Fuddland
As reported earlier this week [by myself and much of the world media], we’ve had a couple of flakes of snow. It couldn’t have come at a worse time of year: every year the Chinese Spring Festival holiday sees the largest human migration on the planet, as people return to their hometowns from all over the country and abroad, to celebrate the coming of the New Year.
The chaos that ensues cannot be overstated — in 2006 the number of journeys undertaken by people exceeded the 1.3 billion-strong population of the country, and last year’s weather was mild by comparison. People save up all year long to be able to afford the train or bus tickets, and the majority cannot afford the luxury of the sleeper carriages on the very long journeys. So when the snow fell, this turmoil and discomfort was plunged into absolute chaos. Hundreds of thousands of people have been stuck, desperately waiting at freezing-cold train stations in the hope that the trains start running again. The government urged people to cancel their plans, but with time off so few and far between for most people here, along with the long and deep traditional importance of family ties, this is their one and only chance to make the trip home to see loved ones.
Here in (苏州) the local authorities appeared to have no idea how to deal with the snow: people armed with bamboo-shoot brooms were apparently told that clearing the snow off the top of roadside shrubs was more important that getting it off the cycle paths, forcing cyclists onto the already-dangerous roads. But such a decision pales into comparison to whichever ludicrous city official gave the go-ahead to clearing the snow of the roads using water cannons.
It’s not just the transportation that has been hit; the price of fruit and vegetables has doubled overnight. I talked to my regular local vegetable market trader this morning and he said he has very few crops at the moment, and those that he has are of bad quality. He showed me his hands that appeared to be swollen to about twice their normal size, and a deep purple in colour, presumably due to harvesting his supplies in freezing temperatures.
With all this gloom and worry, it is hard to imagine anyone actually enjoying the snow here in , but there have been plenty of people out having fun. Everywhere you look, snowmen have appeared on street corners, outside shops and in parks, and spontaneous snowball fights have been having all around. I dragged a friend out to Tiger Hill on Sunday to take photos of the gorgeous scenery, the fruits of which you can find both my Flickr photoset and that of my friend Sara.
