Visit an orphanage.

• Support an orphanage.

• Support community events whenever you possibly can.

• Put stickers all over the house and learn a new Chinese word every day.

• Buy a kids book on China from Wangfujing Street.

• See an acrobatic show at Tiandi theatre or a big show at Poly Theatre.

• Run around the altars at Ritan Park and then have tea in the garden.

• Be part of a fund raiser.

• Support other fund raisers.

• Fish for plastic fish, enjoy a cranking ride or a bounce at any Beijing park.

• Snuggle with a book on a wintry morning at the BookMark or the Bookworm.

• Create smooshy clay pots on a wheel at Happy Land in Shunyi.

• Support an NGO to help eradicate pan-handling.

• Go to school fairs and Christmas Bazaars all over Beijing.

• Ride a public bus or the subway.

• Take photographs of the changing seasons and put them in four different albums.

• Take a photo of each child in front of the same view at the same time each month and make a book.

• Speak Mandarin wherever you can.

• Strike up a friendship with some local kids and parents.

• Ride bicycles through the white puff blossoms that fall at the end of summer.

• Make a snowman with one jiao coins for eyes.

• Set off fireworks on the street.

• See the lotus blossoms busting out with pink in early August.

• Join in with the tai chi, ballroom dancing, ribbon twirling or hackysack kicking. Just once.

• Use the local Chinese gym equipment on the streets.

• Fly Chinese kites on fresh spring breezes.

• Have your back suctioned with hot cups.

• Have a foot massage and include the kids.

• Take your daughter for a manicure and pedicure.

• Have a traditional qipao made, in silk, for all the girls in the family.

• Have Chinese pyjamas made for the boys. Silk please.

• Wander the hutong alleyways.

• Take a boat ride to the Summer Palace.

• Visit World Park and travel the world in one day.

• Eat pancakes for breakfast at Grandma’s Kitchen.

• Learn how to play mahjong.

• Adopt a pet from the BHAEEC animal shelter.

• Keep tickets, postcards, receipts and photos and stick them into a fat family scrapbook.

• Eat noodles longer than your children are tall at the Noodle Bar.

• Watch a Chinese kids film.

• Eat locally and buy local food. Try organic.

• Scoff mooncakes and make sure you read about their history.

• Breathe in every moment and treasure it while you can.

Of course, this is but a teensy weensy selection of Must Do things. The moment I post it, I’ll think of more.

So, does anyone have their own must-do additions?

Tania McCartney