Special Report: China's war on snow
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BEIJING, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway, a major
north-south trunk road blocked for many days by snow, was fully reopened Monday
morning, but travelers were warned of traffic jams, the Ministry of
Communications said Monday.
The last 6,000 vehicles trapped by snow were relieved by 9:00 a.m. after
days of hard work by 1,200 soldiers and the People's Armed Police, said the
ministry.
Live broadcasts on road traffic by the China National Radio reminded
drivers to "foster the spirit of cooperation" and give way to electrical repair
vehicles and vehicles loaded with power coal and disaster relief materials.
The expressway has been closed and re-opened repeatedly over the past week
due to unusual freezing weather in central and southern China.
Many drivers had been stranded in the south-bound section of the road for
more than a week. Chen Erqun of Zhengzhou in the central Henan Province said he
had been on the congested section of road for more than nine days.
As heavy fog shrouded parts of south China affected by the worst winter
weather in 50 years on Monday morning, there were warnings that traffic woes
caused by snow and frost may worsen.
Visibility was less than 100 meters in parts of Chongqing Municipality and
the provinces of Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hubei, Jiangxi, Hunan and Guizhou,
the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said.
Meanwhile, a new wave of snow, rain and sleet is likely to hit parts of
central and south China on Monday and Tuesday, including Chongqing and the
provinces of Hubei, Henan, Yunnan and Guizhou, the CMA warned.
Traffic updates from the Ministry of Communications said that the entry to
the Xiangtan-Leiyang section of Beijing-Zhuhai expressway had been temporarily
closed because of fog. Vehicles were not encouraged to enter the Leiyang-Yizhang
section as traffic was moving slowly.
The Ministry said that expressways were running well except for the
closings of some sections in Anhui, Jiangsu and Jiangxi due to thick fog and
icing. For the sake of safety, some icy expressways in Shanghai, Guangdong,
Guizhou and Fujian were also partly closed to ease congestion.
It said that traffic on ordinary national highways was easing on the whole,
but still nine icy highways in Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Guizhou and Jiangxi
provinces were sealed off.
With the respite of snow and frost in most parts of central and southern
China, the railway transportation system has reason to be hopeful that the worst
of the crisis may be over, said the Ministry of Railways (MOR) on Monday
afternoon.
A MOR statement said that transport on the southern section of the
Beijing-Guangzhou railway was gradually recovering.
Approximately 800,000 migrant workers rushing home for family gatherings
during the Spring Festival holiday that will start on Wednesday had been trapped
in the Guangzhou Railway Station by Jan. 30 after persistent blizzard, the
severest in five decades for southern and central China, paralyzed the
north-to-south trunk line.
A total of 239 trains ran along the the pivotal rail line on Sunday, with
no detours being reported. Railway stations in Guangzhou saw 192 train arrivals
and 191 departures the same day, handling an aggregate traffic of 452,000
people.
Also on the recovery is the Huaihua-Guiyang section of the north-to-west
trunk line between Shanghai and Kunming, the provincial capital of southwestern
Yunnan Province.
With another 587 interim passenger trains put in to service, China's total
railway passenger traffic hit 4.06 million on Sunday,up three percent or 130,000
from the previous day. The daily traffic in Shenyang, Shanghai, Kunming, Lanzhou
and Urumqi surged by more than 20 percent.
It's not clear how many trains and people remain stranded in stations. But
the Ministry pledged on Feb. 1 to relieve all passengers trapped within five
days.
To ease power coal shortage hindering industrial production and resulting
in scattered power outage, the ministry loaded 42,493 contain trucks with power
coal on Sunday, the third record high in three days.
The line between Datong in coal-producing province of Shanxi and
Qinhuangdao, a port city in Hebei Province, a railway, which is exclusively used
for heavily-loaded coal transport trains, also set a new daily freight record of
1.2 million tons.
An aggregate daily shipment of 4,407 railway cars of fresh agricultural and
sideline products was sent out to meet rising holiday demand.
The snow havoc beginning on Jan. 10 has hit 19 provinces, municipalities
and autonomous regions, toppled 223,000 homes and damaged another 862,000 and
affected 7.8 million people, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Three weeks into the national combat against snow havoc, meteorological
chief Zheng Guogang admitted on Monday afternoon that the persistent snow and
accompanying freeze were "beyond normal expectations".
"We didn't expect another two heavy snowfalls would follow between Jan. 25
and Feb. 2 after severe blizzards hit the central and southern regions from Jan.
10 to Jan. 22," he said.
An emergency command center was launched last Friday, with the office in
the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, to
coordinate the coordinate contingency measures for coal, oil and power supply,
and transport and disaster relief in the country's snow-hit regions.
The Chinese army sent out vehicles, from tanks to armored cars, to clean
the highways while the air force's helicopters and transporters lifted relief
material such as candles and quilts to several heavily-affected areas.
As most of China is predicted to have clear weather for the coming Lunar
New Year holiday, the country may get a breathing pace to recover from the
disaster.
With the top leaders including Premier Wen Jiabao rushing back and forth in
the worst-hit areas, the government has urged officials at various levels to
rise to the disaster that would test their will, resolution and capability to
cope with crises.
"We have the faith," Wen told the country on Saturday on board a train in
disaster-hit central Hunan Province.
