Society

China blizzard disrupts pre-holiday rush for home

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-02-10 21:45

TAIYUAN: A blizzard hitting at least six provinces and regions in northern China Tuesday and Wednesday has disrupted tens of thousands of homecoming trips ahead of the most important Chinese holiday.

Ministry of Transport said at least 24 expressways had been closed nationwide amid heavy snow by Wednesday morning.

Heavy snow starting Tuesday night has closed down six expressways in the northern Shanxi Province, putting a brake on interprovincial bus services and stranding thousands of passengers at a coach terminal in the capital city Taiyuan as of midday Wednesday.

"The terminal was closed at 5:40 a.m. Wednesday and all the stranded passengers had their fares refunded," said Li Zhigang, manager of the terminal station.

He did not know when the coach service would resume.

Snow began in the northern province Tuesday and intensified during the night. Taiyuan Airport was closed at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, forcing at least two incoming flights to stop over in Beijing, said airport official Fan Zhifeng.

He said the airport reopened at 7 a.m., allowing the first direct flight from Taiyuan to Taipei to take off on time.

But the weather bureau forecast heavy snow to continue in most parts of the province Wednesday and Thursday, accompanied by a temperature drop from 7 to 10 degrees Celsius.

Besides Shanxi, the central meteorological station in Beijing has forecast blizzard in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the provinces of Shaanxi, Hebei, Shandong and Henan.

The eastern Shandong Province has warned of heavy snow in the central and southern regions Wednesday and Thursday, plus an average 6-to-8 degree Celsius temperature drop.

The provincial weather bureau has warned travellers of icy, slippery roads.

Though no official data is available as to how many road accidents have been caused by the snow, Xinhua reporters witnessed more than 40 accidents, mostly pile-ups caused by brake failures, on a 50-km section of the Beijing-Lhasa Highway in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Tuesday night.

Blizzard also hit parts of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region since Monday. As of Tuesday night, the Ngari Prefecture had reported 21.7 mm of precipitation and the fresh snow on the ground measured 23 centimeters.

Traffic came to a standstill on a major highway linking to Zham town on the China-Nepal border since Tuesday and was yet to resume as of Wednesday afternoon.

The Chinese pre-holiday rush for home reached a climax Wednesday, with an estimated 5.2 million passenger trips by railway alone.

Railway authorities say trains will slow down when the fresh snow measures 40 centimeters. Train service will be halted once the snow exceeds 50 cm.

The Chinese Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival, falls on Sunday and about 210 million train trips will be made before and after the most important holiday.