Guilin snows? No kidding!

Guilin lies in the very southern provincial region of China, but the very northern part of the this autonomous provincial region. Generally speaking, the weather here is warm all the year around. It never gets too cold in the winter nor too hot in the summer.

It’s easy too understand that it would not be cold in the summer, then why it isn’t hot in summer? Well, it is hot in the summer actually. But the temperature is not like that in some other areas of China. Guilin’s hotness is in a sense of time. I mean Guilin is warm or hot all the year around. Even at the beginning of winter the temperature still stays above 20 degree centigrade. And the highest temperature in summer normally keeps between 28 and 36. But in the other areas of China the highest temperature could be as high as 40 degree centigrade or higher.

So, Guilin is not a hot city in terms of the highest temperature. But when talking about hot weather it lasts, Guilin is a city in point. When I came to Guilin years ago I could not really be used to the long-lasting high temperature. In my hometown which is near Beijing November is already the time for winter with snows once in a while. But here in Guilin, you do not even have to wear your coat. But in December and January the temperature falls down to the bottom. Sometimes the lowest temperature could get to one degree centigrade. Such cold weather only continues for few days and then the temperature would go up quickly.

So does it snow in Guilin? The answer is yes. But the snow here is so rare that even the very old people can’t imagine the poetic scene in the poems. For the kids their biggest reward sometimes is only an opportunity to go to the north and have a look at the real snow. In the very very northern part of the minority area of Guilin (a place known as longji or dragon's backbone area where the rice paddy fields lie), it snows and the snow could cover the paddy fields and spare some time for the photographers to take pictures. The elevation in this region, however, is mostly 800 meters above sea level. But even in this area, snow is as rare.

It really snows in the winter....

I have lived in Guilin for almost 5 years but never seen a snow.