It was just as I described in December’s beijingkids. One morning last week we woke up to a little bit of snow outside our window.

After lunch, we started to drive north of Changping, into the hills, in search of deep enough snow to play in. We crossed the ridge at Yanzikou, and then stopped at the Ming Tomb Changling. There was just enough snow to make snow balls, but not much else.

It was still early enough. We wondered if it would be worth a drive into Yanqing County, to see the Great Wall (again) in the snow.

The roads going up the mountain weren’t great.

We were tempted to turn around without reaching the Great Wall until we saw this team of snow removal trucks heading down the road. The return drive promised to be much easier (it was).

Once we reached the path to the Great Wall, we saw that coming here was exactly what we needed. For me, there was pretty snow-encased landscape and snow-covered Great Wall.

And for the kids there was snow to play in and slide on.

We did encounter two other snow-seekers who were just as excited to take pictures of the foreign kids in the snow as the Great Wall in the snow.

There were, of course, snow angels made on the Great Wall.

I know; if we were home in the US we would be driven crazy by the excessively cold temperatures and unrelenting snow fall. As I mentioned in my December column, living someplace so cold and dry as Beijing my kids are snow-starved. The ice skating season does provide some winter distraction, but once that is over (as it has been for a few weeks), there’s not much to draw them outdoors.

This post first appeared on Jennifer Ambrose’s site on February 25, 2015.

Jennifer Ambrose hails from Western Pennsylvania and misses it terribly. She still maintains an intense devotion to the Pittsburgh Steelers. She has lived in China since 2006 and is currently an at-home mother. With her husband Randy and children Myles and Brigid, she resides outside the Sixth Ring Road in Changping, northwest of Beijing.

Photos: Jennifer Ambrose