The best way to know winter, such an icy and reserved person it usually seems like, is to go outside of your warm house and walk towards him as closely as possible. That is why I revel in rambling alone in winter whenever I am free. Away from the crowds of people, the noises of traffic and the stinging light of neon lamps, I sometimes saunter along a peaceful lane as the dark heavenly curtain is rolling down. The lane is paved with thick yellow carpet that is made of thousands of withered leaves. Treading lightly on it, I enjoy the cracks sounding continually under my feet, as if they are conversing with me fondly. Two rows of birch trees stand along the roadsides, stretching their naked branches so high as to poke holes in the sapphire blue sky. I know, on those old branches are recorded people’

After my stroll to the end of the lane, a broad avenue thronged with vehicles and pedestrians greets my eyes. In order to keep out the severe cold, all people are swathed in many layers of clothing. It is funny to see they are so bundled up that each of them resembles nothing so much as the Michellin Man – a huge, rotund apparition waddling down the street. Some of them seem like beached whales every time they have to get in or out of a cab. In any case, everyone is trying his utmost to live and work.

By the way, have you ever noticed where the first snowflake falls, or how it truly looks like? Stretch out your hand and allow one to lie down quietly in your palm. After fondling it with a connoisseur’s eye, you cannot help uttering a sign of wonder: what a delicate, exquisite work of art that nature presents to us! Because of its six white ingeniously carved-like petals, snowflake impresses everyone with its unmatchable sense of purity.

Best of all though, in Beijing’s winter, are those all-too-rare days of snow. It falls so gently yet has a deafening silence. Powdering the sloping roofs and lanes of hutong neighborhoods, and resting with elegant contrast on the blackened and bare tree limbs, it creates a stunning black-and-white photograph for the eye at every turn. As the snow falls, an air of calm and grace imparts upon this ancient city.

s ups and downs, joy

Some topics in this essay:
Enjoy Winter, dead leaf, broken twig, enjoy winter, snow falls, birch trees,