Cold weather in Northern China making life difficult for most
Those CCT readers that are blessed by living close to the equator will be shocked to hear that the northern hemisphere is exceedingly cold this year with lots of snow in the USA, northern Europe and most of all China. The mercury has dropped to -35 degrees centigrade in parts of North Eastern China, Beijing seems to be struggling under a blanket of snow, and the rest of Northern China is cold enough to store your beer bottles by the front door.
Beijing authorities shut schools, mobilized extra buses and ordered thousands of residents to help clear icy roads and paths with shovels on Monday, as the Chinese capital struggled with its harshest winter weather in years.
North China began the working week after a blast of harsh cold and heavy snow blanketed the region over the weekend, paralyzing highways and forcing the cancellation of many flights.
“Low temperatures and ice-covered roads are expected to severely affect local traffic on Monday,” Song Jianguo, the head of the Beijing traffic management bureau, told the official Xinhua news agency.
So far there are no signs the cold spell will trigger the weeks-long disruptions and power cuts that hit some parts of southern China in unusually icy weather in 2008.
But the snow and cold could push up food prices by stalling shipments and damaging greenhouses, delay flights, and hold up some business in Beijing and other cities for a few days.
“Vegetable prices already went up yesterday. It’s nothing if you have money, but you notice it if you’re just an ordinary resident,” said Wu Yidong, a carpenter on a building site riding a battered bicycle on an icy lane in downtown Beijing.
“It’s cold on the bicycle, but feels even colder standing still,” he said before moving on.
The icy snap could also strain gas and coal supplies. Unusually cold weather in the past two months has caused gas shortages as distribution networks struggled to meet demand.
Sections of highways around Beijing, the nearby port city of Tianjin, as well as neighboring provinces, including the big coal producer Shanxi province, remained cut on Monday morning, the national ministry of transport said.
FAR NORTH
The wave of cold is expected to continue through the first part of the week. China’s national meteorological office warned that temperatures in the nation’s far north could fall to around minus 32 degrees Celsius (-26F).
Beijing is likely to shiver at about minus 10 degrees Celsius in daytime and colder at night, touching records that have stood for decades.
Large parts of the Korean peninsula were also blanketed with snow on Monday that snarled the rush hour commute in Seoul, where the main domestic airport, Gimpo, canceled all domestic flights.
The Chinese capital has become used to milder, largely snow-free winters in recent decades. The snow over the weekend was the biggest in Beijing since 1951, with falls of up to 20 centimeters (7.8 inches) in the city’s far north near the Great Wall, local television news reported.
On Sunday, more than 90 percent of flights at Beijing’s Capital International Airport, the country’s busiest, were canceled or severely delayed. Many highways out of Beijing were shut too, and on others stalled cars and jack-knifed trucks created long tailbacks of traffic.
On Monday, many flights out of Beijing still held up by the backlog of delayed planes, and cars crawled on ice-covered roads.
The cold spell across southern China last year prompted public grumbling about an initially tardy, fumbling official response. This time, the government appears determined to avoid such complaints.
Railway, airport and road authorities have all announced plans to minimize delays and get transport moving.
It’s currently 5:34pm here in Qingdao, it’s been a very cold day here with lots of snow all day. I dont/do hope it snows heavily overnight so we can wake up to a nice white city tomorrow morning.
How’s the weather and driving conditions where you are?
Tweet This
Share on Facebook
Digg This
Save to delicious
Stumble it
RSS Feed
driving conditions in China at below 0°C are horrible and incredible dangerous. Main reason are the brakes of the trucks – who came up with the idea of water cooled brakes?
The trucke slows down before a curve, the water sips on the brakes for cooling, the moisture accumulates on the road – JUST BEFORE A DANGEROUS CURVE.
The result can be seen everywhere…crashed cars, busses and trucks because of sudden ice on a otherwise clear road.
Stupid! TIC!
Its -4 to -13 here today, not so bad driving wise although I have to keep the heater on to stop myself from freezing.
Next time ill buy a car with heated seats….
Here in Beijing it hasn’t been too bad, at least for me. It feels about as cold as where I lived in Canada (temperature-wise it’s not as low as in Canada, but the stronger winds here make up for the difference).
The snowfall may be a big deal for Beijing, but it’s really nothing compared to back home. However, the factory all-season tires are not good for winter driving so I did take it easy. It also took a while for the city to clear the roads. By late yesterday most of the main roads here had started clearing up, but I was concerned that they would refreeze in the evening. But today the roads are quite clean.
As a bonus, there’s been less cars on the roads these past few days. Though I do expect that traffic will return back to normal soon.
Ive only just seen pictures from the ring roads around Beijing, the snow looks amazing! I knew it was bad from news reports, but this the first time Ive seen pictures!
The skiing must be good!
I feel guilty saying this, but it’s 77(25c) in Nanning right now. Partly cloudy, but quite pleasant. I feel bad for you guys up north, hope the weather eases up soon for you.
You’re banned.
Hey Ash, look at the flip side………in the summer when you’re enjoying wonderful summer ocean breezes and fresh coastal clean air, I’m sweating my ass off in 100% humidity! Tropical climates are great during the winter, but it can really SUCK in the summer!
You’re lucky I’m a true procrastinator, otherwise I would have banned you for such talk.
Snow clearing and sanding equipment seem sadly inadequate. Looks like a fortune is waiting to be made in snow removal equipment. Where can someone buy a good plow attachement for the front of his pickup and/or ATV. Business owners are willing and ready to pay.
For things like snow blowers and the like, you’re right – money waiting to be made there. For things like snow plows, though…..not so sure about that. The problem isn’t the plows, it’s the quality of (or lack of) asphalt that’s used for the streets here. Highways are pretty good, but city streets? Tearing up the poor streets is bad enough, but imagine one of China’s notoriously bad drivers WITH A PLOW ATTACHMENT on the front of their car? :0
I saw a Chinese road gritter last week….. It was a flat bed truck with two guys tossing salt off the back with shovels.
For now it looks like a labor intensive endeavor…lots of folks available to do it the good old fashioned way, by hand. But it’s really a curious sight to see a company of PLA shoulder to shoulder with spade shovels instead of snow shovels. Yes, there is money waiting to be made if winters like this continue. An yes Jon there is even money to be made in patching the asphalt that falls prey to the few heavy plows that are out there.
THAT would be a great business, fixing the streets – LOTS of money to be made. Don’t know though, if the government would be willing to fork over money to a private company to do that when they need to keep the government operated utility services up and running. Besides, a private company would probably screw things up and actually fix the streets the RIGHT way (in other words, not needing repairs every other year), and then the government services would REALLY be up the creek without a paddle!!
going skiing this week end. Am in BJ. Seeing how the snow stays here, should be good. Check out my skiing threard on the beijinger
http://www.thebeijinger.com/forum/2009/11/13/2009-2010-skiing-season-around-Beijing
How are the ski slopes out of season, would they be much fun on a DH Mountain bike?
Never thought of it, but it sure sounds like fun! Doubt they’ll turn the lifts on for you though!! lol, good luck cycling all the way up…