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Cold Comfort

Winter comes but once a year;

and when it does

it brings good cheer...

Or so an ancient rhymester would have us believe, though argument persists that he was writing more with Christmas in mind. It hardly matters. Beijing's notoriously cruel winter is again upon us, and there is precious little of the "good cheer" about it unless you're wealthy enough to escape to sunny climes for a few months.

How then, for those of us who have to carry on as usual, to cope with the way-below-zero temperatures, howling, biting winds that sweep down from some icy Hades, numb fingers and toes, sand-blasted faces, tatty hair, runny noses, hacking coughs, and lips that feel like corrugated cardboard when you run your tongue over them?

Imbued with the spirit of nil desperandum which we know runs deep in Beijingers, we have been talking to doctors, chefs, skincare specialists, clothing manufacturers and other experts in their field on how to keep warm and get through the winter months with as few discomforts and other miseries as possible.

The first rule is that you can grumble all you like. "It's good to let off steam about an icy pavement or unheated taxi," one psychologist told Beijing This Month. "Stress of any kind is always better out than in. And people should wear bright 'n'cozy fun clothing, even on the bleakest, most trying days (see p22). It makes you more able to brave the elements."

Our Winter Solutions roundup may not cover all the angles to your lifestyle, not least because you might be the type who revels in open-air t'ai chi on frosty morns, endurance sports like ice rock-climbing, skiing, and showing what a toughie you are by breaking Shichahai Lake's ice and having a swim.

For most of our readers, however, our guide boils down to ... Cold Comfort.

Following pages tell you why.