Online Sellers Say It With Snow for Southern Customers

As snowstorms hit China’s northern cities, a new “snow writing” service seemingly fell out of the sky this winter on e-commerce platforms like Taobao. Scribes charge 5-15 yuan (US$0.75-2) to write a custom message in the snow and take a photo. Most orders included the buyer’s name or loving messages to their partners. A seller told news portal The Paper she launched the service just for fun and did not think that it would truly attract buyers. Most of her customers are from South China where snow is a rare sight. Netizens applauded the idea, and joked that southerners could charge to write names in beach sand for freezing northerners.