Urban flaws surface as the snow piles up

Extreme weather proves a real test, report Zhang Yuchen and He Na in Beijing and Tian Xuefei in Harbin.

Just about the last thing Zhang Changhua and her family wanted to do was to act like tourists and go out into the wintry streets on a cold night in Harbin, famed for its ice festival.

Even for residents of a city inured to extreme temperatures, the recent weeklong snowfall proved massively disruptive.