Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Finally, if kids will be in the picture in Changping, there are several education options.
For younger kids there is Windsor Bilingual Kindergarten (
ht-
tp://vancouver.windsorkindergarten.cn
)
, situated several kilometers directly north of the
final stop on Line 5. Close by, Ivy Schools also has its Tiantong campus
(
www.ivyschools.com/Schools-TT
)
and takes two- to five-year-olds. For older kids, Huijia
Private School (
www.huijia2000.com
)
, a boarding and day school, uses an IB curriculum
and offers grades from primary through to high school.
Tongzhou sits east of Chaoyang at the north end of the Grand Canal of China, and because
of this it's an important agricultural region. Sadly much of this fertile plain is being deve-
loped, and a ride out this way on the aboveground Batong Line or on a bus feels like a dusty
journey indeed. Tongzhou covers 906 square kilometers (350 square miles) and accom-
modates more than 1.2 million people, and like many of Beijing's regions earmarked for
rapid-fire development, that number is likely to be entirely different come the next census
in 2020.
As the inner city continues to blow out its belt notches, this is one of the areas in which
the government has chosen to relieve the pressure. New housing developments and infra-
structure are major items on the agenda. Not only will Tongzhou be eventually connected
directly to Haidian by high-speed transport, but in the near future it will also be the location
of the new Beijing East Railway Station, which will be a major hub connecting Beijing to
the south, with high-speed train routes that include the Beijing-Tianjin Inter-city Railway
and the Beijing-Qinhuangdao Inter-city Railway.
In the meantime, though, getting out past the East Fifth Ring Road is still quite con-
venient. It's serviced by both the Batong Line and Line 6, which run roughly every three to
10 minutes, depending on the time of day. Tongzhou Railway Station and Tongzhou West
Railway Stations are in the district, which you can use to get to Huairou, Miyun, and into
the city. The only problem is that, unlike on the subway, there are only a handful of trains
every day and they are unlikely to be of use for a commute to work. On the upside, if you
do choose to live out here, you'll get three to four times as much as what your friends in the
city get for the same price, with new, modern three-bedroom apartments going for under
RMB5,000 per month.
One of the main attractions out in Tongzhou is the Songzhuang artist village. But don't
come here expecting to find another 798. This really is a village, and many struggling artists
live privately in their studios, which are out of sight from the main street.
