Beijing This Month | Business Beijing | Beijing Official Guide | Map of Beijing | Beijing - The Magnificent City | Beijing Investment Guide | Beijing Fact File
Article featured in Beijing This Month, December 2002
Publication sponsored by Information Office of the Beijing Municipal Government,  Beijing Municipal Bureau of Tourism

Beijing 2008 Olympics

Arts & Culture
Beijing Basics
Business
Dining
Editorial
Health & Wellness
Love & Life
Nightlife
Shopping
Sport
Classifieds
Get by in Beijing
English 1000, Chinese 1000

Holiday Inn Lido Prepares for Santa's Fifth Visit

2002/12/01

For the fifth year running, the official Santa Claus will be back at the Holiday Inn Lido Beijing to again meet up with all his young local friends (and older ones too) from previous visits, and as usual will have his big bag of presents to hand out once he has fed and bedded down his four reindeer at the hotel's stables.

The reindeer led by red-nosed Rudolph-and Santa's sleigh will kindly be provided by SAS Airlines to bring him all the way from his Toy Cave in Sweden near the Arctic Circle. Santa is particularly looking forward to seeing the Chinese children who have got to know him over the years, and learned to love him like other children all over the world. And he certainly loves them, as all children know.

Santa will be in the hotel lobby from December 10 to 25 from 7pm to 10pm. Once again, he is really looking forward to having his photograph taken with all the children who visit him there. But he has to charge parents a few yuan for this because he needs the money to feed his reindeer and also to help poor and underprivileged children who don't usually get any presents at Christmas. This is all part of the goodwill he shows to everybody, children especially.
Santa plans to arrive in Beijing on December 5, and stay in a special grotto at the Holiday Inn right up to Christmas Day. Most exciting is that he will be the special guest at the hotel's annual Children's Winter Wonderland Party on Saturday, December 7, at 2pm in the Grand Ballroom.

Naturally, with such an important and kindly gentleman again coming to Beijing, this magazine's Chief Christmas Reporter telephoned Santa Claus at his Toy Cave. As usual, he answered the phone with the greeting: "Ho, ho, ho,"and asked our reporter what she wanted for Christmas. "l' tell you when you get here,she replied, "because it's something unusual that I want to give to my mother."Santa thought this a good and kind idea, and also invited our reporter to share some Christmas Pudding with him at the Lido.

During the interview, Santa Claus was asked if there was anything special about this Christmas."There certainly is,"he said. "The Holiday Inn Lido and myself fully believe that it is about sharing, so I hope the children and grown-ups who visit me during December will think about, and join, the hotel's efforts to help children and other people whose lives are hard, and when often there is no money to give children an education.

"The generous people at the hotel, and countless other kind people, contribute to these needy people all through the year, and I hope that even more people will help them with what they do. At Christmas 2000, for example, the hotel ran aToys-for-Tots donation scheme, when children and their parents brought me gifts and a little money for orphans who were looked after by kind people in Chaoyang District.

"They even brought used but serviceable toys along, and the orphans loved these just as much as new ones. This is what giving is all about. We should all think of those who are not so well-off as us, and help them whenever we can.

Meanwhile, the Holiday Inn's lobby is being decked out with a fabulous Christmas tree, twinkling lights and other decorations in preparation for Santa's arrival and all the Yuletide celebrations.

A Merry Christmas to everyone involved, and to all our readers.



 
*