Rare snowfall turns West Lake into winter wonderland

Snow in northern China is nothing out of the ordinary but in Hangzhou its appearance caused a great deal of excitement.

My students and I could hardly wait for the lunch bell so that we could gaze upon our transformed campus.

When we began classes, it was raining and the scene was dreary. As the snow fell it covered the trees and created a winter wonderland. We were hard-pressed to keep our eyes on our lessons.

At break time the students ran out to throw snowballs at each other and a snowman was built.

For many of our students this was their first snowfall and they were thrilled, trying to catch it in their cold hands and, of course, making sure they took photos of this wonderful day. The foreigners were taking pictures too, of people with umbrellas in the snow!

During the first snowfall in 2008 I rushed to West Lake after classes to see one of the "Ten Scenes of West Lake", Lingering Snow on Broken Bridge. I'd been told that I might never see snow in Hangzhou again. By the time I got there the snow had melted away.

A few days later, when we had a real snowfall that left several centimeters of snow for several days and virtually paralyzed much of China, it was too dangerous to drive there. With this snowfall we are being cautioned to stay off the icy roads unless absolutely necessary. Will I ever see it?

My daughter, who lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the United States' north, is not impressed. On top of the snow they already have, they got 40-50 cm more and the whole town was buried. It took over an hour to get the car unearthed. The roof of the sports arena collapsed. Like I said, she's not impressed with my news of a few centimeters of the white stuff.

I suppose the wonder of it, for those of us who live where it rarely snows, is that like all rare things it is prized. Where there is an abundance of anything it gets taken for granted, or is considered a nuisance.

As a child I lived where it starts snowing in the fall and doesn't stop until late spring. We all got tired of it. We craved sunshine and warm weather. Shoveling snow was a daily and dreaded chore.

The saving grace was that there is something magical about Christmas in places where it snows. A couple of days, though, and I'm happy for it to disappear.

With global warming we are being told to expect the unexpected. Perhaps there will be no more excited cries of, "It's snowing!" in Hangzhou because we will get snow every year and we will just take it for granted, maybe even get tired of it. We'll moan about the icy roads and the cold.

I hope not. It's great fun to hear the excited shout, "It's snowing!" We have several months before winter is officially over. Who knows, I may get another chance this winter to see the Snow Lingering on Broken Bridge.