BEIJING - Cold front started affecting most part of China with gales before dawn, the meteorological authorities said on Sunday.

China's northern areas including Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Hebei and Beijing were the first to experience gales and temperature drops, which will hit most part of China later as cold front moves eastwards, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) said.

Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong and Anhui issued cold wave or gale alerts this morning. The center suggested better cold-proof protection and fire prevention in these areas.

Smog still lingers in some regions of north China despite that the NMC has canceled the yellow alerts, the third serious in a four-tier warning system, for heavy fog and haze at 6 o'clock this morning.

The NMC forecast that in the next three days, northeast China's Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning will be hit by heavy snow with blizzards in some areas.