Global village

Schools in

Expat parents will have an easier time enrolling their children in Beijing schools after the Ministry of Education on Saturday authorized 20 schools in Beijing to enroll expatriate children. The newly authorized schools include four kindergartens.

Currently, there are 91 schools that accept foreign students nationwide, including 18 in Shanghai and 14 in Guangdong Province. As a growing number of foreigners come to China without expat packages providing for their children's educations, they are finding international schools to be unaffordable. Some schools charge more than $20,000 per child per year.

"It costs more to send your 10-year-old to an international school here than sending your 20-year-old to Harvard in the US," says American Mareno Rathell, who hoped to enroll his three sons in Chinese public schools.

Bulgarian Lydia Zhivkova Georgieva enrolled her son Todor Georgiev Argirov, who now studies at an international school, in a public school for several years.

He says: "Overall, the education level in Chinese schools is much higher in every area, be it sciences, humanities or literature."

Game on

There is still a chance to buy Olympic tickets and be part of this century's biggest world event. New sales methods for tickets to the Beijing Games will be implemented on November 5 following this week's technical problem.

People crowded in front of a Bank of China counter to buy tickets for the Olympics as part of the second phase of tickets sales, reflecting unprecedented demand. The online tickets sale site crashed when it received 8 million page views and calls to the sales hotline also exceeded 3.8 million.

Super size me

Expat women say it is extremely difficult to find size 12 items around China and usually have clothes made from magazine tear-outs or ask tailors to copy the clothes they have. "Occasionally, I am able to find sports clothes at the markets but never anything from regular stores," write Fini on expatsabroad.com.

Shoes are another problem, and many expats order from home, getting visitors to bring them clothing when they come. "Bras are bigger nightmare, so try to buy several before you come to China," writes Allison.

Giddy-up

One of the world's biggest races is being held next Tuesday, and any expats who feel like horsing around should get to any of the more popular watering holes and order a beer or three. The running of the $4.5 million Melbourne Cup shuts down Australia every year and always generates interest in the expat community. The race starts about 1 pm.

AND ANOTHER THING...

Why is there no First Ring Road in Beijing? In the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), a ring road appeared around the Forbidden City as it was being constructed. The road surrounding the Forbidden City was known as "No 1 Road" and also as "First Ring Road". Historian Zhang Jinqi told Danwei.com that the Ming Emperor constructed a "First Ring Road" along the moat surrounding the Forbidden City. Zhang curates MemoryOfChina.org, a website that collects historical materials about Chinese buildings and cities.

(China Daily 11/02/2007 page19)