At least 2,000 passengers were stranded in an airport in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province Thursday after a heavy snow affected at least 27 flights.

The Taiping International Airport in this provincial capital was closed at 10:15 a.m. due to the snow that began to pelt the city early in the morning, according to the airport administration.

Two flights from Harbin to Mohe and Heihe were canceled, and 17 domestic flights were delayed.

One passenger flight from Yuzhno-sakhalinsk, Russia, to Harbin landed at a standby airport in Vladivostok, and another from Yakust landed in Khabarovsk.

Six domestic flights landed temporarily in Changchun, capital of the neighboring Jilin Province, and Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province.

The airport resumed normal operation at about 12:35 a.m. and passengers were boarding on schedule.

In addition, four of the five highways in Heilongjiang were temporarily closed due to the snow.

(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2009)