On a Sunday afternoon, there are lots of people out and about. Families, serious skaters, and everything in between.
It should be noted that this is actually Qianhai, not Houhai, which I believe also has some skating on it.
This is Lotus Lane, full of tacky nightclubs and restaurants that are a real madhouse in summer-time.
After me, Emma got going first on the skates, and didn't appear to have much in the way of trouble staying upright.
You can see the guy behind her using the solution to balance problems: A skate/chair. They're cool.
The sun was getting a little long by the time we got there, but it was a nice day out.
Whereas in the West, we just use expensive Zamboni-like machines, here they just use people power to clean the ice.
Seems to work well for them.
You can even get pushed around on a chair if you want.
Here we see Alex getting going, and seemingly doing well. There were no free lockers, so we had to carry around our own shoes. D'oh!
Lotsa cute kids out and about today.
As well as a few real serious types.
The rink is actually quite large, and I'm hoping the ice was thick enough ...
Lotsa falling down going on today, although nobody seemed to get hurt, which was nice to see.
This is what nice white snow looks like in Beijing after 48 hours.
Here is the back-end of the man-made Zamboni machines.
What would ice skating be without some serious posing, baby?
Ah -- Ah -- Ah -- !!! Phew, stayed up.
Lotsa people just sit around and chat about how much fun ice skating is. Nice way to spend the afternoon and work up an appetite for dinner.