Snow blankets much of north as rain heads south

Snowfall over a large swath of northern China will stop on Friday, but much of the southern and eastern parts of the country will be drenched in rain for a week, weather forecasters predicted.

Residents of 11 northern provinces and cities, including Hebei and Shandong provinces, Beijing and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, awoke to snowy scenes on Thursday, and continued to see the blanket of snow grow larger throughout the day.

The National Meteorological Center said the recent snow in large areas of North China is the heaviest and most widespread of the winter so far, with accumulations of as much as 2.5 centimeters.