Prologue - The January Trip: Part II

At 31 degrees North latitude, Suzhou is at about the same North-South position as the border between Georgia and Florida. Snow is not unheard of in Suzhou, but when snow comes the city is as about as well-prepared as Atlanta or Houston or any other Southern US city. Which means, of course, they're are not prepared at all.

Two days before I was scheduled to leave Suzhou in January it started snowing. Not a heavy snow, but it didn't stop. At the hotel, on the first snowy morning, they had about 2 inches of snow and an army of workers out clearing the parking lot with a makeshift thing made out of bamboo poles and two-by-four sections. On the second morning, they were back at it again with a fresh 2 inches of additional snow.

Evidently, they didn't have enough bamboo to clear off the main highway to Shanghai. It was closed. Luckily, the kind folks I work with helped me to take the train, and the subway, and another train to get to the airport for my flight out.