Snow in Beijing

It’s snowing in Beijing!  Even though the temperature is quite cold here (at least compared to California), it rarely snows because the weather is dry.  We were all very excited, since snow comes about once a year in Beijing. 

After we finished our homework and studies for the day, we went outside to play in the snow.  The snow was very thin, but we still had a lot of fun. 

My sister wrote her name on the snow.

My brother wrote his Chinese name on the snow.

There was snow on the benches and on the bicycles, too.

A cat left some footprints in the snow.

We made small snow cupcakes by pressing snow into a cup, and then taking the packed snow out.  On one of them, we added a small snow strawberry on top.

On another, we added some snow icing.

We also played catch with the snow cupcakes we made.  It was not easy, because the snow often crumpled to pieces if you didn’t catch the ball the right way. 

The next morning it snowed again, and the layers of snow on the ground grew thicker.  But when noon came, most of the snow had melted.  This made it easier to make snowballs (more of ice balls, though).  We rolled our snowballs in the snow, and they grew bigger and bigger until they were more than 1 and a half feet tall.

The weather was warming quickly, so we needed to put the snowballs in a place where it would not block the road.  My brother wanted to put our snowballs right in front of our apartment building, so we could see them from our window.  The distance back to our building was short, but rolling 3 huge, heavy, and melting snowballs was a difficult task.  

When we were half-way home, we were all too tired to roll our 3 huge, heavy, and melting snowballs.  Also, one snowball broke in half, which made matters worse.

My older sister helped us roll the snowballs to my brother’s desired spot.  The second snowball also broke in half, but we finally got all the balls to the spot in front of our building. 

Although it took lots of energy and a very long time to get the snowballs in front of our apartment, it was worth it.  And now, four days later, the snowballs have not melted yet, and we can still see them from our window.