Special Report: Spring Festival Special 2009
BEIJING, Jan. 31 (Chinese media) -- Heavy fog on Saturday
forced flights and expressways to close in east and central China, delaying the
return of thousands of people at the end of the weeklong Spring Festival break.
Millions are on the move, heading back to their
places of work on the last day of a Lunar New Year holiday, but the National
Meteorological Center (NMC) said fog and haze would continue to blanket parts of
Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou, and Chongqing.
Heavy fog covers the buildings in
Wuchang district of Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei province, Jan.
31, 2009. (Chinese media/Chen Yehua)
Photo Gallery
The fog would reduce the visibility to less than
1,000 meters in some regions, and even to less than 200 meters in some areas, it
added.
The Shandong provincial observatory issued a heavy
fog warning (with visibility below 500 meters) at 8:40 a.m. and forecast the
conditions would continue for 12 hours, mainly in central and southern Shandong.
The inter-provincial expressways within Shandong were
closed. All 118 outbound flights from Qingdao International Airport and
98outbound flights from Jinan International Airport were delayed.
The heavy fog also shrouded six cities in central
Hubei Province, with visibility down to 100 meters, said Huang Zhiyong, the
chief weatherman of the observatory of Wuhan, the provincial capital.
He said rain, high humidity and temperature drops at
night caused the fog, which was forecast to last to Sunday.
The estimated number of travelers on the first post-festival travel peak is not available, but it is expected to surpass Thursday's 4.24 million rail passengers, the latest official figure, and 47.6 million road travelers and 1.23 million waterway tourists on Friday.
A migrant worker, with luggages on his shoulder, walks out of Hangzhou Railway Station in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Jan. 30, 2009. (Chinese media/Hu Guanhua)
Photo Gallery
China Central Television (CCTV) said at noon that an
estimated 4.9 million passengers were expected to travel by train and 56 million
people would embark on road trips Saturday.
The number of air passengers was still being compiled
by the civil aviation administration. An estimated 660,000 people traveled by
air on the last day of Spring Festival holiday in 2008.
The NMC said light or moderate snow would hit parts
of Xinjiang,Tibet, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi on Saturday evening, while
moderate rain was expected in Henan, Hubei, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou and
Guangdong.
The NMC urged transport departments to take
precautions to ensure an orderly peak travel period.
The authorities are seeking to avoid traffic
disruption that would lead to thousands of stranded passengers, which happened
during last year's Spring Festival rush as a result of rare snow and ice in
south China.
In order to meet rising travel demand, the Ministry
of Railways said Friday it would arrange more trains in provinces such as
Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi, where migrant workers are expected to swarm
on to trains heading to coastal regions in the hope of finding jobs.
Fog to continue in east, central
China
BEIJING, Jan. 30 (Chinese media) -- Foggy weather will continue
in most of east and central China in the coming three days and is likely to
affect the travel rush after the Spring Festival, said the National
Meteorological Center (NMC) on Friday.
Light fog will cover many parts of east and central
China, causing visibility to decrease to within 200 meters in some areas, said
the NMC. Full story
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Heavy fog covers the flyover in Jinan,
capital of east China's Shandong province, Jan. 31, 2009. (Chinese media/Zhu
Zheng)
Photo
Gallery
Heavy fog covers the buildings in
Wuchang district of Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei province, Jan.
31, 2009. (Chinese media/Chen Yehua)
Photo Gallery
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