Beijing has a winter that visitors underestimate. The city sits on roughly the same latitude as Madrid or Philadelphia, but the Siberian high presses down from the north and January days rarely climb far above freezing. The upside is that the water freezes hard. From late December into February, Houhai and the other Shichahai lakes, together with stretches of the city moat, carry ice thick enough for crowds to walk on, and the city does what it has always done with a frozen pond: it puts a rink on it.
What the rinks are actually like
These are not polished indoor arenas. Houhai's winter surface is a roped-off rectangle of grey ice with a wooden hut at the edge, where you rent either skates or a metal-framed ice cart with two blades and a seat. The carts are the local speciality - you sit, push yourself along with two spikes, and a queue of children drifts past you at speed. Entry and rental together cost a few tens of yuan per person, cash or mobile payment. There is no booking system; you turn up, pay, and skate until you are cold.
The surrounding winter street
The walk to and from the ice is half the point. Along the western shore of Houhai, stalls sell roasted chestnuts from oil drum braziers, baked sweet potatoes, candied haws on skewers - tanghulu - and hot soy milk. The bars and cafes that line the lake in summer stay open through winter, and their upstairs windows look out over the rink. If you prefer gliding to shuffling, the moat rinks near the Temple of Heaven and Beihai Park's frozen surface are the other two places locals go.
Practical notes
Dress for standing still: thermals, a hat that covers the ears, gloves, and boots with grip, because the paths beside the water are icy even when the ice itself is safe. The rinks close when a warm spell softens the surface, so a stretch above freezing can shut everything for a few days; ask at your hotel rather than assuming. Midweek mornings are almost empty, while weekend afternoons in January are crowded with families. Evening skating under the lamps, with the Drum Tower lit up on the skyline to the north, is the version most visitors remember.
