Yesterday marked the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year festival and celebrations for over a billion people worldwide. If you are turning 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, 96, 108 or 120, then this year of the snake should be a prosperous one for you! Just as a point of interest, it is not just the Chinese that celebrate the Lunar New Year but the Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese, Mongolians, and several other nations as well, in addition of course to the ex-pat communities of these cultures worldwide.

So, in the spirit of Asian-inspired new beginnings, we thought we’d show you an image of some rather grandiose looking roofs from the forbidden city in Beijing, China. One of our staff spent several months living, working, and studying in the region a couple of years back and found the roof design and architecture to be quite unique and appealing. However, although snowfall in most parts of China does not rival the conditions of America’s snow country, there is certainly still a clear need for snow guard and roof protection in the area, where ice commonly builds during the winter. Check out this crazy video below of a rather uniquely patterned fall of snow and ice avalanche in China: