The cold snap that has seized several central and southern Chinese provinces since New Year's Day is likely to persist 10 more days, driving up grocery prices in some cities and cutting power and water supplies in others.

Vehicles move at snail pace along the ice-covered road in Ziyuan county, Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Jan 5, 2011. Freezing rains since Jan 2 has iced three main roads linking Ziyuan county to outside. The local road bureau and police security bureau are taking measures to tackle the disaster. [Xinhua]

In Ziyuan County of the southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, an isolated mountain town where the freezing weather closed all four highways Sunday and Monday, vegetables, meat and eggs were still in stock Wednesday, but prices had risen 20 percent for radishes and 50 percent for chilies.

"All the groceries are trucked in from the neighboring Guilin City, now that the ice-covered highway to Guilin is open for a few hours a day," said Huang Yongyue, chief of the county committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

Huang said the local government had stepped up supervision to ensure adequate supplies and stable prices at the local market.

Authorities in Guiyang, capital of the southwestern Guizhou Province, capped the price on Chinese cabbages and radishes, two most common vegetables on the Chinese dinner table, Wednesday to prevent price hikes.

More than 100 primary schools in Guiyang's Yuyan District and Kaiyang County have suspended classes over safety concerns, the provincial education department said.

"We have told schools to skip the final test and begin the winter holidays in advance if the bad weather persists," it said on its website.

In Guizhou's Wanshan region, several major expressways leading out of the area have been closed for five days as they were covered with thick ice and stranded vehicles.

Further, in the urban area of Wanshan some pedestrians resorted to using crutches to support them as they struggled to walk on roads coated with ice at least five centimeters thick.

Besides Guangxi and Guizhou, the freezing weather also hit the central Hunan Province, and Chongqing Municipality in the southwest, packing snow and sleet and bringing traffic to a standstill on icy expressways.