Beijing is one city in China that has huge swings in their weather and temperatures over the course of the year. One summer, while I was teaching in Beijing, I would ride a bus to the school to save money. It was so hot walking to the bus, ridding the bus, and walking to the school, that I would have to take an extra shirt in my backpack to change into once I got to the school.
A couple of years after that, I was showing a group of friends from the States the sights of Beijing and we had a flaw in our scheduling. With the way our time worked out, we went to the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City all in one hot afternoon. It was so hot that one of the people with me became overheated. We had to take them back to the hotel for some rest in their air conditioned room.
As you can see from this picture of some tourists, they are wearing sleeveless shirts, which indicates how warm it really was. Also, you can see they both have a bottle of water, which is very important to have with you during the Beijing summers!
Of course, the opposite of summer is winter. Winters in Beijing can be very cold, indeed! I am confident in saying the tourism decreases in the winter! Here is a snowy scene near the center of Beijing. This was taken in March, so January and February are even colder.
Once, I was with a friend from the States and they wanted to see the Summer Palace… in the winter! There is a lake at the Summer Palace and it had iced over. Man, it was cold that day! You can see some birds walking on the ice at the partially frozen lake. So, keep the weather in mind as you make you travel plans!
