Winter has finally hit Beijing with a vengeance. After the biggest snowfall in the last fifty years, Beijing is struggling to return to normalcy. The last few days have given us empty roads, temperatures as low as fifteen below and people shoveling snow using everything from wicker brooms to broken door slabs. This may not seem special to those of you roughing it up north, but it's pretty exciting for those of us in Beijing.

By now we've got more than 450 lessons online at Popup Chinese, and the best online tools and resources for learning mandarin anywhere online. We're already helping thousands of people build their way to fluency each day. And since we know there's no better or more efficient way to learn mandarin, we want to make it easy for you to start this year off right. Which is why we're pleased to bring you a very time-limited January special:

*** 15% OFF FOR 15 DAYS ***

• $40 - All Basic Subscriptions
• $125 - All Premium Subscriptions
• $340 - 3 Months of 1-On-1 Training

In the spirit of these historically low temperatures in Beijing, and the fact that Echo is huddled up with the space heater, we're offering a 15% discount on subscriptions for the next 15 DAYS ONLY. This is your chance to make this year the year you go native. Get both the motivation and support you need to improve your Chinese by visiting [http://popupchinese.com/account].

* Chinese New Years *

Chinese New Years is the biggest holiday of the year hereabouts. It's the time when families gather to make dumplings and set off unholy amounts of fireworks, and there's really nothing like it anywhere outside China. New Years is falling on February 14th this year, so if you're planning to be in China this February beware! You can expect the transit system to be basically unusable from about the 10th through the 20th nationwide. We recommend flying if you need to travel during this period since you'll have a hard time buying train tickets on the ground.

If you're doing business in China (or need to deal with the government), you should also be aware that everything is going to slow down for the holidays. Businesses will start slowing down the last week in January and won't pick up again until the beginning of March. So plan around the holiday and expect delays whether you're doing procurement, or processing that visa.

* Ongoing Site Development *

As we announced in our last newsletter, we're hard at work plugging away at the next version of Popup Chinese. We've got a revamped community section, a better lesson scheduling service and much more planned to launch.

As of this morning, our basic features are working and we're plugging away at usability and design. We've still got a month or so to go before launch and are plugging through a list of suggestions you guys have forwarded. So if you have any feature requests you haven't sent in yet, please do take the time to send them to us. This really is one of the best times to make technical requests as we're combing through our code base and drinking significant amounts of coffee.

* Our Popular Lessons: *

Christmas is usually a slower time on the site as everyone shifts gears for the holidays. We kept publishing lessons through the break though, so if you missed visiting us because you were busy at Christmas you missed a lot of fun. In the spirit of looking back, here are our favorite lessons from the last month:

* Absolute Beginners: What Sign Are You *

How entertaining can a lesson about poultry be? You may be a skeptic, but we picked this as our favorite beginner lesson if only because of all the controversy it caused. Fortunately, after a heated debate on the site, Andrew from Colorado made our day by sending us a recording he made of a group of actual chickens. So score one for the international team and zero for Team China, despite Xiao Hu's protestations otherwise! [http://popupchinese.com/lessons/absolute-beginners/what-sign-are-you]

* Elementary: Digital Volleyball *

One of our favorite pasttimes in the office is combining traditional sports with high-tech gadgets. This sporting approach to the digital life doesn't always end happily. In fact, it very rarely ends happy. If you've already got a bit of Chinese under your belt you're going to see the ending to this dialogue coming from a mile off. In the meantime it is a lot of fun though. [http://popupchinese.com/lessons/elementary/digital-volleyball]

* Intermediate: A Serious Shortage of Trousers *

We have strong convictions that everyone needs to know how to speak with the mafia here in China. We also love the voice Tiansen gives to his Big Boss character, which is why we brought him back specially for this lesson about how to treat old friends who've forgotten what family means. In our next lesson, we'll teach you how to say "sleep with the fishes," but before we get there you've got some trouser slang to memorize. Don't ask, just listen. [http://popupchinese.com/lessons/intermediate/a-serious-shortage-of-trousers]

* Advanced: The Monkey King *

Our annotated edition of the Dream of the Red Chamber meant that you could read it without the need for a dictionary. Now we're pleased to add the first chapter of The Monkey King, the classic Buddhist story about a band of travelling companions (including - yes - talking animals) who travel to India on a mision to retrieve some sacred scrolls. This is one of the four classic works of Chinese literature. If you have never read it, start with this first passage that starts the very first chapter. Premium subscribers only! [http://www.popupchinese.com/lessons/short-stories/the-monkey-king-chapter-1-part-1]

And that's it for today. As always, thank you for reading. And remember, if you want to be fluent, there's no better or more fun way to do this than with Popup Chinese. So if you don't already have an account, sign up today while we've got our special promotion! The address again is [http://popupchinese.com/account]

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