(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-04 15:47

BEIJING - Over the past three weeks, most front-page stories in the Chinese media have been about the country's heaviest snowfall in five decades.

Many newspapers, including the People's Daily, run by the Communist Party of China (CPC), on Monday led with a front-page story about a warning from top Chinese leaders that weather conditions in the country's south will remain severe and relief work a difficult task. The warning came after a CPC politburo meeting chaired by President Hu Jintao.

Local newspapers in areas hardly hit by the crisis ran moving snow features, telling of trivial but meaningful stories amid snowstorms and disaster relief.

The Southern Metropolis News, based in booming Guangdong Province, ran several small stories showing how ordinary Chinese coped with the disaster. It featured a couple stranded by snowfall on the way to their wedding ceremony in southwest Sichuan. Instead, they tied the knot on the road as Chinese tradition holds that wedding ceremonies should be held on good occasion that promises auspiciousness.

Despite the snowfall transport chaos, at a time when millions are trying to get home for the upcoming Spring Festival, people have shown great determination to be reunited with their loved ones. One traveled 400 kilometers on foot to see his girlfriend, while another skied 200 km to get home, local newspapers said.

Television news also covered the People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers de-icing activities and sending supplies to disaster areas. Their tactics including shooting power lines with submachine guns to shatter the ice and resorting to tanks to crush ice on the road. Helicopters, aircraft, field kitchen trucks and other armored cars were all in use.

The Modern Express, a newspaper based in Nanjing, capital of eastern Jiangsu, covered its entire front page with a photo showing an armored vehicle breaking up ice on an expressway.

Earlier front page coverage in Chinese media included senior leaders visiting disaster affected areas. A full-size picture on the Beijing Times front page showed Premier Wen Jiabao paying his respects to the relatives of three power company workers in Changsha, capital of central Hunan Province.

The three workers died last month while de-icing a tower. They fell off the 50-meter structure after their support equipment failed. "A soulful bowing," read the caption.

The snow, the heaviest in decades in many places, has been falling in China's eastern, central and southern regions for almost three weeks. It has caused death, structural collapse, blackouts, accidents, transport problems and livestock and crop destruction.