Residents walk along a street in Shijiazhuang in north China's Hebei Province yesterday after the heaviest snow in 54 years hit the provincial capital.

Heavy snow blanketed Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province, for a second day and paralyzed all transport, including aviation and highway services, provincial authorities said Wednesday.

Meteorological officials said the city recorded 7.44 cm of precipitation in the 24 hours till 6 a.m. Wednesday, with the accumulated snow 48 cm thick in most areas.

It was the heaviest snowfall in the city since 1955 when the city began to make meteorological records.

There was little traffic on roads in the city, and pedestrians struggled through knee-high snow. The Education Department of the city government issued a notice Tuesday night, asking all middle and primary schools in the city to suspend classes on Wednesday.

A total of 24 flights were canceled, 21 were delayed and only three flights arrived at the Shijiazhuang Airport as of Wednesday evening. The CZ6953 flight to Urumqi in northwestern China took off at 4:29 p.m., the first outgoing flight since the snowfall on Tuesday.

The local sections of six expressways traversing the city, including the Beijing-Shijiazhuang, Zhangjiakou-Shijiazhuang, Shijiazhuang-Huanghua, and Qingdao-Yinchuan expressways, were closed, said transport authorities.

One person was killed, 68 vegetable greenhouses collapsed and more than 20 wares and factory buildings fell down due to the snow in Shijiazhuang, according to a government press conference on Wednesday.

Light snow is continuing and heavier snow is expected late Wednesday, according to meteorologists. Snow was not so heavy in other parts of Hebei, they said.

Snow also hit Beijing and Tianjin cities, Shanxi Province and Ningxia and Xinjiang autonomous regions Tuesday.

Shanxi meteorological bureau said that from 8 a.m. Monday to 2 p.m. Tuesday, 10 mm of precipitation on average fell on 32 out of about 80 counties of the northern province.

Congestion was reported on roads in Datong, Shuozhou, Yangquan, Jinzhong and Changzhi, stranding nearly 30,000 passengers, traffic police said.

More than 16,000 traffic police officers were sent on highways to ease the congestion and supply food and water to the passengers, said Wang Wenxi, an official with the Shanxi Provincial Public Security Department.

Vehicles stranded on the highway from Jiuguan Village to Taiyuan reduced from more than 2,000 to 900 Wednesday. Most of the passengers have been accomodated in counties nearby, police said. No casualties have been reported.

Aviation officials said 116 flights to and from Taiyuan, the provincial capital, were canceled and more than 12,000 passengers were stranded Tuesday.