The art of weathering Beijing's winter woes

A message from my mobile health app reminded me that I'd burned fewer kilocalories over the last nine weeks. It used to record 10,000 steps on average, the equivalent of walking 6-8 kilometers, and up to 36,000 steps, or nearly 28 km, on weekends.

But recently, I've been skipping my morning walks, and have only averaged about 2,200 steps every day for the last two months. The reason is all too obvious. The freezing cold and subzero temperatures have "conspired" to confine me within four walls.

My erstwhile fitness regimen included a nearly 7-km walk every morning, accompanied by stretching and bending exercises, which I'd start at 7 o'clock sharp. But my current morning routine involves yoga, meditation and doing planks on a mat in the comfort of my apartment, and my biggest challenge is getting out of bed before daybreak.

Light Bollywood hits, or songs from Indian regional language films, keep me in good spirits as I exercise, while my mobile alarm ensures I don't doze off when doing the Shavasana, or corpse pose.

For someone who has lived in the southern Indian city of Bangalore, which also goes by the moniker of "air-conditioned city", where temperatures seldom dip below 13 C and the average temperature throughout the year remains around 28-30 C, a thin woolen sweater or jacket over a T-shirt or cotton trousers sufficed to keep me warm.

Beijing, on the other hand, is a total contrast. Despite wrapping myself up in multiple layers of clothing on top of the mandatory jacket, scarf or neck warmer, gloves, woolen cap and shoes, I still find it hard to step into the — 17 C temperatures, or face the cold winds.

Often, I've suffered from brain freeze after being exposed to severe cold for just a few minutes, which makes it feel like my mind has gone blank.

I was initially apprehensive that our family holiday would be in jeopardy because of the cold, and while it did give my family — my wife and daughter — the chills when they arrived in Beijing one November afternoon, fortunately, that was not to be.

I had forewarned them about the cold, but they chose to ignore my warnings and refused to put on the winter gear I handed them on arrival. No sooner did they step out of the airport into the car park than they froze in their tracks. They hurried back inside and put on their winter caps, gloves, and scarves, before hopping into a Didi to the apartment.

It was their bad luck that they arrived at a time when Beijing was experiencing its longest cold wave since records began in 1951. This harsh winter had only just begun, but the city had already recorded more than 300 hours of subzero temperatures.

However, we were determined to go ahead with our holiday plans. Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province, was our first stop, and conducive weather ensured it was an enjoyable trip. Surprisingly, we were able to put away our jackets for a few hours.

Cold notwithstanding, we decided we could not miss out on the top attractions, with the Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum being the highlight, and memories of which remain etched in our hearts.

We weren't so lucky at our second stop in Tianjin, where hostile weather proved a dampener, forcing me to desperately search for a pharmacy, so I could buy paracetamol because the falling mercury levels had caused a raise in my temperature!

Nevertheless, we made sure not to miss the tourist spots, including the Tianjin Eye, although we weren't able to go for a ride, and the Porcelain House.