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Heavy snow causes chaos in China

AFP, Beijing
Heavy snow in south central China snarled roads, railways and airports yesterday, delaying millions ol travellers trying to head home for the I unar New Year holiday.
I he snowfall, the worst in 50 years in some areas, has brought trallic to a standstill in five provinces. cut oil a key rail link and stranded thousands of vehicles on icy highways, state media reported.
Up to 150.000 passengers
were slock Sunday at the Guangzhou railway station, the southern end ol the key rail link to capital Beijing, with numbers expected to grow to up to 600,000 by Mondav, the Southern Metropolitan I )aih teporled.
The large manufacturing and
commercial cily has issued emer gency orders to help cope with the swelling crowds and called on local universities and other public facilities to provide shelter lor stranded passengers, it said
For the Chinese. Lunar New Year is the most important holiday. when millions of people travel lor annual family reunions.
China expects more than 1.2 billion trips will be made by either rail, air or bus during the I unar New Year travel period that runsfrom January 19toMarch2.
The railways ministry has forecast that a record 178.6 million passengers would travel by train over the period, up from 156 million in2007.
But the S o u t h e r n Metropolitan Daily said power outages along the I{unan provincial section of the railway led to 136 trains being cancelled on Saturday. It was not immediately clear when (hey would resume running.
According to China Central Television, seven airports in the hardest hit regions, including those in the major cities of Changsha, Nanjing and Hefei were closed on Saturday due to icyconditions.
Some airports were expected to reopen soon, but (he one in Changsha would remain shut throughout Sunday, reports said.
Major highways in Guizhou. Jiangxi. Hubei, Hunan and Anhui provinces reopened by around noon Sunday, but were expected to be closed in the evening, with more heavy snows and freezing rain forecast throughout the region, the China News Service said. Due to icy roads, longdistance bus (ravel was largely curtailed for much of the last week in the areas hardest hit bv ihesnowfall.
State television showed footage of thousands of motorists and long-distance truck drivers stranded on long stretches of road as heavy snow brought traffic to a standstill.
In southern Guizhou province. 41 cities were left without electricity after the grid in the region crashed due to the bad weather. Xinhua news agency reported.
China's central meteorological bureau forecast continued bad weather in the south central part of the. nation for the next three days, 3h>Kvfall" in HdfibfP and GUtZlTBrnTr3r&, (hebureau sauf “