Snowed Down

Last night when I was falling asleep at around midnight, I heard large boom sounds that seemed to be coming from outside.

It turns out it was thunder and lightning as it started snowing in the Chinese capital. Has anyone heard of thunder and lightning just before a snowfall?

This morning the city was covered in several centimetres of snow. Already at 7am there were staff on the roof of a nearby office building sweeping snow off the roof. Many people who are in charge of parking or street cleaning had the unenviable task of shoveling or sweeping the snow away.

Traffic slowed down immensely as drivers went at a slow speed through the slush and mini lakes. Some drivers hardly bothered to clear their front and back windshields, making me wonder if they realized how much of a hazard they were on the roads.

There's an airport bus that goes by my apartment complex and today there was a large group of people with their bags and suitcases waiting for a long time for the bus. When it finally arrived, they surrounded the bus like refugees trying to flee. Why were there so many people going to the airport today?

Or were they trying to escape the cold temperatures and snow for the next few days?

By evening, workers were still outside the Village at Sanlitun shoveling the snow into carts to dump elsewhere, and on my way home, I passed by a snowman standing next to a boutique bringing some levity to the otherwise depressing start to winter.