Traffic back to normal after snow

Traffic resumed in snowstorm-hit areas of northern China as highways and airports were reopened on Monday morning.

The National Meteorological Center released an alert that the temperature might drop as much as 12 C this week, reminding drivers and traffic management authorities to keep a close eye on road conditions.

The abrupt snow over the weekend caused traffic difficulties in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Shanxi, Hebei, Liaoning and Jilin provinces, and Beijing and Tianjin municipalities.

After the snow stopped on Monday morning, airports began to resume service.

At Beijing Capital International Airport, more than 1,500 flights were scheduled to carry 228,000 passengers on Monday.

Tianjin Binhai International Airport was also opened to inbound and outbound flights after being closed for about one day.

Airports immediately started de-icing operations on runways as the snow receded. On Sunday night, both airports announced that they would not receive inbound flights and canceled more than 170 flights into Beijing and Tianjin.

Beijing Commission of Transport said traffic in the capital was restored as the city took effective measures to keep the highways and expressways safe. More than 2,500 people were deployed to clean highways with 329 machines and 430 metric tons of anti-slip compounds to ensure most of the highways were cleared of snow. However, some expressways connecting Beijing with surrounding areas, including Shandong province, still remained closed.

Subway trains were extremely crowded as many people were concerned about road safety.

On Monday, bullet trains resumed running at high speeds. Beijing Railway Bureau had slowed all bullet trains on Sunday, leaving some passengers stranded.

huyongqi@chinadaily.com.cn