Ice - inside my room

Everytime I get back to my hotel room, I login to check work email and Skype the family back home. The desk is close to the window and I've been hearing cracking sounds every night this week. I've been ignoring any noise that I hear because each night, there are firecrackers and fireworks (Chinese New Year) around the vicinity of the hotel - and these are loud.

This time, I checked the source of the "noise". Ice formed around the window frame because it's just way too cold outside. It's 10 F (-12 C) outside, and it has just been cold here. Since I've turned on the heater, some of the ice has started to melt, thus the cracking sound. Here are a couple of pictures:

Ice around the window


A closer look


On an unrelated topic, these are pictures taken this past weekend. Click

Forbidden City - again

I took an officemate (from the US) on a tour of the Forbidden City. After the tour, we walked towards Tianenmen Square and proceeded to Beijing's shopping district.

Click here to see the pictures from today

The Great Wall - again

I'm back in Beijing and will be here till the 3rd week of Jan. My officemate from Los Angeles has not been here before and asked if it was okay to accompany her to the Great Wall. The Badaling Great Wall is about a 40-minute trip from where we are staying (Loong Palace Hotel) so this morning, we asked the hotel to arrange a cab to take us there, wait and take us back to the hotel.

Click here to see the pictures from this morning (increase the intervals to at least 6 seconds)