The Beijing Olympics have been watched closely for snow — the artificial kind, made by machines, up in the mountains outside the city. On Sunday morning, though, a more natural variety coated the Chinese capital for the first time since the Games began.
The world's athletes — and Beijingers, of course — awakened to a rather vigorous snowfall that cast a placid silence over Olympic Park The aggregate effect: For the first time in the heart of their urban headquarters, the Winter Games looked like, well, the Winter Games.
In this photo from Associated Press photographer Natacha Pisarenko, a woman crosses a lonely street on Sunday morning near the heart of Olympic Park.
