Beijing seems to be getting a particularly icy blast of winter at the moment with the coldest temperatures in 50 years and plenty of snowfall. Click here for a China Daily slideshow…
Also, a news report from Danwei here and some excellent snowy photos on Zhao Hua Xi Shi’s Flickr photostream here.
If you are in Beijing and wondering what to do with all this snow here is a list of suggestions in the Beijinger.
Over the weekend Beijing had its first snowfall this year and it is early (and possibly induced). Earliest for 22 years according to the South China Morning Post. Photos of the latest snowfall can be seen in the China Daily here. Also a slide show here from China.org
Despite the cold winters snowfall is not that common in Beijing with the weather being bright – well hazy – and extremely dry throughout the winter months. Photographing Beijing in the snow was never an easy thing. Firstly, as mentioned, snowfall is rare. Then, when it did snow, armies of street sweepers appeared almost immediately to start removing the snow. The emphasis is on removing – it literally disappeared in a matter of hours – a war against snow. So in a very short time much of the city looked completely snow free. Then, any snow remaining quickly lost it’s whiteness due to the usually dirty air becoming a horrible gray and providing an unwelcome remainder as to what you are breathing in!
So, the upshot is that in all my years in Beijing I only really caught a good untouched snowfall once – some photos of which are below – from way back in February 2006!
