A Haerbin Blizzard

It was all hands on deck. Haerbin has been struck by the same blizzard like weather currently being enjoyed by our Canadian bretheren. The snow plows were quickly called into action clearing snow from the major streets and bus routes. No salt used here.

Front end loaders quickly moved the snow into huge piles along the roadsides awaiting the three wheeled dump trucks to come so they could load the piles of snow and truck /cart it away. Chinese efficiency at its best. Fourty-eight hours later,and there is little evidence left that any snow had fallen. When you have 1.3 billion citizens, you don't require gas guzzling heavy equipment. You just throw manpower at it till it goes away.

On campus, the snow is shoveled or swept into piles then shoveled into the many tree wells scattered around campus. There has been a lot of it lately so in some cases it piles up and is then compacted by foot and vehicle traffic. When this happens, they send out armies of students armed with shovels to chip away at the ice and compacted snow. They push it into piles along the walkways and roads. A small flatbed truck with a gang of workers comes along behind them to shovel the snow into the back of the truck and haul it away. It is an amazing process to watch. Haerbin is a big city and even a small snowfall leaves a tremendous amount of snow that is removed almost completely by hand. Another lesson for Canada? I think not.

This is an archeological sample of a piece of compacted snow. The gray colour is caused by the soot that is always in the air. More so in the winter. This piece was the result of two snowfalls. The first snow was not removed quickly, so you can see a line of soot was formed before the second snowfall occurred. The winter climate here is drier than the Gobi Desert so given enough time, the ice and snow not hauled way, evaporates and leaves most surfaces clear.