Rime: The spring in winter
By admin on 2014-12-26

Rime in Jilin, so called the poetic beauty of "spring in winter", together with sea of clouds in Huangshan Mountain, sunrise on the Mountain Tai as well as the tiding wave in Qiantang River, has been named as Four Natural Splendors of China.

In winter, when everything is not that lively in northern China, Jilin in Northeast of China does provide you with mysterious and marvelous scenery. Walking along the bank of Songhuajiang River, the pine and willow are dressed in snow as white as silver. This is the so called the splendor of “Rime”.

Rime, generally called as “ice spike”, turns out to be the ice crystal condensed on the bough when frost meets with water vapor. It is divided into two types as graininess and crystal form. The former is tight in structure, forming a small ice block while the latter is loose in structure, assuming a large-size flake. Rime in Jilin, belonging to the latter, is formed under the unique geographical environment there.
  
15km away from Jilin City along the Songhuajiang River is Fengman Hydropower Plant and temperature of its water becomes warm through the hydroelectric generating set, about 4 degree even in deep winter. The river water, carrying a great mass of heat energy, forms a grand ice-free view of many kilometers along the Songhuajiang River. The whole river surface is full of vapor and it lingers on for a long time. Walking the upstream of the river, all you could see is the erected pines and drooping willows. Under certain air pressure, temperature and wind direction, the moist over the river forms the rime when meeting with coldness.
 
The beauty of rime lies in its grandeur and rareness. The key to viewing the rime is “fog at night, ice spike in the morning and falling flowers near the noon.”

"Fog at night" is to mean viewing the fog on the Songhuajiang River on the night before the rime forms. At ten o'clock at night, continuous fogs start rising from the river, becoming thicker and thicker, floating towards both banks of the river.

"Ice spike in the morning "is to mean viewing the rime over the trees early in the morning. Trees along the ten-mile banks are coated with white ice overnight. Poplars and willows hang their jade-like branches and clusters of crystalline pine needles bloom just like silver chrysanthemum.

"Falling flowers near noon” is to mean the rime over trees melting away and dropping down. About at ten o'clock in the morning, ice spikes start to melt and fall down continuously. The falling ice flakes, dancing in the air by the gentle breeze, look like a colorful snow curtain in the bright sunshine.