(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-20 19:54

CHANGCHUN - The city government of Changchun in Northeast China's Jilin Province enlisted 14,000 street cleaners to sweep away snow 11 cm deep overnight on Monday to ensure traffic would not be affected the next day.

Drivers slowly drive through the snow in Changchun of Northeast China November 19, 2007. [Xinhua]

The cleaners began their arduous task at 7:00 pm on Monday along the 244 main streets of the city and worked straight through until 7:00 am Tuesday, said Ren Jianjun, of the city Bureau of Environmental Sanitation in Changchun.

A total of 240 snow-sweeping machines and vehicles were also used, Ren said.

"We have to work at night because it's inconvenient for us to clean the streets in the daytime considering there are so many people and vehicles. " he said.

It will take another three nights to clear hundreds of other minor streets and small lanes in the city, he said. "However, we won't deploy so many cleaners in the following days. I think 4,000 or 5,000 will suffice."

Jilin experienced its first snowfall this winter on Monday, with an average of 7.7 mm in Changchun and 3.1 mm in the province, said Liu Haifeng, deputy head of the Jilin Provincial Meteorological Observatory.

The heavy snow forced the closure of the city's Longjia International Airport and expressways. By Tuesday noon, the airport and all the expressways had reopened.

The other two neighboring provinces of Heilongjiang and Liaoning were also hit by the heavy snow, which forced two airports to shut down for several hours on Monday.

By Tuesday morning, traffic on all of the expressways in the two provinces had resumed.