CONTRADICTION: Weather

This is what Beijing looks like today--65F, sunny, pm2.5 of 76... first official t-shirt day of 2014. You can visibly see the spring in people's step walking down the street. I've read about the phenomenon, in Russia, when the winter breaks and "white nights" set in, how folks get almost hysterically happy that the cold and wind has kicked out for at least a little while. This is the best time of year in Beijing, aside from the couple weeks in September/October when the summer breaks and its cool with a bit less wind. The restaurants are breaking out the tables to let diners sit outside on the sidewalk, the 串儿 vendors are moving their grills outside too. Nothing better than Chinese dining al fresco.

Costner: Winter is coming

Coming back from my post this evening I was struck by how much more crisply sound seems to travel in cold evening air. Perhaps because the other townspeople have been chased inside, you can now hear everything: rustling of single leaves, three twigs breaking in rapid succession as a passerby steps through the gutter by the roadside. Or maybe, as mentioned before, it's because senses are heightened in cold air, and thinking becomes easier--or, rather, you cannot help but feel sharper, more alert. Certainly one is more tense, less languid, as your body twitches to keep itself warm against a penetrating wind. In the summer I could remember thinking how strange it will be to see this place cold once again. Seeing it now, I cannot believe it ever was warm in the first place.