A Little Cooler

The trip to Beijing brought the chance to experience some cooler temperatures that I have not experienced in awhile. During the winter Beijing dips below freezing, getting snow and ice. When I first realized this, I was excited for the chance to see snow, as it is something that I have not experienced in over 4 years.

Much to my disappointment, it is also true that Beijing is a dry climate, thus not as much precipitation equates to less snow. So when we got to Beijing, there was no snow on the ground, and the forecast did not call for any during our visit.

While there was not a big blanket of white flaky goodness, I did have other sensations that go along with being a colder environment. Most of these occured as we walked around the city to our various destinations.

On our first full day, we decided to find the Olympic stadium. According to our map it did not seem too far, so we decided to walk it. Along the way, we made several stops.

Upon coming to Beijing, we were a little concerned that some of sites would be closed for the holiday. So our first stop was to Tiananmen Square, to see if it and the Forbidden City would be open in the coming days. Thankfully, the square was full of people, assuring us that we would not have to juggle our schedule around the holiday.

After passing through this area, we continued toward the Olympic stadium. We pressed on, enjoying the excerise in the cool air. Eventually we got hungary and decided to find a place to eat. We stopped at a Chinese restaurant where we order, lamb, sweet potatoe fries, broccoli (which was excellent), and roasted duck. Beijing is known for its duck (Peking duck), so it was a must that we order this. It proved to be a little disappointing though, as we had to wait 40 minutes for it and it was rather expensive compared to all of the other dishes we had. The taste was ok, but not spectacular.


Another place we stopped was a lake that had frozen over. This was a pleasant surprise. There were many people walking out on the ice, a fisherman, some hockey players, and a man jumping into the lake in his speedo...crazy!

Kevin, Michelle, and I walked out on the lake and had fun sliding around on the surface. I remember walking on lakes up at Okoboji and Center Lake, in Iowa, but it had been awhile since I had been on one. There's nothing like side excerusions on a journey, and walking on the lake brought a simple and unexpected pleasure.


As the walk continued into the afternoon, I began to feel the bite and nip against my exposed skin. My inner thighs began to get chilly and I had to keep my hands in my pockets to prevent them from getting too cold. My lips began to get chapped, which proved to be a problem throughout the week, forcing me to apply some chapstick.

The walk proved to be a little longer than we expected and we did not arrive at the park until late afternoon. We walked around and looked at the "Nest" and the aquatic center. By the time we got there, they had stopped selling tickets to enter the stadium, so we had to gaze from the outside.

At this point of the journey, we were all a little cold, and ready to get some place warm. We ended up finding a German restaurant where I was able to warm up with some bread, German sausages, and beer.

This day did not bring any snow, but there was one point in which I experienced snow. This was up on the Great Wall. Granted there were just a few patches of snow here and there, but I was able to pick some up and throw a snowball of sorts at both Kevin and Michelle.

In retrospect, the weather was definetly colder than Taiwan, but not approaching Iowa winters. Like America, though, Beijing was equipped with heaters, so I was able to warm up after a day of travel in the cold weather. I still maintain that the coldest I have ever been was last year in Vietnam, where we had no heat and it rained frequently.