After twp days of snow outside a gift shop. [Photo by Wang Yan/ For China Daily]

The comfortable warmth of the car dissipated within seconds of our getting out, and as we trudged through the thick snow my teeth were chattering.

Willy seemed to be the only one who did not feel the chill. The four-month old was so excited to be in the snow that I think he was deliberately throwing himself into the thickest piles.

Thanks to his exuberance and strength I soon found myself sitting on snow-covered ground, holding his leash and being dragged downhill. The out-of-control Willy was yet again the master in control.

My friends burst into laughter. I knew how funny this must all look, but I needed to remind them of my good fortune.

"At least I got some dog sledding done today."

"Yeah you did," Rachel says, doing her best to stop laughing, "Now stand up and look around."

I did, and I was stunned by what I saw. We were standing on a vast landscape, nothing but a smooth and neat surface covered with pure white snow, glistening in the occasional sunlight. This scene stretched far out to the horizon.

"It's like ... the sea level," I say, wondering where this sense of familiarity came from.

"Yes," Rachel says. "We're on a lake."

She was pointing to a sign towards where we had come from. It says: "Lake of Two Rivers".

"Are we standing on the ice?" I just couldn't believe it. "Do you think we can dig the snow to actually see the ice surface?"

Thus began a contest to see who could dig up ice the fastest, and of course the winner was a certain quadruped who could not stop rolling in the snow.

In the end we all started doing the same, making several human- and dog-shaped stamps on the lake surface. It was freezing, but that did not matter because it was so much fun.

Exhausted from all the rollicking about, we lay on the ground looking at our breaths steaming in the air. A gust of wind then swept through the pine trees by the lakeside, somehow incredibly forceful but oh so tranquil, and at once very familiar but also fresh.

"Do you hear that?" I whisper. "It's beautiful."

"I told you it would be worth it," Rachel whisper back. "You just need to take the first step."