![A pedestrian walks in the snow that hit Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, on Thursday. [YANG DUODUO / FOR CHINA DAILY]](U470P886T1D49407F12DT20130208082654.jpg "A pedestrian walks in the snow that hit Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, on Thursday. [YANG DUODUO / FOR CHINA DAILY]")
A pedestrian walks in the snow that hit Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, on Thursday. [YANG DUODUO / FOR CHINA DAILY]
China will shiver as Spring Festival begins, with a strong cold snap sweeping across the country on Wednesday, dumping heavy snow on most southern regions and challenging the millions who are traveling home.
The lowest temperature, in Hulunbuir, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, was -44 C on Wednesday, freezing roads and triggering frozen fog that created chaos on roads.
Cold weather is expected to continue after the National Meteorological Center issued a blue alert on Wednesday, predicting heavy snow for Thursday and Friday in Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Hunan provinces and the Shanghai municipality. Temperatures were expected to drop by 10 degrees.
Snowfall of up to 15 cm is expected within 30 hours, the center said.
The Chinese meteorological authority uses a four-tier color-coded weather warning system, with red being the most severe, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
Chen Zhenlin, a spokesman for the China Meteorological Administration, asked local authorities to fully prepare for snowstorms — cleaning the roads, checking railways and communication services, and guaranteeing the power supply.
While most southern parts of the country will be hit by snow and freezing rain, northern areas such as Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces and Inner Mongolia will see a temperature drop of up to 12 degrees on Thursday.
The temperature will fall further from Saturday to Feb 15, about 3 to 4 degrees below the average of the past two decades, the center said.
The cold snap brought widespread disruption to transportation services, slowing down many people's trips back home during the Wednesday-through-Friday Spring Festival travel peak.
The Ministry of Railways said more than 6.3 million people took train trips in the country on Thursday, the most since the travel rush began on Jan 26.
Tao Liping, spokesman for the Shanghai Railway Bureau, said more than 320,000 people left Shanghai by train on Thursday — the 13th day of the Spring Festival travel season.
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