Winter is very cold in Beijing, and the natural landscape becomes black and white as the greenery is absolutely gone with the freezing cold of the Northern region of the world. Though the temperature of the coldest month remains around -10 degrees during the daytime, the nighttime temperature can reach up to 20 degrees in my personal experiences. The lower temperature is widely experienced in the northern part of the city, such as the Miyun, Huairou, and Changing districts, but the downtown is relatively warmer, around 2 to 3 degree celcius. The weather is also relatively polluted in the city center with heavy traffic and many industrial areas, but the northern district, like huairopu where I am living, finds cleaner air quality than the city area. Also, the further north direction is cleaner, like Miyun city, which is almost 80 km north of the Beijing city center.
Though most of the winter days are now very bright with excellent air quality, I don’t have the option to enjoy each of these days as I have one on the weekend and often that day becomes unfavorable for exploring some natural scenic areas. For the last couple of weekends, the extreme cold weather and unfavorable weather made me staying at room, but yesterday I had a short travel to outdoor, and I took a direct bus to downtown Beijing downtown and had a great walk in the Olympic Forest park which is the largest forest park in the city. I have enjoyed its green beauty in the summer, but now it has become a completely unknown place for me.
The summer beauty is amazing with the green lushes everywhere but now I find no colors, it is dull and faded away with the extreme cold. The only color that is like the mud color and some tree barks have become black. Also, the water channels and smaller lakes are now frozen completely that is an attraction but it is not allowed to walk on them, and there are many security guards maintain the emptiness on these frozen lakes to be a hub of winter activities. Only a few designed area is allowed to do any kind of winter activities here.
I have also seen a very large number of people in the whole park, whereas in the summertime, this large park is a hub of outdoor activities, especially during the weekend. But I found very few people on such a weekend. I think there should be more people visiting the park on workdays in the summer, spring, or autumn. I saw some people were walking on the frozen lakes and the security guard was shouting at them with handmike. That was the only funny moment that I enjoyed there!
The natural beauty is in its downtrend in the winter, but I think it will be better if the park is completely covered with snow with a heavy snowfall in this area. The same color is seen everywhere, which is downgraded this weekend as there is no sun in the sky, but the bright sun can make it more beautiful with the deep blue sky. It was a badluck for me to have a weekend on a dull day without no colore and enough light in the weather to becomes stunning to explore the natural surroundings of the park.
I find the roadside city view from a bridge in the park, but it was not as attractive like in other times of the day. I also found the birds swimming in some lightly snowed areas and where the flow of water is harder. Those bird were gathered in the unfrozen section and passing their tough time in the winter. Overall, I can say that the visit was a relaxing time after a few weeks for me. Though the weather was harsh but I have enjoyed it with a total walking steps surpassing 16.5 K, which is a great one in the new year, and I want to do that with more frequency in the rest of the winter.
I hope you enjoy my photos of the beautiful views of the winter natural surroundings in the Olympic Forest Park in the downtown area of Beijing, and the natural scenes in the winter time. Though the weather was not so good for a greater look, but still the winter nature has its own charm, and I have enjoyed that charm in my own way. The fresh look of the winter nature differnt form the summer or the spring time, but it provides the same level of healing power for making our busy weeks more relaxing and purifying heart with renewed stamina to start a new week. If you have any queries, let me know in the comments, and I will try my best to answer them as much as I can.
Thanks a lot for your time and attention. I will catch up with you at the next one.
Wishing you a good day!
I took all the photos, and these are my own property.
