Induced snow... only in China

Click on the title for a great story about the wonders of Chinese science.

The end of the article discusses the difficulties that Beijing cab drivers are having driving in the snow, which brings me to a point about Harbin drivers.... they are amazing! It has been snowing a lot in Harbin lately (it's snowing right now!), so most mornings when we go out there is a thin layer of snow on the ground with a thin layer of ice underneath. The same goes for the streets: snow and ice. At every stop light you can witness drivers sliding to a stop, e-brakes pulled, and city buses spinning their wheels trying to get going again. But really, they are quite good at driving on the ice. I suppose because they have come to expect that sinking sensation you get when your car starts to slide and have adapted to ignore that fear and just make it happen.

Of course, by the end of every day the city has sent a sufficient number of work crews out to manually remove the ice and snow from the streets. On our way home from school we normally witness several of these crews chipping away at stubborn patches of ice, usually in the middle of a 4 lane road, with shovels and scrapers and someone nearby with a large broom to sweep it to the curb. And wouldn't you know it, they're all out there the next day doing it again. As you can see, China has solved two problems in one go: 1. They have created job security for hundreds of folks and 2. They have saved the city money because Harbin doesn't need to buy snow equipment and salt.