Winter in Beijing is usually very dry and cold from mid December until after the spring festival, a reasonably short break from riding. The 2008 - 2009 version of winter has been very mild, letting us ride until early December and restart the bikes early February with 150 days of no precipitation from October 2008 to February 2009.

Winter started unusually early on November 1st 2009, with the first snow and a cold front. Ever since it was cold, partially f...... cold (dare you to fill the spaces ) and today, mid March, we got yet another load of d.....d ..c...g (fill the gaps if really want ) snow delivered right to our doorsteps. We had a record of 10 times snowing in Beijing this winter with an accumulated total of 90 cm snow and there is another chance of snow next week.

I prepared three times to ride and every time the bike was ready, winter struck again by pouring the white s..t (don't even think about filling the gaps ) on us again.

While the snow is perfectly fine for nature, it isn't for us riders. We hope to say goodbye to the f.....g (you may fill the spaces ) winter soon and are looking forward to a f...i... (don't fill the blanks ) fine riding season.