Unseasonal Flurries in Peking
Posted: March 15th, 2010 | 1 Comment »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.
Fully agree… it snowed the previous week as well, and the frozen lakes and moats combined with blue skies was a wonderful sight.