This last Saturday was apparently the coldest day in Beijing in the last 30 years. According to my phone, the temperature outside was -24°C and felt like -35°C. So I thought it would be interesting to go out to the Great Wall of China, about two hours away from town, and take some pictures. I was hoping it would be whiter than it was.

I went to the Xiang Shui Hu 响水湖 section of the Great Wall, which means "river that sounds of flowing water", probably because there is a river near by, as you can see in the first photo.

A little bit of snow was on the ground, but I wished it was all white.

This is one of the guard posts in the wall. This portion is pretty new and well kept.

Several signs along the wall said "dangerous, don't go further than here", which made me think why they had one after the other.

Ruins of another guard post can be seen a little bit further up the wall.

The sun started to appear and the temperature rose a bit, but not enough.

It was so cold that the steam from my breath would immediately freeze on the back of my camera. I pulled my phone out and it almost immediately shut off.

A couple of years ago I visited the exact same spot at sunset in the spring. The atmosphere was completely different. Here are a few shots from that day so you can compare.