The Dream of all "Noodle Dreams"!

They prepare a great spread and are kid friendly at DinTaiFeng. They even have a play room.

Now that we've been in Beijing a few weeks we've made our rounds through some of the local spots for Niu Rou Mian (Beef Noodle Soup), one of Karen's favorites, and some of the other local cuisine. I've never been a picky eater but our daughter is not the meat eater I'd hoped for and our soon to be two-year old son is surprisingly picky at times. Of course we were very interested to see how these first few weeks would go in respect to meal time.

We recommend getting one of these shirt bibs for your toddlers. Kids and Chinese food is like kids and spaghetti. It's going everywhere. After we saw a few Chinese kids wearing these we realized we should do as the locals do.

"You go first".

Karen and her Niu Rou Mian.

Jacob enjoying some fried noodles with dried fried green beans and shredded pork (Rou Si Chao Mian).

Jacob at "Blue Frog" taking a break from the Chinese cuisine and enjoying some western delicacies.

For anyone coming to Beijing with children it's a good idea to get familiar with some of your local options right away. There are plenty of kid friendly western options and though the local Chinese restaurants don't typically carry a children's western style menu they are very willing to accomodate the kiddos.

Checking out what else they have at one of our favorite noodle spots.

I decided to try a few things.

No Reservations.

...and of course a little something to wash it down with.

The expat hang-outs have plenty of higher priced western style burger and mac n' cheese joints that will surely please the kids. However, if your children like noodles and mores specifically the local noodles, then almost any local restaurant will have a non-spicy noodle dish that they will enjoy. You'll have to experiment a little but don't give up on the local cuisine so quickly. We were surprised when we recently went to a famous Beijing restaurant (DinTaiFeng) known for its meat dumplings (xiaolongbao). They were also voted number one for family friendly restaurant in Beijing Kids Magazine. While we were there we also ordered a braised duck dish which our two-year old absolutely enjoyed. He ate it like he was famished. He was doing so well that we decided to leave it to him to finish off and he did. It must have been a quarter of a whole duck.

Jacob loving some duck.

Concentration is key.

Isabelle is becoming quite proficient with her chopsticks.

We've been here almost a month and we've eaten at local spots (not including breakfast since the hotel provides that each morning) about 75 percent of the time. As is true with most things in Beijing the local spots (non-western/non-commercialized) are certainly much more inexpensive and offer an opportunity to take advantage of the localized economy. If you frequent some of the more commercialized areas that draw a larger expat crowd you may find your cost of living easily reaching or surpassing that of what you may have experienced in the States.

Dong kuazi ba! (Dig in!)

In a future post after we have a few more eateries under our belt we'll rate and recommend some of our favorites.

What a pretty smile.

Still hungry?

Great Wall Trip Numero Uno!

So as most of our facebook friends know from the photos posted last week, we had an opportunity to go on a day trip with Marines visiting from the International Affairs Program in the DC Area.  This trip included a visit to the Great Wall, Tiananmen Sqaure, and the Forbidden City.  It was a great chance to get to see some of China's most treasured sites.  We ran into some inclement weather by day's end, so we decided to get the kids home and forgo the Forbidden City, and we only stayed for a few minutes at Tiananmen Square.
Aside from our early departure, it was a fantastic day, and our fellow FAO's and Marines were so accomodating and helpful with the kids!  We definitely could not have made it through the Great Wall trip without their help, most notably with carrying our kids on portions of the stairs leading up to the wall. 
Thanks, and    (Insert Motivational Grunt Here)   !

All the Marines in our group...Oorah!

We went to the section of the Great Wall known as Mutianyu.  According to our wonderful trip coordinator and fellow FAO, this is a well maintained portion of the wall that is less overrun with tourists.  This meant we had a chance to explore with minimal crowds and unobstructed photo-ops.  It was also as kid friendly as a structure with a ton of stairs could be.  You don't have to worry about loosing your footing or pieces of the wall sloughing off while trying to move on the wall.

Isabelle made a quick friend in our driver to the Great Wall

Waiting with our group to climb the stairs to get to the Great Wall

The bottom of the stairs to get to the Great Wall.  This was before Isabelle's legs were, in her words,  "too tired for climbing stairs"

Isabelle quickly hitched a ride with one of our FAO friends

Jacob also changed hands midway up the stairs

Finally, we can see the end!

Yes! Finally here!

Beers and Motrin with the Colonel at the top of the Great Wall

Yes, I'll have one too!

First Great Wall Family Photo

Group photo in front of one of the many Guard Stations, spaced a couple of hundred meters apart along the wall as far as the eye could see.

My sweet girl

Someone found her energy supply...racing on the Great Wall

...and someone lost their energy supply

Notice that the stairs are made to fit little feet

Isabelle taking it all in.  Magnificent views!

Isabelle relishing in her celebrity status here

China's National Forest Protection Army

Now it's our turn to take our cheesy tourist photo

Meeting a very friendly vendor

Sonny with Kim, our amazing trip planner:)

This one's a framer!  Another family photo before descending the moutain...

...and what a fun way to go down!

Weeee!

Isabelle and her new favorite Marine right behind me

If you couldn't tell, we had an amazing time on our first of probably many family trips to the Great Wall.  I could not stop wondering in amazement how laborers and craftsmen were able to make that climb with the huge bricks that crompise this wall.  In those days they definitely didn't have the stairs WE used to climb up the mountain.  It's just something you stand back and stare at in awe, trying to imagine how much must have been mobilized back then to complete such a formidable wall. 

I'll leave you with some of the photos captured that just need no words.  It was an incredible experience seeing such an integral piece of China's history that still tells its story to this day.  I would encourage anyone visiting this region to make this a stop on your travels, it's a must see that has no substitute.