Letter from China: Snow and ice glisten with golden promise in China's northeast corner

by Xinhua writer Huang Yuzhang

HARBIN, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Stepping from the train, I was immediately met by a bracing chill of minus 20 degrees Celsius. My face flushed, my fingers trembled, and my heart pounded. These familiar sensations reminded me that I was home.

During my childhood, the outskirts of Qing'an, a small county in China's northernmost province of Heilongjiang, consisted of snow-covered fi