Obama

President Obama visited China this week. Little disruption in Beijing outside of the downtown area, where Obama discussed policy with President Hu and toured the Forbidden City.

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In response to a question on Twitter and the Chinese firewall at a Shanghai 'town-hall meeting,' Obama said he supported "non-censorship" but declined to criticize or even mention censorship by the Chinese government.

His carefully-worded answer came across as weak to many Americans, myself included. But since Obama did not criticize the government, his discussion of the role that Internet freedoms can play in a democracy made it into Chinese-language newspapers here.

Winter Arrives

The posting lull has ended.

Over the weekend I moved into an off-campus, three-bedroom apartment in the Wudaokou neighborhood of Beijing. I am living with the two guys with whom I visited Xinjiang. Arduous travel, including two 24-hour train rides in large-fridge-sized cabins, is a great way to determine roommate compatibility.

As the view out my window indicates, snow covers the capital. Thunder and lightning accompanied the storm that brought it last night.

The first snowfall of the season came on Halloween. That freak storm was boosted by the Beijing Weather Modification Office.

"We wont miss any opportunity of artificial precipitation since Beijing is suffering from the lingering drought," said Zhang Qiang, who is in charge of the office. Zhang said more than 16 million tonnes of snow had been artificially added according to the preliminary calculation.

Beijingers are pretty poor at driving in snow, walking on slippery sidewalks, and shoveling paths in a timely fashion. They are, however, adept at building snowmen.