Trapped..

[Steve_M]

As I type, I'm in China - just landed in Beijing a few hours ago and am catching up on 8 hours worth of posts and emails here in Tianjin. Was it just me or was there a spam blizzard this weekend too? Loads of the stuff in all of my email accounts.

Normally the weather here can be bitterly cold if the winds come off the Mongolian Desert (along with lots of loess covering everything in a fine layer and turning any bright colours to a muted shade of grey brown). I've had the exposed skin on the back of my hands dessicate in about 8 mins in past visits when its been below freezing here. Man, the windchill was something else!

Ah well, hopefully the weather will hold out this week and then its back to the UK and work next Monday.

[Tim Bishop]

Ken, if you ever make it down to Texas, look me up! You want 90 degree heat, not a problem.

[Richard Prowse]

Still hot down under too.

[Tim Bishop]

Not as hot as your posts though!

[Richard Prowse]

Originally Posted by Tim Bishop

Not as hot as your posts though!

Thanks Tim.

[Steve_M]

Heh, I came back from China on Sunday after being out there for a week. The night before we were due to depart, it snowed heavily and they shut the expressway between Beijing and Tianjin. We were facing having to take a cross country route along "A roads" which was going to be a bit of a saga with all the construction work going on (can you say "quagmire"?)

Anyways, about a third of the way in, my other halves father calls to say he's had a chat with some contacts and they're prepared to let our Landcruiser onto the closed expressway so we can get to the airport on time. So we get on at the nearest on ramp, jump 6 rows of cars and trucks tailing back about 100m that are lined up waiting to get on, go through a special 'inspection vehicle' gate and we're on our way.

So picture this, its 9:30am in the morning and we've got one of the busiest expressways in northern China all to ourselves.

I had to video the moment.