Chinese authorities issued a weather alert on Wednesday February 21 in the face of an intense cold wave affecting the southern half of the country, while the capital Beijing was covered in snow.
An orange alert - the highest - has been renewed, with temperatures which could drop by 6 to 12 degrees by Friday in southern areas, where mildness is generally expected in winter.
In some places in the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi and the Guangxi region, the mercury could even drop by more than 20 degrees, the National Meteorological Center said.
The latter
“asked local authorities to put in place precautionary measures against the cold, to advise the public to stay warm”
and to
“protect crops and aquatic products”
, according to the New China news agency.
“This snow bodes well for a good year”
In Beijing, where temperatures hovered around freezing on Wednesday, residents woke up to a capital covered in white following heavy snowfall overnight.
They made tourists happy at the Forbidden City.
The snow and Lunar New Year decorations with lanterns and red dragons
“give people a feeling of prosperity
,” Long Yan, a 55-year-old tourist, told AFP.
“This snow bodes well for a good year
,” assures with a smile this lady from Sichuan, in the southwest of China, a province with much milder temperatures and located some 1,300 kilometers from Beijing.
While average temperatures in the Chinese capital drop below freezing during the winter months, the climate is very dry, making snowfall unusual in the city center.
Traffic was slowed on the city's expressways, while plowed sidewalks sometimes remained slippery for pedestrians.
City officials have issued warnings to warn residents about icy roads in some areas.