Capture Beautiful CNY Photos at The Peninsula Hotel For Free

Mina Yan Jingkids

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Around the time my daughter was born, I came across one of those "new mom inspiration" stickers on Facebook, and find myself still agreeing with it 100 percent to this day. It was something along the lines of, “If you’re ever wondering whether you should take a picture of your child, take the picture because you’ll never get this moment again.”

Looking back at thousands of photos of my daughter on my phone, every one of them conjures an irreplaceable memory and brings a smile to my face.

For a while, however, I got a bit lazy with taking holiday photos, telling myself that she’ll have another one next year. But next year she won’t be this tiny, and she too will probably want to look back at photos of her childhood one day. So, yes. Take photos of everything!

Chinese New Year is coming up, and whether you’re an expat family that’s here for the long haul or just a few short months, family holiday photos add to the festivities.

Following the most epic children’s Christmas display we’ve seen in Beijing, we went back to the Peninsula Hotel for more photos.

This time, they’ve set up a wall of red lanterns and traditional Chinese wooden chairs, drums, and even photo props. The hotel knows they’ve become an Instasensation amongst photography enthusiasts, and they’re really playing into it with every holiday now.

So, with my rediscovered love of photography, my friend and I dressed our babies in traditional Chinese New Year outfits and set out for an afternoon of tea and photos at the Peninsula.

While Peninsula doesn’t actively promote themselves as kid-friendly, they’ve got kid-friendly events running all year round and are surprisingly well prepared for babies. The lobby is surrounded by many high-end luxury stores and has plenty of room for babies to run around, not to mention their iconic staircase that our daughters spent a good part of an hour exploring.

If you just want to take a quick photo, there's no purchase necessary. During the course of the afternoon, we saw numerous people walk in, take photos, and continue on their way. But really, it’s such a nice atmosphere that a quick coffee or relaxing afternoon tea makes for a welcomed, self-indulgent treat.

The afternoon tea set is beautiful and instaworthy on its own. There’s a combination of sweet and savory items but the highlight has got to be the chocolate guardian lion 石狮子 (shí shī zi) centerpiece. In fact, it took a few moments for us to realize that the sculpture – essentially a giant block of solid chocolate that’s molded and painted to look like a bronze lion sculpture sitting on top of a posh Peninsula base – was entirely edible.

Following an afternoon of high tea and corralling a 14- and 15-month baby, all while trying to get a good photo, we couldn’t even bring ourselves to finish the entire tea set. But the lion sculpture was far too beautiful to throw away…

When we asked to take away the lion sculpture, our waitress came back with it elegantly presented in a customized clear box. Looks like they’ve also anticipated that guests will want to take home their beautiful centerpiece as a souvenir.

Chinese New Year Afternoon Tea
RMB 588 per set, Mon-Fri
RMB 638 per set, Sat-Sun