Snow on Ailao Mountains, Yunnan

Looking down from the high sky of the Ailao Mountains, the thin snow looks like a layer of sugar frosting, gently spread in the folds of the mountains. The once green terraced fields are now dyed half white and half green like shattered jade by the snow. The patterns that stretch along the mountain slopes look like someone embroidered silver-white threads on green cloth. The wind in the river valley carries snowflakes, sweeping across the brown clearings, replacing the originally warm and cozy earthy scent with a crisp coolness. The distant mountain ridges reveal only pale blue outlines in the snowy mist, like faint shadows blurred by ink wash, with only the sunlit mountain peaks showing a bit of reddish brown made brighter by the snow. The snow is not heavy; it only leaves a layer on the treetops and the edges of the terraced fields, making each leaf topped with a bit of white. When the wind blows, it shakes off tiny sparkling light. The winding dirt roads are covered by snow into pale white ribbons, winding along the mountain slopes into the mist, like a soft scarf wrapped around the mountain range. The mist and snow in the mountain hollows merge into one, soaking the entire mountain in a cool-toned gentleness—without the harshness of winter, only the moistness of snowmelt soaking into the soil, and the soft warmth of sunlight passing through the snow layer and falling on the body. Occasionally, you can see snowmelt flowing along the patterns of the terraced fields into small streams, reflecting the blue of the distant mountain peaks in the white and green checkerboard. Standing here, you can see the snow slowly turning into water vapor under the sunlight, rising from the edges of the terraced fields, then twisting into fine mist around the mountain peaks. The thin snow on the Ailao Mountains is never a cold blank space, but a layer of soft gentleness that will slowly melt, adding to the green mountains.