Snow in Beijing

Today it snowed in Beijing, and I walked a mile for a taxi. Apparently Beijing is the one place where a 20% chance of precipitation means it will precipitate, as it did with today's morning flurries and last week's afternoon drizzle. These two occasions I suppose signal a pause in the 100+ days of drought afflicting the North China Plain.

Other things I don't understand: how so many Chinese men go without hats in this winter weather. And why the subway is sardine-packed at 2:30pm on a Monday. Why are these people not working on my day off?

The holidays are at last over. The fifteen days of explosions ended with one final night on which I dodged low-exploding mortar shells, roman candle snipers, and the ra-tat-tat fire of those long ribbons of crackers. The Mandarin Oriental hotel burned to its skeleton in a fiery saturnalia that night.


The winter camps are over, and now we're starting the new semester. From now on, things are supposed to be "normal."