"In the bitter cold of the northern winter, when the ground is frozen a yard deep, what flowers are there but the snowflakes brought by the blizzards?" In an essay, mainland Chinese author Deng Yunxiang evokes how in Beijing, which has been a capital city for a thousand years, plum trees can barely be induced even to grow, let alone bloom amid the snow.
大陸作家鄧雲鄉曾經在隨筆裡寫到，「北國苦寒，冬天戶外凍土三尺，除了大雪時的雪花，那有其它的花朵？」就連作了上千年都城的北京，別說梅花犯雪而開，想種活都難。