Today may be the coldest day of this winter in Beijing. The temperature is from -18 to -11 centigrade according to the forest.

In Chinese culture, we have a custom named "Shu Jiu"(counting the nine). It means that we consider nine days as a cycle, and count the cycle since Winter Solstice (we call it as "Dong Zhi" in Chinese) which is the day around Dec 21st or 22nd according to the Chinese Calendar.

With "Shu Jiu", we know the coldest day in the winter would be happened within the first three cycles (or say the first 18 days). And today is the last day of the second cycle for this winter.

Also with "Shu Jiu", we know the spring would come around the ninth cycle or tenth cycle.

Based on this custom, we even have some songs for it to help people remember how the weather would be changed during this period.

With the weather becoming colder, the situation of COVID-19 in China became a little worse than last month. In the last few days since Jan 1st, Hebei province, which is near Beijing, has reported about 40 confirmed cases. People started to wear masks back to their faces. Some cities are just locked down and the flights and the trains departing from or arrive to these cities have been canceled.

Hope they can detain the epidemic successfully within this month and back to the normal life in February, since the Chinese New Year this year will be February twelfth. Hope everyone can stay with their family during the Chinese New Year in this tough year.