Some parts of Beijing received 12 centimeters of snow making it some of the heaviest snowfalls for quite some time. The timing was spot on as most people could stay at home and enjoy the snow due to the New Year holiday.

Monday’s forecast for Beijing was for a low of minus 19 Celsius.

The photo at left was taken Sunday night in Beijing just near the famous landmark of the Drum Tower.

The Drum Tower is just one of many attractions you could visit while in Beijing.

Just recently my family had a vacation in Beijing. Lucky for us my daughter was 119cm at the time. As I mentioned this entitled her to free travel on the Beijing subway and bus network. We were also able to visit the Temple of Heaven with her gaining free entry. There are also other places you can visit that give free entry to short kids.

When we did travel on buses or the subway they were mostly crowded. One nice thing about the locals was that more often than not when we found ourselves on not being able to get a seat someone would offer my daughter their seat.

Inside the kids play area of the Science Museum in Beijing
If you are going to be visiting the home of the 2008 Olympics with your children two places my daughter enjoyed going to were the China Science and Technology Museum and Fundazzle. A science museum may not sound like much fun to a kid but if you ask my daughter it is. The museum has a building that is dedicated to the children where they can play and explore science. It is more aimed at entertainment rather than education.

Fundazzle was another great place to visit for our daughter. She actually went there for a birthday party. Fundazzle is a converted swimming pool. It has a large ball pit for jumping around and also a large climbing activity structure. The play areas are split up into one for they kids from 1-3 and another for the older kids.

The Science and Technology Museum is located at Bei San Huan Zhong Lu. It is actually within walking distance of the main Olympic stadium. Fundazzle is on the eastern corner of Workers Stadium.

Thanks to a proxy service I came across I can at least post articles. It is really slow so I don’t know how much I will get to do. It is at least good to get this post on so readers know why it is a bit quite around here recently.

Since I have been in Beijing I have been taking lots of photos and filming sights and other interesting things. I have been to some Olympic venues, enjoyed great food and have visited some interesting attractions.

Yesterday my family and I went to a dumpling restraurant not far from the Olympic stadium. They handmake the dumplings as you order. They were yummy. I will create a video with details when that is up and running. I brought the wrong video cable with me.

Today I am taking it easy at home as my feet have been hammered with all the walking I have done recently. All going well I will get some more articles posted over the coming weeks.

Beijing tourists have a choice of old or new. The route starting at Yongdingmen Gate in southern Beijing will take sightseers to several major historic attractions including the Temple of Heaven, the Front Gate (Qianmen), the Tian’anmen Gate, Jingshan Park and the Drum Tower.

Modern day sights such as Olympic venues are covered in the other route which starts at Datun, outside the north fourth ring road, and passes major Olympic venues and facilities like the Olympic Green, the Olympic village and the “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium.

The new routes, measuring 18.1 km and 16.25 km respectively, will be taking onboard the first sightseers starting July 20. The routes will be operated by the Beijing Public Transport Holdings Ltd. Group.

Air-conditioned double-decker buses are going to be used on the routes. With the hot summer weather in Beijing this will be a welcome comfort

The fare for the routes are yet to be announced however you can expect that information will be released in a few days.

If the routes prove popular there could be additional routes added for the benefit of visitors to Beijing.