The weather over the last few weeks has been exceedingly cold, with the storms from Siberia adding wind-chill to the already -12°C air.
Beijingers don’t seem to let the cold slow them down and quite happily wrap up to enjoy alternative versions of what the city usually has to offer during the warm summer months. An example would be Chaoyang Park – normally a busy theme park, complete with rollercoasters and ghost trains, at this time of year it becomes a snow park. The dodgems are now human powered and slide around the frozen lake whilst smaller children weave amongst them on ice-bikes and even ice-tandems.
Walking through the deserted fun park is a bit odd, with all the rides sitting motionless yet still manned by equally motionless and somewhat frozen looking attendants. Passing by the huge ladybird shaped toilet-blocks you crest a ridge and come out atop the large ski area, covered with artificial snow. There are actually a number of proper ski resorts within 50km of the city but here they’ve brought the toboggans and chair-lifts to the city.
There’s a similar winter wonderland inside the Bird’s Nest stadium, but obviously without the rather pleasant backdrop of the amusement park.
