Temperatures dropped sharply in a large part of China Wednesday as a new round of cold snaps approached with sharp winds.

China's National Meteorological Center (NMC) issued a cold front warning at 6 am, saying a large part of the country from northern Inner Mongolia autonomous region to southwestern Guizhou province would see a temperature drop of up to 10 degrees centigrade before 8 am Thursday.

In the meantime, strong wind ranging from 39 km to 62 km per hour will slash most areas north of the Yellow River, the NMC said.

In Beijing, light snow began falling in the northern suburbs late Tuesday night and appeared to be sparse in some downtown areas by mid Wednesday.

But meteorologists say that could hardly be called Beijing's "first snow" of this winter as the snow was not widespread enough to cover the southern part of the city.

In East China's Shanghai, where the low temperature in winter usually stands above 0 degree, the cold front from the north will bring the temperature to as low as 5 degree below zero, said the Shanghai Central Meteorological Station on Wednesday.

In North China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region, the temperature could drop to minus 24 degree before Thursday.

As the cold front continues to expand southward, temperatures in most parts of central and southern China are going to plunge by 6 to 10 degrees, the NMC said.

In addition to dropping temperatures, the cold front, with high gale winds, also brought high waves in the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea.

Waves as high as 3.5 to 4.5 meters will appear in the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea and the northern part of the East China Sea from Wednesday night to mid Thursday, said the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center.