Unseasonal Flurries in Peking

Spent the weekend at the Beijing International Literary Festival – which gets better and better each year. I can report that Guy Delisle was one of the nicest guys I ever met, Barbara Demick was fascinating, Jonathan Fenby had some great old China anecdotes as ever,  Mike Meyer laid bare the hutongs of Peking, Louise Welsh was a dream and I got introduced to the work of  Zoe Strachan and Alberto Ruy Sanchez and became an instant fan of both. Meanwhile I rediscovered a taste for live poetry after going rather cold on it thanks to storming sets from UK dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah and the manic slam poetry of Steve Connell.

And then a wonderful thing happened – it snowed in mid-March (OK, not so wonderful from a climate change point of view perhaps). Now some cities suit snow and some don’t (London, for instance). Peking always looks great when the snow falls – somehow it just takes on a special charm. Here’s Wu Dao Ying Hutong near the Yonghegong Temple on Sunday at about midday.