Heavy snow hits Beijing, stranding thousands

Sunday, January 03, 2010
BEIJING: Heavy snow hit Beijing on Sunday, stranding thousands of passengers at the Chinese capital's main airport and casting an unusual quiet over normally busy streets as people stayed out of the freezing weather.

A British news agency journalist at Beijing's Capital International Airport, the country's busiest, said dozens of flights were cancelled or delayed, though a few were still able to take off.

State television said most the highways out of Beijing were closed too, with several centimetres (inches) of snow blanketing roads and temperatures expected to touch lows of -14Celcius (6.80F).

Beijing, which over the past few years has seen little winter snow, has experienced several bouts so far this season, including at least one man-made snowstorm to help ease a prolonged drought.

The bad weather is also affecting large swathes of the rest of northern and northeastern China, with snow and plunging temperatures expected to continue into the first full week of the new year, according to weather forecasts.

The southwestern provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and the metropolis of Chongqing are expected to experience heavy fog, forecasters added.

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