POSTCARD from...
W
inter in Beijing is bone-cold; the locals go about in long padded coats and teddy-bear hats, or zip around the busy streets on scooters and bicycles, their hands tucked into built-in mittens attached to their handlebars. Heavy plastic fringes hang down from doorways to shelter the interior from the bite of the wind. But the low winter sun sparkles through the ice-blue air and the colours on the buildings seem to glow. This huge city was once infamously choked by pollution, but since the pandemic, it has been working hard to clean up its act and feels like a place reborn.