Marvelous rime sceneries in Beijing

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"As if the vernal breeze had come back overnight, adorning thousands of pear trees with blossoms white," reads a Chinese poem. The verses are an apt description of the rime sceneries that appeared on the Great Wall of Jiuyanlou in Beijing on Sunday.

Rime comes into being with the accumulation of water vapor that has not yet condensed below zero degrees Celsius in the fog and freezes with the wind on tree branches and other objects. The conditions require both a long and cold winter and sufficient water vapor in the air.

Located in Yanqing County, Jiuyanlou is one of the largest watchtowers of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) Great Wall in terms of scale. As the structure is made of brick and has nine arrow windows on each side, the locals call it "Jiuyan," which means nine eyes in Chinese.

"I am from the south of China and it never snows in my hometown. This is the first time I have seen such a sight and I find it so shocking," Liu said, a traveler who came here especially to see the rime scenery.