China's normally dry capital lay covered in a white blanket for a third day Thursday, with Beijing residents and tourists basking in an unusual, artificially produced snowfall.
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The snow that began early Tuesday was a product of cloud-seeding, Chinese officials have claimed. It is a method used by the government to induce precipitation to end a three-month drought that has gripped at least 12 Chinese provinces.
Zhang Qiang, deputy director of the Beijing Weather Modification Command Center, said Wednesday the center had blasted chemicals into the clouds to increase the snow.
"More than 500 cigarette-size sticks of silver iodide were seeded into clouds from 28 weather rocket-launch bases in the city," Zhang was quoted by the official Xinhua News Agency as saying.
China has used such techniques in the past, though there is little scientific evidence of its effectiveness. Most recently, the government reportedly used cloud-seeding to prevent rain from marring the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics.
Even Chinese scientists acknowledge they cannot say exactly what effect they are having by blasting clouds with silver iodide. Of course when it snows — or rains — they take credit.
According to Beijing's meteorological bureau, the snow will stop by nightfall.
Beijing experiences cold winters but snow — if it occurs at all — is usually very light. This week's snowfall proved to be a draw for some of Beijing's most well-known tourist spots.
A spokesman for the Badaling section of the Great Wall, about an hour from Beijing, said that twice as many tourists as usual had come out to view the snow-covered site.
"Even though it wasn't the weekend, about 4,000 tourists still showed up yesterday to watch the snow ... the scene is spectacular," said the official, who gave only his surname Xie.
Xie said he expects more visitors over the next few days because snow on the Great Wall is "quite rare."
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