At 9am this morning Kara ran down the stairs from our bedroom loft screeching an almost indecipherable 'what's that?' sound followed by a repeating syllable which sounded something like "ohmygod-snow-ohmygod-snow". Beijing's dry spell had finally ended, after 107 days and one of Beijing's longest winter droughts, we finally had the promised snow!
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| John look at this! |
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| So much snow! |
Our balcony wasn't just covered in white powder but the snow had heaped inches high. From the stairs and warm inner haven of our little attic apartment, Kara still in her pink stripy thermal pyjamas threw on her earmuffs and boots, opened the window and jumped outside. John meanwhile grabbed the camera and captured Kara prancing around in her own snowy white world.
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| View of the neighbouring carpark |
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| Let it snow~ |
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| John playing around on the deck |
It didn't matter that it was a mere -2degrees celsius, because this was a special occasion and who knew when it would end. We were in a white winter wonderland!
We grabbed the snow, scraping it together and throwing it around on our small deck. We moulded it into piles with our bare hands until they got too cold to bend. Donning our jackets, hats, scarfs and gloves without a second thought towards breakfast we took the rickety smokey elevator downstairs and out of the building to explore our new world.
On the street, the clean white snow came down heavily making white lines that zig-zagged across the sky. The street was relatively quiet for the time of the day and gave us plenty of room to giddily glide around, our feet slipping on the slick bricks underfoot.
We crossed East Xinglong Road to the small park opposite our building. The park was covered in beautiful white snow, the shrubs poking out from under a soft white blanket.
John at the park!
A lone man using a wide barrel shovel uncovered the small stone walking path that traverses the park. It looked like his efforts were fruitless as the snow continued to fall. Standing where the dry muddy ground was yesterday with the snow heavily raining down on us we frolicked through the barren trees, flicking the branches and releasing the accumulating snow. Kara lay on the ground and made a frosty snow angel, spreading the white ice everywhere. Everything was covered, rubbish bins, the small iron fences, cars, bicycles and it looked so beautiful.
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| East Xinglong Road at 9.30am |
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| Starting the snow angel |
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| Walking across the park |
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| John's boots falling into the snow |
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| Inside our apartment complex courtyard |
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| Bikes covered in snow |
In China there is an old saying, "Good snowfall heralds a prosperous year ahead" and today, the 7th February wasn't any old day but the first day Chinese return to work after the week long Chinese lunar and Spring festival. It was the beginning of the Year of the Horse and quite an auspicious occasion as the 'latest first winter snow' in over sixty years fell down over the city! Surely this meant a wonderful year ahead.
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| Qinian Ave |
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| Chinese lanterns |
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| Oh the snow! |
From the park, we happily walked around our neighbourhood, Chongwenmen. The red lanterns that had been hung for Spring festival were draped with snow. It was utterly delightful to see everything covered in layers of snow, and we played around like children in a candy shop laughing and touching everything with our wet frozen fingers.
Kara slipping and sliding
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| Walking 'down stairs' |
As the snow melted on our jackets we started to get cold and made a quick stop at our favourite tea shop for a hot sweet bubble tea taking it back out into the snow.
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| Taking a moment to drink hot tea |
Walking the long way home we watched some small children throw little snow balls at each other. The snow was getting deeper, filling the gutters and smothering the footpaths.
We nervously wondered "what if it doesn't stop, and worse, what if the power gets cut off?" But with such naivety and excitement of experiencing our first ever real snowfall we knew that we were on board in this snow journey and would go where ever it took us!
All too soon, we too had to get ready for our first day back at work so we made our way back home for a warm shower and canned corn porridge.
Tot siens,
John and Kara
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| Frolicking in the park |
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| Walking along Beiwulao Hutong |
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| Trying to make a snow man |
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| and giving up... |
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| Oh let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! |
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