Three weeks into the worst winter weather crisis in five
decades, heavy fog shrouded parts of central China's Hunan Province
on Sunday, delaying flights and bringing road traffic to a
standstill.
In the capital city of Changsha, visibility was reduced to 50
meters on Sunday morning.
The provincial meteorological station warns the fog, which
hovers over the central and northern parts of the province, is
likely to persist until early afternoon.
The fog, plus ice on the roads, has closed down highways and
brought city center traffic to a standstill in the morning rush
hour.
Sunday is a working day in China this week. The working
population are told to "save" the weekend in order to take seven
days off during the Lunar Chinese New Year starting on
Wednesday.
Not a single flight took off from the Huanghua International
Airport in Changsha before 10:00 a.m.
The provincial weather bureau has warned the severe weather is
still not coming to an end, with more snow or sleet forecast for
Monday and Tuesday.
It said the minimum temperature averages minus four degrees
Celsius on Sunday and highways to the mountainous regions in the
western and southern areas remain icy.
The winter weather crisis threatens to stop many pre-holiday
travelers from going home for family reunions and across China,
local governments are persuading migrants to spare the trip and
stay where they are.
In Beijing, newspapers are soliciting ideas from the public
about how to help the migrants spend a happy holiday away from
home.
(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2008)
