Today's new words
冰雹 Bīngbáo hailstones
I've been showing friends pictures on my phone and my Chinese social media pictures from our weekend adventures with hailstorms at the Great Wall. Some have been particularly stunned our family ran into hail (冰雹) twice in those two days in another part of Beijing when Changping barely had any rain on Thursday and nothing at all on Friday.
One friend told me that in all her years growing up and now living in Changping, she had never seen 冰雹 fall in town or even out in the Ming Tombs, or at least not very much and not even as large as the ones we saw over the weekend. Other areas around Beijing, she said, would report giant 冰雹 (she made a circle with her forefinger and thumb to show me), and Changping would get at most very little, smaller than those in my pictures. It had something to do with the fengshui of this area, the same fengshui that made this the preferred location for the Ming Emporers' tombs.
I'm sure a meteorologist would have a more scientific explanation why Changping sees less severe weather than the surrounding areas. I like that the tombs have some visible harmony with the hills that frame them. I credit fengshui for both, as it seems to balance for both science and aesthetics.
Like in these pictures I took back in early March.
I've been showing friends pictures on my phone and my Chinese social media pictures from our weekend adventures with hailstorms at the Great Wall. Some have been particularly stunned our family ran into hail (冰雹) twice in those two days in another part of Beijing when Changping barely had any rain on Thursday and nothing at all on Friday.
One friend told me that in all her years growing up and now living in Changping, she had never seen 冰雹 fall in town or even out in the Ming Tombs, or at least not very much and not even as large as the ones we saw over the weekend. Other areas around Beijing, she said, would report giant 冰雹 (she made a circle with her forefinger and thumb to show me), and Changping would get at most very little, smaller than those in my pictures. It had something to do with the fengshui of this area, the same fengshui that made this the preferred location for the Ming Emporers' tombs.
I'm sure a meteorologist would have a more scientific explanation why Changping sees less severe weather than the surrounding areas. I like that the tombs have some visible harmony with the hills that frame them. I credit fengshui for both, as it seems to balance for both science and aesthetics.
Like in these pictures I took back in early March.
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