Teen Favorites! Meet Eddie W.

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Eddie W. moved to the UK when he was five and returned to Beijing three years ago. The 12-year-old is currently a student at Harrow Beijing (HBJ) and enjoys playing the piano and reading in his spare time.

What was the best thing you did as a family during quarantine?

Eating lunch together every day, something we rarely did before COVID-19.

If you were a tourist traveling to Beijing,  what are the five places you would visit?
I would definitely go to the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Summer Palace, and the National Museum.

What’s your favorite weekend activity as a family?
Going for a walk in the park.

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What are some of the challenges you have faced while living in Beijing?
Dealing with traffic congestion and having to cover vast distances within the city due to Beijing’s enormous size.

What is your favorite restaurant?
Pizza Hut

What’s your favorite Chinese dish?
Malaxiangguo (Spicy Dry Pot)

What were your first emotional reactions to the COVID-19 outbreak?
To be honest, I didn’t think much of it at first. I had initially thought that it was just the emergence of a new flu that was probably going to be suppressed within a few days’ time. It wasn’t until the infection numbers inflated that I began to really take it seriously.

What are the changes you have made to adapt to quarantine life?
As a result of COVID-19, our whole family had to stay at home – my dad needed to work remotely from our house, and I had to participate in off-campus online learning. My mum has been more into baking recently due to the inconvenience of buying pastries from shops during the pandemic. The virus also allowed us to exercise more and pay attention to our physical health. We have also adjusted our timetables to match each other’s schedules so the whole family could be available at certain intervals.

What do you think is the most important character strength and why?
In my opinion, resilience – the ability to recover quickly from difficulties – is the most important character strength, because the key to successfully completing any initiative is to keep going, even in the toughest of times, and to withstand challenges with determination.

How would you define leadership?
Leadership is the ability to take the lead and actively participate in an initiative, to set clear goals, formulate efficient strategies to achieve them, and to motivate and inspire your teammates.

Your family’s most important house rule is:
To always keep everything tidy and organized.

How would you sum up life in Beijing in 5 words?
Convenient, secure, comfortable, enjoyable, busy.

What is the most vivid memory of school life?
Raising money for charities. This made me realize that we can really make a positive impact on the wider community and pave the way for a better future world.

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Photo: Uni You

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