A truly great work of realism should not only depict how reality was or is, and how people are in such reality, but more importantly, it should also portray how humans should be within it. This is of great significance. For millenia, countless works of literature and art have been constantly telling humanity in their own ways: how should people be? I am merely repeating what our predecessors have collectively strived to accomplish.
—Liang Xiaosheng

The works are imbued with a profound concern for the destiny of a generation. The emotional power of the works is heavy but not unrestrained, pervasive but not wild. The attitude of facing life directly gives the works a grand character. Of course, the history of the educated - youth movement determines that such works cannot be written in a magnificent and splendid way. On the contrary, as the coda of that era and as the spiritual feedback of an important social phenomenon of that era — the "Go to the mountainous areas and the countryside" movement — gravity and sorrow are distinctly present.
——Zhang Zhizhong, Literary Critic

★A literary classic with enduring influence — Frequently republished and adapted into a television series, this novel was selected for "70 Iconic Novels of New China's 70 Years". Its TV adaptation won the China TV Golden Eagle Award.
★The definitive work of China's "Educated Youth Literature" — "Snow City", alongside "This Is a Magical Land" and "Tonight There's a Snowstorm", forms Liang Xiaosheng's "Educated Youth Trilogy" that pioneered "Educated Youth Literature" in China.
★A microcosm of China's social evolution — This epic chronicles the reform era's turbulence, authentically capturing how ordinary lives and spirits transformed. Through myriad human portraits, it celebrates quiet courage and tenacious tenderness of ordinary people.
★ Essential reading for every young mind — Following characters like Xu Shufang, Liu Dawen, and Yao Yuhui, the novel hymns their resilience against life's torrents — their falls and rises embodying unbroken determination and firm beliefs.
★Realism with philosophical depth — When life saps your courage, turn to "Snow City".

Each person has their fate
Each generation bears its destiny
But we mustn't submit —
To live is to carry the scars gifted from the world forward.

This defining novel by Liang Xiaosheng portrays educated youth returning to cities in the early 1980s, struggling to rebuild lives amid societal upheaval.
Set in the northern snowy city of A, it follows the intertwined destinies of characters like Xu Shufang, Liu Dawen, Yao Yuhui. The story illustrates how these returning educated youths endeavor to adapt to new surroundings, search for, and realize their own value. It authentically portrays their confusion and quest, and praises the noble sentiments and pursuits they display in adversity.

Liang Xiaosheng

He was born in 1949 in Harbin with ancestral roots in Rongcheng, Shandong. He is a renowned contemporary Chinese writer and scholar. Currently, he serves as a senior professor at the School of Humanities of Beijing Language and Culture University, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and a researcher at the Central Research Institute of Culture and History. To date, he has authored over ten million words of literary works, including essays, novels, commentaries, and documentary literature. His representative works include "Tonight There’s a Snowstorm", "The Rings of Time", and "Educated Youth". In 2019, he won the 10th Mao Dun Literature Prize for his novel "A Lifelong Journey".

1
Endurance.
Thousands waiting at the station endured the bone-piercing cold and the fury born of near-hopeless anticipation.
The train station endured the furious crowd.
An undercurrent of unease flowed stealthily through the stillness over the station square...
The Soviet Red Army Martyrs' Monument gazed down calmly at the seething mass of humanity...
"Director, shall we turn on the searchlights?"
"Not yet..."
"Should we deploy the public security officers?"
The Station Derector pondered briefly before replying with forced composure, "That's unnecessary..." Then added, "But have them inside the station mobilize..."
He set down the receiver, slowly sank into his chair, opened the duty logbook, and hastily wrote, "December 26, 1979..." He wanted to add more but struggled to find the precise words.
The announcement began:
"All platform staff attention, all platform staff attention, Train 113 is approaching, please prepare for passenger reception, please prepare for passenger reception..."
The Station Director immediately put down his pen, stood up, and strode to the window, staring at the square.
His heart swelled with gratitude toward the announcer.
In every train station across every nation worldwide, announcers' voices forever maintain that professional, measured, soothing cadence. While national emblems and flags differ, all station announcers might as well be the same venerable woman — one fluent in every tongue.
Bless those maternal, infinitely caring voices!
That no train station on Earth employs male announcers proves how profoundly human psychology requires such gentle, loving feminine tones for solace in these spaces.
Train stations are magnetic fields of human nature.
The female announcer's voice at City A's station was elegant and composed. Yet upon hearing it, all platform staff still tensed, rushing from various posts to form a solemn "skirmish line" behind the safety markers.
Following the Station Director's order, exit gates remained sealed against all greeters. Beyond the blue-uniformed cordon, the platform lay deserted — a scene resembling martial law preparedness.
Train 113 carried neither military significance nor central government dignitaries, nor any visiting foreign leader's private coach. It carried also no deadly plague vectors threatening the city.
It was the locomotive of history's debt.