CHANGSHA, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- As railway transportation returned to normal in parts of southern China, the meteorological bureau of central Hunan Province warned on Friday that more heavy snow and black ice had increased the risk of road travel.

    Snow fell in 13 counties and cities, including Jishou, Changde, Yiyang, Yueyang and Chenzhou, on Thursday night and Friday morning. Ningxiang county got the biggest dump at 16 millimeters.

    The cold spell continued to wreak havoc in most parts of the province. In Changning County, ice on power cables was six cm thick.

    The Hunan section of the Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway, the country's key north-south trunk road, has been paralyzed by black ice, leaving tens of thousands of vehicles and people stranded for days in the cold winter.

    The bureau said the temperature on all the province's highways was below freezing, and warned traffic delays could get worse.

    Meanwhile, a section of the Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway in northern Guangdong Province has been closed because of surface ice since Thursday night, despite continuous de-icing efforts by local authorities.

    About 9,000 people and 2,800 vehicles were currently stranded in the section.

    The Guangdong Provincial Price Bureau also imposed a ban on profiteering by hotels and inns along the expressway starting from Friday. The hotels and inns were told not to charge customers at prices higher than those before Jan. 23, or they would face "severe punishment".

    The bureau said they would annul the price ban when the disaster was over.

    Unusual cold, heavy snow, sleet and icy rain have combined to hit 19 provinces and regions in the past three weeks, affecting the lives of millions and inflicting economic loss of about 53.9 billion yuan (7.5 billion U.S. dollars), said the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Friday.

    The worst snow in five decades has so far killed 60 and forced nearly 1.759 million people to relocate. It also toppled 223,000 houses and damaged another 862,000.

    The National Meteorological Center (NMC) has forecast snowstorms in Hunan, Anhui, Jiangxi and Zhejiang Provinces on Friday.

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    BEIJING, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is urging local authorities to regard disaster relief as the "most pressing task" and to make "all-out efforts" to ensure normal production and life in areas hit by unprecedented bad weather this month. Full story