I know I've been talking (ok, whining) about the weather a lot, but I just want to point out that I'm not the only one. It turns out that I wasn't actually lied to; it really isn't supposed to be this cold and snowy here at this time of year. In fact, China's experiencing its worst winter in (depending on what part of the country we're talking about) ten to fifty years. It's actually causing quite a number of worries in terms of food getting to the cities and people getting home for the big Chinese New Year holiday (a US airport around Thanksgiving has nothing on 1.6 billion Chinese trying to get home for a two-week holiday. Here, I'm told, it's not like the US, where some people go home for Thanksgiving or Christmas, some don't; here everyone goes home, and this is the only time of year most of them do it). Anyway, you can check the news stories if you want to know more; I know that what you really want is pictures. You got 'em.

It looks to me like this started out as a giant rabbit, but the top seems to bear a slight resemblance to the guy with the shovel... I don't know what it's supposed to be, but people seemed to be enjoying it.

Shovels are for snowmen. Snowrabbits. Whatever.