A few minutes north of the hotel, I came upon a small but very active outdoor skating rink. I was also thinking of the outdoor skating I first saw in 1995 at Shichahai, north of Forbidden City. Over the holiday, such areas continued to be busy along with the frozen lakes in many parks across the city. However, this smaller rink was in a garden attached to WF CENTRAL mall, opened in 2018. Inside that vast, modern complex I came upon a trend I have noticed recently in Beijing. With the ongoing 2022 Winter Olympics, many sports clothing companies promoting the latest in outdoor gear.

As I headed back onto Wangfujing Street I noticed the amazing blue skies we have been having recently. Perfect conditions I felt for outdoor events such as the skiing competitions underway at Yanqing and Chongli.

Wangfujing has a history going back over 700 years. It has long represented where newer and older come together, where east and west also interfaced. Close to the eastern gate of Forbidden City at Donghuamen, the locality became home to several aristocratic families and senior palace officials. This, reflected in its name with ‘Wangfu’ representing ‘princely residence’, while ‘jing’ refers to a natural well or spring that once provided water for the area. It was also a major market area, a tradition carried on to this day but now within modern malls.