Snow in Suzhou
Every year it snows at least one day in Suzhou, but it usually is just a bit of snow that disappears very fast. This year, however, we’ve seen quite a big snowfall! Last week it snowed for almost 3 days and there are still quite a lot of frozen white piles of snow outside. It didn’t really affect me much because I work for home, but schools were closed and people spent more time than usual getting to their workplaces. Many trains and flights were also delayed. To be honest, the snow wasn’t even that much as to cause so many problems, but this area is just not used to it. Exactly 10 years ago, right before Chinese New Year 2008, there was a huge blizzard in the whole of China (it even snowed in Guangdong!!) during the middle of the holiday migration (millions of people going back home, mostly by train, to spend the new year with their families). Luckily, this time it hasn’t been that bad (although a friend who was flying from Taiwan to Shanghai had his flight delayed for 24 hours).
Snow always makes for good pictures, so social media was full of people posting their pics in the snow and their snowmen masterworks. I am going to show you some of the pictures that were shared in WeChat. Most of them are from Thursday, when it had just started to snow.
The Humble Administrator’s garden.
Aerial view of the old town.
Aerial view of one of the modern residential compounds in the newer districts.
Such a cute bridge!
I had to run some errands on Saturday so I got to feel the snow under my feet. On Saturday it snowed quite a lot and the streets and parks were covered with a thick white layer. C. sometimes proves that he is indeed Chinese and he told me several times to be careful because the ground was slippery. I couldn’t help replying if he had noticed that I am a 33 year old grown woman, thank you very much, I know snow is slippery! This kind of advice (“it’s cold, wear more clothes”, “it’s raining, be careful not to slip”, “it’s late, go home and rest”) is how Chinese show their care and concern for you, but I still feel like a child being nagged when I hear it. Anyway, back to the snow. On Saturday I managed to get my hand out of my double-layer glove a couple of times to take some pictures with my phone:
In the morning, when it was starting to snow harder.
Fish in the snow!
Does it usually snow in your city?
Beautiful photos!
It looks like a lot of snow! Very lovely photos. Haha, I am actually guilty of telling people to ‘go eat lunch’ and ‘go home’ at work. I do hope they don’t think I am nagging them lol XD It doesn’t snow here in Melbourne where I live unless you go up to the mountains. I rather it not snow since I don’t like cold!
I also tell people to go home or go to have lunch if they are doing overtime haha.
I used to like cold… when I lived in a place with heating xD 10ºC in your room is NOT fun…
Wow, the photos are beautiful! It’d be waaaay too cold for me but the blanket of white does look lovely. But since I’m afraid of the cold (we’re having a cold spell in Hong Kong, it’s only like 7ºC here right now and I’m dying!), I’m glad it doesn’t snow where I live! :)
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
A couple of years ago I went to Hong Kong around this time and it was also suuuuper cold, like 5ºC. I was staying with a friend who lived there and she had to go to Shenzhen to buy a heater, said she couldn’t find any in HK, haha. It is really miserable when it’s cold in a place that is not prepared for it…
I love how pretty snow makes everything, how it covers all the grime and dirt. But then when it melts it becomes all slushy and muddy. Ah well, enjoy the weather while it lasts, eh? :)
I wished it melted already, now it is all frozen and it emits cold or something hahaha. Brrrr!
Lovely pictures! Here in the eastern USA (Philadelphia) it can snow anytime between December and late March. A couple of years ago we had a terrible storm that dumped about two FEET of snow on us one day; last year there was a horrendous ice storm that froze everything for days, turning the streets into sheet ice and bringing down trees and power lines. This winter has been very cold most days, but (fingers crossed) very little snow so far, only a few days of 2-3 inches of the stuff. I’m with C., always telling the spouse and kids to “Be careful! Stay warm! Don’t slip!” Next time they grumble about it, I’ll say I’m being very international and showing that I care as if I were a Chinese person!
Hahaha yes, you can tell them it’s the Chinese style xD If we had that much snow here the whole city would be completely paralyzed I think…
We have a facility in Suzhou – they e-mailed us that they will be closed down because of the snow blizzard and then I showed my manager a picture of your snowman from IG to prove him “how bad the conditions were”… He couldn’t stop laughing :D
HAHAHAHA you are pure evil!!! Yes, I don’t think the snow was an excuse to close, but every time the forecast says it is going to snow, or if there’s going to be a typhoon in the summer, the news are like OMG WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE and people freak out. Then it snows a little bit (to be fair, on Saturday it was thicker) or the typhoon turns out to be a little wind and moderate rain. Every time it’s the same!
It usually snows in Bucharest. it snowed in january, but not enough for it to last. i’m also nagging my partner about dressing better and stuff – none of us is chinese, but she really needs to pay attention.
she tells me to be careful when i go out not to slip and fall – last year i twisted my ankles 3 times o.o and my left one is very sensitive now because of that [though i only twisted it once… but it was a serious one u_u ] i like hearing her telling me to be careful – i feel she really cares about me in those times.
oh, but i came here to say these photos are really nice!
Sorry to hear about your ankle accidents! Be careful, haha.
Thank you! ;) I’m trying!
And sometimes I fail, LOL
Beautiful photos, especially those first two. And I enjoyed seeing the area near where you live.
Seattle has had only one brief snow this year. Like, Suzhou, Seattle doesn’t handle snow well. The city is very hilly, and some of the hills are steep. It’s usually a wet snow that ends up freezing. Plus we don’t have many snow plows.
Oh, at least Suzhou is very flat, if not the snow would have been more dangerous!
It certainly does look wonderful. Saw online last week several videos and pictures of Chinese cities covered in snow (Xi’an as well). This nice layer of snow gives everything a feeling of harmony.
Whileas here in Northern Germany we also had snow and it was pretty much gone within hours ;)
Ha! I thought it snowed quite a bit in the north of Germany. Well, in the whole northern Europe in general. Was it just this year, or every year is the same?
The snow must have missed my region. They had some snow all over Germany but nothing which would have been unusual just ten years ago. In my youth we had snow every winter and we were sliding down the local hill like crazy but for the past ten years we had in total perhaps 10cm 😂
Stunning photos Marta. I used to love waking up in Beijing in the winter and looking out of my window to the ‘winter wonderland’ when it had snowed – unfortunately by the end of the day it was black mush.
Yes, haha, it is very pretty at the beginning but then… a bit disgusting! And dangerous!
Que frío las fotos!! yo estoy super desilucionada porque aquí en Beijing no ha nevado NADA de NADA! cuando supimos que nevó en Shanghai, una compañera de trabajo realmente quedó sorprendida de que allá nevara y no acá en Beijing hahaha. Saluditos, espero estés bien con tanto frío!
En Beijing es que depende del año! En los años secos no nieva nada… en 2009-2010 recuerdo que hubo nieve durante varios meses! Empezó a nevar el 31 de octubre y duró hasta febrero o marzo!
So pretty! All of them!
The UK and Catalonia by the coast is the same with snow. A little causes a standstill as not used to it! It snowed in Barcelona I think in 2009. It turned to slush by the end of the day. My work got cancelled half way there as the metro couldn’t cope so my student’s Mum said forget teaching in this weather. Walking back avoiding the metro, it wasn’t happy snow! When I reached by bike to walk back, my hands froze to the handle bars!
I get annoyed by the same ‘caring’ comments too. Yep, I can see what’s going on! What’s worse is you continue to hear them in your head. Please don’t put those thoughts in my head!
I think all the places where it rarely snows are the same! Here I think they cancelled school for like 4 days…
True!
Your pictures are so beautiful. I study in Suzhou and this is the first winter for 3 years that I go back to my country for the winter vacation and here is it snow in Suzhou. :D
Oh, the pretty pictures are not mine, they were shared in WeChat accounts, haha. Don’t worry, being on holidays back home is surely better than a bit of snow!
of course 😊
Pingback: Here is another reblog of photos. This time it is snow in China. I am in Chicago and we have snow but this is more beautiful . Do you agree? – My Life on the Chicago # 36 Bus
Nice pictures, Marta. I really liked the zig-zagging bridge photo and the garden one after it.
Thanks! But I’m only the “curator”, haha. Wish those pictures were mine.