Trees in the winter

Every winter, the government puts a white coating on the bottom 3 feet, or so, of every tree. Expats speculate what this is for and most people think it is to keep a particular insect away from the trees. Some trees get wrapped in a thick rope, which is a bit more attractive, so others speculate that it could be to keep the trees from freezing and dying during the frigid and windy and dry Beijing winters.

Jed, however, has another theory. Last week, we were driving down a busy road where we spotted more than one taxi driver relieving himself by the side of the road. Jed speculated that the white paint protects the trees from the taxi drivers' "pee".