Temperatures are expected to drop between 6 to 8 C sometime around Sunday and Monday in central and eastern China. (Photo : Getty Images)
A series of snowstorms swept across a vast area of north China earlier this week, disrupting traffic, grounding flights and hampering train operations in Beijing, Tianjin, and the Inner Mongolia region.
Six highways passing through Beijing were closed on Sunday, while the city's railway bureau reported some bullet trains plying the Beijing-Guangzhou, Beijing-Shanghai and Beijing-Tianjin high-speed lines are running at a lower speed due to the snow.
In Beijing, thousands of people and hundreds of vehicles were sent out to clear the snow on roads. Around 23,000 workers and 2,300 vehicles could be mobilized to clean the roads, city officials said.
At Beijing Capital International Airport, 150 flights have been canceled.
Authorities from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region issued an alert for snowstorms, calling for the maintenance of roads, railways and telecommunications facilities.
In Tianjin, all highways have been closed and more than 20 flights have been postponed at Tianjin Binhai International Airport.
Bus companies in Tianjin said they have sent out more vehicles to cope with the city's transportation needs.
China's meteorological authority on Sunday renewed a blue alert, the lowest level in a four-tier warning system, for snowstorms north of the country.
More snowstorms are expected to blanket Inner Mongolia and the northern provinces of Shanxi and Hebei as well as Beijing and Tianjin, with some areas expected to see snowfall of up to 12 millimeters, the National Meteorological Center said in a statement.
The center advised people living in the affected areas to take precautions as temperatures are expected to plunge.
Under China's four-tier color-coded weather warning scheme, red represents the most severe weather, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
