China with a baby – all-time admiration

Why do children in China have holes in their pants at the crotch? Why are children carried and not carted? Why is the typical Chinese family a child plus 10 adults? We hasten to answer, with a post with practical tips for traveling with a baby to China.

Our idea of taking Olive to China was not met with very favorable reviews. There was some surprise, doubts, comments: “She will get tired”, “Why are you taking her so far away?”, “After all, it will be dangerous there”, “What about vaccinations?”. No one, but no one, even hinted that it could be a tiring trip for the parents as well. How was it in reality?

Should you go to China with an infant?

This trip wasn’t such a hop from the start. We used to drop everything and buy tickets as soon as there was information that there was a promotion. This was the case, for example, with tickets to Iceland, which I bought via my cell phone on public transportation, or to Cuba, which I secretly bought while on a training course. Tickets to a place we’ve always wanted to fly to appear, a quick exchange of links, dates and we buy…. I love the thrill of wondering if they will still be at that price, and then enjoying it like a child and starting to look for accommodations, planning, dreaming what we won’t see and do….

Well, so now it was different. The promotion was going on, and we were wondering. We wanted to fly, but our doubts were mainly related to the flight itself (it’s at least 8 hours on a plane, though) and health on the ground. We’ve read quite a few posts on other blogs whose parents have gone on an extended trip with their toddlers, about how to prepare and what to expect.

We also met with a pediatrician who said that Beijing itself is safe, so unless we plan to go somewhere further afield, he sees no contraindications – and then all our doubts were dispelled. We bought the tickets.

We’ve already written about air travel to the Middle Kingdom itself, so we won’t repeat ourselves, but there will definitely be a separate post on flying with a child. Here we will focus on aspects related to China itself.

White child through the eye of a Chinese

Did you read our post on Sicily with a baby? If you think Italians love children, you haven’t been to China yet! :) To compare the level of adoration of children of Italians and Chinese is like comparing the taste of frozen pizza to fresh, straight from the oven – well you can’t! :)

Here, the white child is quite an attraction, and the younger, the bigger. They pointed fingers at Olive, smiled at her, puzzled her, although neither we nor Olive understood anything. Some took pictures from hiding, and some without any restraint approached and photographed. There were times when we couldn’t walk calmly along the sidewalk because we were surrounded by a group of “fans” or every now and then someone would stop us.

Everyone, but everyone was enamored, and this is not just the humble opinion of parents enamored with their child. Those who weren’t paying attention probably just had vision problems ;) And seriously, every white child is besieged. We saw another couple with two blond angels…, it was just a ride. Unfortunately, in a negative way, because to this day I still have this image in front of my eyes: children stressed, they don’t know what is going on, because they are surrounded by a group of 20 people who are saying something, taking pictures of them. The children are crying in unison and those there even louder. We felt terribly sorry for both the children and the parents.

This “popularity” also fortunately helped. People are more open, they try to help, and we took advantage of this obliquely. For example, in the subway, which is not one of the favorite means of transport – we were always looking for a group of people who will smile and fool around in front of Olive, which may make the commuter experience a little more comfortable. Olive also eagerly led the way and coquetted with everyone.

We were also a rare sight for another reason: parents traveling alone with a child. In China, families travel in flocks – there is one child and 10 adults around. We have never met a mother traveling alone with a child! There was always a grandmother, sister, aunt, whoever, to help. Even if it seemed to us that a woman was walking alone with a child, a piece further away were grandparents, brothers, uncles.

Baby food in China

Food is the weak point of this program…. Fortunately, Olive is mainly breastfed all the time and this saved us the situation.

Breakfast at the hotel was still fairly okay – we made oatmeal, rice with fruit, some bread. Worse in the next places, hostels, where we had no kitchen, and buying good bread bordered on the miraculous. Those available in stores and bakeries are either bloated buns and breads with the Periodic Table in the ingredients (in Chinese!) or extremely expensive packaged 6 slices of bread. We saved ourselves with oatmeal, semolina and jars taken from Poland.

We were afraid to give food from local bars or pots standing by the street. Instead, we served cooked vegetables, which were sometimes served in pubs, and, of course, the ubiquitous rice.

On the road (during the day), crisps, rice waferszłin motion, although it is very difficult to get such things in the store locally. Modified milks dominate the baby food section. There are no jars, porridges, and only some expensive biscuits. In the normal departments, moreover, we found nothing special either.

Traveling in China: with or without a stroller?

China is absolutely unsuitable for moving with a stroller! We expected Beijing, which is a very developed city, to have an adapted infrastructure but unfortunately this is not the case.

They have perhaps the most developed subway system in the world, but not all (in fact, I would say a minority) of the stations are wheelchair accessible. If there are already elevators, they often don’t work, and if you do manage to get down to the subway station, don’t count on someone to let you pass or make room to get your wheelchair into the carriage – use the strength of your muscles and the width of your shoulders to fight your way into the carriage yourself.

The same goes for sidewalks, stores – people don’t give way, they don’t get out of the way – it’s you as a wheelchair driver who has to dodge everyone and be careful that someone doesn’t step on you. Eyes around the head. Curbs, stairs, high thresholds (especially in temples and palaces) – this is something to be especially careful of. Admittedly, the sidewalks and avenues themselves are fairly passable, but still, this is a crowded country and maneuvering a large stroller among the crowds is difficult.

However, the stroller comes in handy: we were able to carry things in it, change Olive, sit her down in a restaurant or put her down as she fell asleep. For us, the super Babyzen Yoyo worked well, which we could always złand took up little space whether on the train or bus. I’ll add that we were on our feet and out of the hotel all day, sometimes going somewhere farther away, and the stroller was not once a burden to us, only a help. You can purchase such a marvel, for example, here.

Carrying was also an integral part of the journey. For the trip we had our darling Safari sling and ergonomic carrier from the Polish manufacturer Lenny Lamb. We hesitated to use it at all, because when we left Olive was not yet sitting stably, but during the trip everything changed and we were able to fully enjoy the comfort of use. It saved us often, even on the Great Wall:)

Availability of hygiene products in China

Time for an interesting fact: in China, children do not wear so-called pampers;) Well, okay, they wear but not all of them (and for a short time…). A very common sight here is a child with shorts slit at the crotch, and underneath, if it goes well, a pampers, or everything on top.

Why? Convenience. There is acquiescence in the country for children to take care of their needs as they stand, whether it is on the street, in a store, on a bus, on a train…. Unsurprisingly, there are no changing tables (we saw a whole one during our entire stay!).

So how about the availability of diapers? You may not believe it, but in China we bought the best disposable diapers we’ve had so far :) In Beijing itself, there are quite a few large markets (e.g. Walmart, Wu Mart, Carrefour…) where you will find shelves stacked with diapers and wipes.

The only problem for us was finding small packages, because we didn’t want to carry 60 diapers with us. Fortunately, we were finding ones packaged in packs of 10-20, price-wise they came out similar, and they were really great: soft, absorbent and very strong. The price of one piece is approx. 1 yuan (60 pennies).

Vaccinations, medicines

No additional vaccinations are required for Beijing and Xi’an alone, including for children. Even if we insisted, infants are not vaccinated against tropical diseases, so this topic fell away from us immediately (vaccinations are limited and discouraged, so it is better to avoid destinations where they are indicated).

Drugs? We stocked up on everything in Poland. We took something for diarrhea, teething, paracetamol, eucalyptus oil, marjoram ointment and vitamin D. How about the availability of medicines locally? Fortunately, we did not have to convince ourselves. Admittedly, a runny nose happened, but we managed with what we had.

However, we entered the pharmacy to see how with the availability of medicines and no worries about the supply of drugs. Here we can find medicines, ointments, gels, syrups for children. Of course, everything is in Chinese and for the local market (we didn’t find a single brand we knew), but the ladies at the pharmacy were very helpful and even if they didn’t know j. English, then we coped by typing on dictionaries on the cell phone :)

So how about that fatigue?

Is going to China with such a young child a good idea? Were we more tired when traveling with a baby? I hasten to answer.

Yes, I believe it is possible to fly to China with a small child. Ba, I believe that the smaller the easier, which does not mean to take the newborn. What it isn’t. Olive was 8 months old and she was getting very interested in what was going on around her, she no longer wanted to sit quietly in a stroller and spent most of the day sleeping. On the other hand, she wasn’t walking yet, so we carried her a lot and she wasn’t independent enough to take care of anything on her own, so it was more involved for us, but fortunately, if not a stroller then a carrier.

If you prepare well and your child’s needs come first, I think it is safe to say that Beijing is the place to fly to with your child.

Were we tired? Yes. Is it more so than when we traveled alone? Not likely :)

Well, when the two of us were traveling our day was stuffed to the brim. Start early in the morning, return to the hotel very late in the evening. We walked a lot, took few breaks. Now it’s different. The plan is less ambitious, we take a lot of breaks, but on the other hand we have to take care of one more person – entertain, stimulate, change, feed. The sum total comes out similar ;-)

Summary

Traveling to China with a child is a challenge. We won’t sugarcoat that it’s light and pleasant. It is a country with a completely different culture, behaviors that can very much surprise, discourage or even disgust some people.

Here, a pregnant woman or a family with an infant does not have special privileges, and this must be taken into account. If you take into account the above tips, prepare properly, chances are it will be fun after all :)

Admittedly, every child is unique and something that worked for us will not always play in another, but that’s another story ;) A lot really depends on the parents – I’ve already written about this, but I’ll repeat myself: if the parent is calm and relaxed, so will the child :)

We have wonderful memories of this trip and do not intend to stop. We can’t imagine traveling without Olive now. And we also wish you successful and happy trips with your little ones :)