Winter, Beijing

A bitter wind is blowing in from Mongolia. It is -8 centrigrades in Beijing (less with wind chill) and falling. I wake up to gusts of snow, by mid-morning even the matrix cranes -- that were working round-the-clock to beat the end-of-year construction moratorium for the Olympics -- are stilled. Beijing is looking like a Russian city, except for new year lanterns swinging from the trees.