Dienstag, 15. Mai 2012

How spring is made in Shenyang.

At the end of March we had the last snow here, and as I asked my students what they would call the season we are in right now last week, most of them answered "summer". And yes, they know the difference between "summer" ,"spring" and the other seasons in English (or German).

I`ve already heard a couple of times before from local Chinese that here there are only two "real" seasons here in Shenyang, summer and winter, with spring and fall beeing short four-week appendixes of the two former.

Well, I must admit temperatures rose quickly in April and since three weeks hit almost constantly 20 degrees and more during daytime, but still I´d call that spring. What astonished me at first was how fast all trees, plants and bushes in the city started to bud and blossom - about one week after the last snow falls the cherry trees were already in full bloom:


And about one week later the whole city was a lot greener - even at spots where I couldn`t remember having realized trees or something else nature-like standing there before.

Well, a couple of days later I solved this mystery - while passing a gang planting new, already green trees delivered by a huge truck on the roadside of a big alley:








The trees are brought in from forests and green houses outside of town or from further south in China, where spring isn`t just a four week season. And where winter doesn`t end at the end of March.

Well, we did our best to contribute to Shenyang getting greener with buying heaps of plants for our rooftop garden in the last couple of weeks - it has become a wonderful place to enjoy the gorgeous sunny weather these days - be it spring or summer.....




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