As a native Florida girl who experienced seasons for the first time at age 26, when I moved to Beijing, it's hard for me to get over the feeling of dread that comes with the first sign of a chill in the air. I am trying to learn to adjust to enjoying Autumn without sucumbing to complete terror for the season that lies around the corner: WINTER. As I tear the pages of my calendar and add layer upon layer of clothing, as my hands become more numb on the bike to work and my feet take longer to thaw upon my arrival, I know winter is coming soon.
This is a big deal in Beijing. One of my favorite things about the city are the signs of life all around taking place in the street. Since people's living spaces are so small, especially in the traditional housing which wind down long alleyways - called hutongs, they spend a lot of time outside.
I love seeing:
Elderly women sitting on low stools playing mahjong and old men playing cards with a crowd of spectators surrounding them.
A crowd at a self-imposed recycling center on the side of the road where people from all over sell their recyclable finds to some guy with a truck.
Restaurants with makeshift outdoor eating at low tables with stools, and guys marking their manliness by the number of beer bottles and kebab skewers that litter the ground.
Couples, young and old, taking a walk (called a sanbu) in their pajamas after dinner.
Migrant workers at payphones making calls to the wives and children they get to see once a year.
A woman on the corner wearing a lab coat and giving 50 cent haircuts to a patron sitting on a stool.
Kids playing badmitton and babies running around in crotchless pants and peeing on the street.
Groups of people doing Tai Chi to music in any open space large enough to get organized.
A 90-year-old man who sits on a chair everyday and watches the world go by perhaps living vicariously through the busyness he sees in other people's lives.
It's not that all of these things will stop once winter rolls around, but the people will rush and become more hunched over in an obvious effort to conserve warmth. And I won't be able to enjoy them as much as I hurry by to whatever warm indoor place I'm on my way to. But that's life with seasons, I suppose, and when people start peeking their heads out next spring to enjoy the warm weather again, I'll be with them.
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