China Daily ran the following photo and caption today:

A residence community is seen blanketed in snow in Beijing November 10, 2009. Four to 7 centimeters of snow is expected in the next four days with a temperature drop of over 10 C.

The headline was “Beijing Embraces Heavy Snow.” !!!

Um, listen up. A couple of inches of snow is not “heavy,” and it in no way can “blanket” anything except very flat ground, and that just barely. This is outrageous.

I spent the coldest winter of my life in Shenyang (my six winters in Boston were close), where the people don’t merely tolerate snow, it is just sort of an afterthought. They are too busy dealing with the high wind and ice. And let’s face it, Shenyang/Liaoning is not the worst place to be — if you want real snow you go up to Heilongjian. [My wife is a 东北人 so I'm allowed to say this stuff.]

Beijing residents need to grow a pair. Weak, folks, really weak.