People hoping for a gentle transition from falling autumn leaves to the winter's first snowflakes are facing a chilling reality a strong cold front from Siberia is sweeping across China, driving down temperatures well below normal.

During the past two days, northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Heilongjiang Province were blanketed by snow; Southwest China encountered chilly rains; and northerly force 6 winds howled across the central and eastern parts of the country, forcing temperatures to plummet by up to 12 degrees Celsius.

Sunday's low of minus 9.1 degrees in Beijing made it the coldest December 4 in 50 years.

Emergency wards in hospitals were packed and the number of people suffering from respiratory diseases such as cold and cough doubled, Zeng Qing, head of the emergency department at Sino-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing, said yesterday.

"We treated about 100 patients with respiratory symptoms so far today," he said in the afternoon. "Usually, we have less than 50."

The Beijing municipal government urged heating companies to ensure that indoor temperatures were maintained at a minimum of 16 degrees.

In northwest China's Shaanxi Province, more than 500 vehicles were stuck on a highway in Qinling Mountains because of engine failures in heavy snow on Sunday.

Drivers attempted to use fires to heat frozen oil tanks, but in vain. Traffic police had to close the highway and rescue more than 1,000 stranded passengers.

The type of diesel used there could not withstand sub-zero temperatures, police said.

In Dalian, a coastal city in northeast China's Liaoning Province, students in primary and high schools were given a day off yesterday after two days of continuous snowfall.

On Sunday, about 123 flights were affected, including 38 cancellations, stranding about 4,000 people at the airport. But things have returned to normal since Sunday night, said Zhang Shengmin, an official with Dalian Zhoushuizi International Airport.

The local meteorological observatory said the heaviest snowfall was 28 centimetres, a 54-year record for December.

(China Daily December 6, 2005)