Beijing's coldest December day in 57 years...

Winter truly arrived in Beijing yesterday with the highest temperature of the day down to minus 8.8 ℃.Media reports say it was "the coldest day in December in the last 57 years."Strong wind ripped off part of the metal roof of a university's gymnasium and the thermal insulation layer of a hotel in Beijing.It also blew away a man who was mending his own roof in Shijingshan District. The man landed on the top of a 15 meter-high tree and was rescued by firefighters (see front page image).According to Sun Jisong, a meteorologist from the Beijing Meteorological Bureau, the cold weather will not last and the temperature is going to rise to above zero in the coming days.Also:
● 37 of over 600 Taiwanese candidates passed this year's legal bar examination in mainland China. According to a new policy which will take effect from January 1, 2009, qualified Taiwan residents will be allowed to practice law in mainland China.
● A new policy allows enterprises to delay their payment of their employee's social insurance for a maximum of 6 months next year. The government is hopeful that this policy is going to alleviate the burden of the enterprises and save tens of millions of jobs.
● Zhou Zhenglong, the man who was convicted of faking photos of the wild South China Tiger and received two and half years in jail with three years' suspension has revoked his confession and is now insisting that he is innocent. He hand wrote a message protesting his innocence and saying the tiger photos were real. His daughter uploaded photos of his hand-written note to the Internet.
The newspaper reports that Zhou was subsequently taken away from his home by local police.
Links and Sources
The Beijing News (Chinese): Cold weather hit Beijing yesterday
http://www.danwei.org/front_page_of_the_day/beijing_winter.php

As in the days of Noah.....