Others

Others

Entertainment and Recreation

An invaluable guide to life in Beijing – with comprehensive listings of restaurants, bars, films, art events, community events – is the monthly expatriate magazines that can be picked up for free at many locations (including ISB).

There are many health clubs scattered throughout the city that have different standards of facilities. Expatriates in Beijing can play tennis, squash, golf and many other sports. Beijing also has leagues for Badminton, Basketball, Bowling, Cycling, Darts, Hockey, Running, Rugby, Soccer and Volleyball.

There are also an increasing number of places where you can eat many different types of foods and you can also sample ethnic cuisine from various parts of China, take in the sidewalk cafes or eat out at five star hotels.

If you like to read for your own enjoyment, bring lots of books. It is not easy or cheap to buy English books here. However, staff members share used books with each other. There is also a well stocked library within the school, and many teachers order books online from Amazon and Barns & Noble.

In most of the expatriate housing compounds a number of TV channels, including CNN, HBO, BBC World, AXN, Cartoon Network, CCTV9 (the Chinese international channel broadcast in English) etc are available.

Some teachers ship in their own bicycles; however, you can buy them here very inexpensively. This city has no shortage of bicycles! But easy come, easy go – bike theft is a common occurrence in Beijing.

Many of the out of town housing compounds offer inexpensive shuttle services down to the city center and taxi are relatively cheap. Also there is the extensive bus routes and the limited but expanding subway/metro/underground network.

There are many sights to see and places to explore in Beijing – the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, countless Temples. There are also popular day and weekend trips outside the city including the Great Wall, the Fragrant Hills, the Ming Tombs, the site of the Peking Man, the Marco Polo Bridge etc. It is just impossible to list them all!

Religions

Although religious activities in Beijing are closely monitored, there are activities for Catholics and Protestants as follows:
• Catholic Mass, Canadian Embassy, Saturday 5:30 pm
• Beijing International Christian Fellowship (BICF), Twenty-First Century, Sunday worship service (website www.bicf.org)
• Church of the Good Shepherd, Capital Mansion Athletic Club, Traditional Service on Sunday 10:00 am