Amid travel restrictions, magic can be found in your own backyard

Amid travel restrictions, magic can be found in your own backyard

With recent winter winds whistling past the windows, my fondest thoughts have gone back to a Beijing resort whose charm never wanes.

I most recently visited Gubei Water Town, which is about a two-hour drive from the heart of Beijing, during a few sweltering days in August, when the buzz was loud about the opening of a fancy new theme park elsewhere in the capital city.

Gubei offers a quaint mixture of newly built and restored structures. On that cold December day two years ago, I ambled along the river, which was frozen solid, the locals sliding and skating on its surface. I later hiked on the Great Wall, hustling back down the slopes before sunset as the temperature plunged.

While we prepared to depart this enchanting town that evening, I gazed at the Great Wall, which was illuminated like a glowing snake that stretched out atop steep cliffs. How spellbinding this splendid resort must be in warmer weather, I thought.

And so, with that in mind, I boarded a charter bus beneath the roasting August sun at Dongzhimen station in Beijing for the comfortable ride, at a mere 48 yuan ($7. 50), to the water town.