Snow in Beijing

According to Liu Laoshi, who have been working at Shichahai ice rink for eight years, about 60 percent of people coming here today are not originally from Beijing.

"Many are visitors or workers in Beijing. Most of them are not good at skating. The native Beijingers I know are very professional on ice activities," Liu observes.

Of course, Shichahai is not the only place where you can frolic on ice, but it is a perfect place to skate amidst the ambience and background of Beijing's imperial past. For those who enjoy more modern architecture and real snow instead of ice, they will head out to the National Stadium, otherwise known as the Bird's Nest.

The third Snow Festival at the Bird's Nest will go on until Feb 19, and it offers a diversity of on-snow and on-ice games. The total area of about 3,000 sq m is divided into two areas: inside the stadium and outside.

The snow festival at the Bird's Nest offers a diversity of on-snow and on-ice distractions. [Zhu Xingxin/China Daily]

Inside the Nest, children can indulge in snowball fights and parents can help them build snowmen.

"People can enjoy many popular on-snow games inside, such as real counter-strike on the snow battlefield, table football, bumper cars and a lot of games designed for families," says Ding Yansong, a volunteer who is a freshman at a Beijing-based college.

Just outside the Bird's Nest are slopes for ski lovers, snow mobiles, mini-Olympic games and a big tent set up for one particular on-ice game: curling. The objective in this game is to slide stones across a sheet of ice toward a target, a little like boules on ice.

"This is the second indoor curling field in Beijing. We just want to introduce curling to people," says Zhong Qing, a coach of Sweek curling club. Zhong says compared to last year they are getting a lot more visitors willing to learn more about this new sports.

"Most people come to our tent out of curiosity. We don't teach them complicated rules. What we want is for people get to know curling better," Zhong says.

If sports on ice and snow sounds too strenuous, how about some spectator entertainment? Beijing has that, too.

Five Antarctic penguins including two king penguins and three gentoo penguins are currently attracting large crowds at Taoranting Park in Xicheng district. These birds have become superstars and families line up to see these rare guests from the South Pole everyday.

The emperor penguins are charming the crowds at Taoranting Park in Beijing's Xicheng district. [Cui Meng/China Daily]

"We have been waiting for about 40 minutes. My son is so eager to get a closer look at these penguins that he couldn't sleep last night," says Li Xia, a young mother with her 2-year-old toddler.

After the penguins, there are still the snow foxes to visit at the Yuyuantan Park's snow festival.

It may not be a white winter in Beijing, but with modern technology and snow machines hard at work, you can be sure its residents are not missing out any of the fun and excitement either on ice or snow.

You may contact the writer at sundayed@chinadaily.com.cn.