NEWS CENTER
Snow in Yuxian County, Double 12 of 2025
12 Dec,2025
On the night of Double 12, a pickup truck trundled along the village road. Snow had been falling thick and fast since the minister’s entourage visited the construction site to shoot a promotional video that afternoon. Headlights sliced through the darkness, and snowflakes lashed against the windshield. Rolling down the window, a crisp, biting chill mixed with the earthy scent of the construction site rushed in.
The snow had been long foreshadowed. By noon, the sun had vanished, and a northwest wind howled, cutting to the bone. When filming the final set of shots, the wind was like an invisible carving knife. The young women stamped their feet and rubbed their hands to keep warm, while the male crew members, wrapped in cool green overcoats, held leveling rods and levels, standing fast on the open construction site. The white puffs of their breath were torn away by the wind in an instant.
The journey back was quiet. The daytime hustle and bustle of the site had been buried under a blanket of snow. A flicker of relief crossed my mind, but it was quickly overshadowed by worries about resuming work after the snow: would melting snow increase the water content of the frozen soil and undermine the foundation stability?
Dawn broke, and the usual roar of the construction site was nowhere to be heard. Pushing open the door, I found the courtyard blanketed in a thick layer of white snow. A call from the client came through, notifying us to suspend construction due to extreme weather and to prioritize personnel safety above all else.
The snow kept falling. Under the leaden gray sky, tools and bricks were smothered in deep snow. The world was reduced to a stark contrast of pure white, dark gray tree trunks and the corners of houses—so quiet that I could hear the sound of my own breathing.
As someone who grew up in northern China, I have always had a soft spot for snow. As a child, I built snowmen and had snowball fights; even as an adult, I still enjoy molding snow ducks while walking in the snow. Snow lends a touch of warmth to the otherwise bleak northern winter. But for those of us in the dynamic compaction foundation engineering business, rain and snow are the bane of construction: frozen ground diminishes the effectiveness of compaction, while melting snow turns the site into a quagmire, rendering heavy machinery immobile. The pressure of project delays and idle labor hangs over us like a boulder.
I wandered into the courtyard, my boots crunching on the snow. Scooping up a handful, its icy cold seeped to my bones. The path outside the courtyard was covered in an unbroken sheet of snow, untouched by any footprints— a stark replacement for its usual dusty, rutted state.
I knew it wouldn’t stay this way for long. Soon enough, villagers and stray dogs would leave their tracks, and heavy-duty trucks would rumble over the snow, breaking the silence. Life on the construction site would return to its usual busy pace. A gust of northwest wind swept snowflakes off the eaves, and I hurried back indoors.
The white expanse of the courtyard and my mixed emotions on this Double 12 morning would be etched in my memory forever. The snow will eventually stop falling, but our journey—on both the road and the job—must go on.
Liu Xiaoxiong
Gallery
JIN BAODAO FOUNDATION
Add: Jingucang Building, No.57 Longxing Street, Xiaodian District, Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province
Tel: 0086 185 3682 1874 ( Mr. Wen )
E-mail: ccpwyk@qq.com