I knew it was getting warmer. This is my fourth winter in Beijing. The first one was a near-death experience. Of course, I had been living in the tropics for nine years, so I had some adjusting to do. But still, it was brutal. The north wind ripped through the city like flying scalpels. You didn't want to go outside. When you came back in your face was oddly stiff for a few minutes.

As formative Beijing Winter experiences go, it was small potatoes. We were, after all, living in our slick, centrally heated apartment, with all the cable TV we could watch. It wasn't like we were huddled in a drafty siheyuan with a coal furnace, dying of carbon monoxide poisoning, sleeping in cotton jackets and living on nothing but an increasingly moldy pile of dabaicai laced with rat turds. But still it made an impression on me.

But Beijing winters have become pansy winters. This winter is cool at best. It's definitely not like 2004, when it hit -12C and we had an immense snowball fight in six inches of snow at Chaoyang park. Old hands will have even colder memories. But there's no pride in surviving this years limp cooldown. Last year in Shanghai was worse (if only because my apartment was drafty like a toolshed).

I had been trying to tell myself that I was just getting used to it. But no, looking at this article from Reuters, it's actually global warming:

HARBIN, China (Reuters) - Chinese scientists have warned that climate change is hurting the most famous draw in the northern city of Harbin -- its annual ice sculpture contest.

Average annual temperatures in the city perched on the edge of Siberia hit 6.6 degrees Celsius (44 Fahrenheit) last year, the highest average since records began, and the ice sculptures are feeling the heat.

"In the beginning of December 2002, ice lanterns in Harbin melted right after they were sculpted. What came out of the work was sweaty ice sculptures," Yin Xuemian, senior meteorologist at the Heilongjiang Observatory, told Reuters.

***

Far from the global debates about how to curb climate change, participants in Harbin's festival have more immediate concerns: how to keep their creations from melting.

"We are worried that the thing will collapse. We tried to readjust a little bit," said one Malaysian participant chipping away at a hunk of ice.

The Harbin Ice Festival too? Damn. I've never even been. By the time I finally get there, it'll be the much less entertaining Harbin Slush and Electric Hazard Festival. 

Bring back the bitter, Siberian winters! 

In honor of Beijing winters here is a little postage-stamp video my wife shot of me and my friend Ham acting like dorks (Mrs. Imagethief's word) on frozen Houhai in 2004. I'm the one on his ass. This was shot with a little point-and shoot digital camera, so no prizes for quality. It's also pre-YouTube, so no streaming:

Click on the image to play.
750kb MPEG video file.