snow

Woke up today to snow on the ground. Here’s a picture of the view from my room.

It looks dreary but it’s not as sad as the Shenyang winter if only because the air quality is better in Beijing and I am closer to some trees and the winter is much shorter. With all of that going for me here, I can better weather the winter and this snow.
Went to WangFuJing street to shop at the Foreign Language Bookstore. Nice place with lots of material for the EFL teacher or homesick tourist who enjoys a good book. The nicest part about this normally dreaded trip to WangFuJing was the increased presence of the police. Normally, a foreigner (especially if they are alone) will be approaced by some Chinese couple asking to practice English. (The travel books Let’s Go and Lonely Planet will alert you to this.) What happens is the foriegner and Chinese people will walk and talk together and eventually the Chinese person suggests a place to buy some tea or jewelry or something like that and then they go to some store where the foreigner pays through the nose for some product. I can’t say how many times I have been approached by pairs of women at WangFuJing street, wanting to practice their English and hustle me. It would help if they weren’t so nice looking sometimes.
But today the police where lined up all the way down the commercial part of the street. I counted about 10 meters between each of them, standing at attention and facing the shops and stores stone-faced. The soliciters were nowhere to be found and I couldn’t have been happier to see such an abundance of Chinese police!