Image Caption: This early December (1998) view of the Songhua River shows snow in the floodplain of
the river, with its numerous meandering scroll-bar features, and numerous, angular farms
on the flat country to the north of the river (top). The smaller Tongken River enters the
picture top right and joins the Songhua on the right margin (center). The major industrial
and coal mining city of Harbin lies just outside the view center right. It is not clear why
small rectangular communities in the farmland are consistently snow-free, although the
existence of trees in these small centers may explain why the snow is less apparent. It
appears that the snow-free lower part of the view lay immediately beyond the track of the
snow storm which affected the rest of the scene.