Many of you have probably read about the winter storm and severe transportation problems in southern and central China this week. According to a travel alert update from Caterpillar, this is the heaviest snows on record in the last 50 years. Weather-related traffic accidents and building collapses have killed at least 63 people so far.
The snow hit just as travel was ramping up for the biggest holiday in China - the Chinese New Year. This is akin to a snowstorm on the eve of Thanksgiving in the U.S. only much, much more severe because it is said that 200 million people travel to see their families for Chinese New Year !
According to report, much of southern China remains without power. Telecommunication and water supply disruptions continue. Food shortages have begun to hit some areas. The government has deployed over 300,000 troops and some one million militia and army reservists to help clear roads and restore power to the millions of people who have been without electricity for over a week.
The storm is also causing severe transportation problems. Many roads are covered in snow and ice, thousands of cars are stranded, and many rail lines are out of service, due to toppled power lines and icy rails. We had a visitor from Xuzhou in the office on Monday. She was stranded in Shanghai when her flight was cancelled, managed to take a train to Nanjing on Wednesday, and as of Friday, she was trying to get a train ticket or a ride with a friend to Xuzhou.
Here in Suzhou, we have seen little evidence of these cataclysmic events. Chinese friends travelling next week are concerned about the trains and some expat friends have been delayed on their R&R trip departures. Our biggest challenge was keeping the kids entertained for a week of snow days. We did have a brief power outage last week at our home, but it was fixed during the night.
Above are some pictures of our house and neighborhood. Joseph crafted a snowman. All of us were caught here without boots or snow gear because we were told that it never snows in Suzhou !
The snow hit just as travel was ramping up for the biggest holiday in China - the Chinese New Year. This is akin to a snowstorm on the eve of Thanksgiving in the U.S. only much, much more severe because it is said that 200 million people travel to see their families for Chinese New Year !
According to report, much of southern China remains without power. Telecommunication and water supply disruptions continue. Food shortages have begun to hit some areas. The government has deployed over 300,000 troops and some one million militia and army reservists to help clear roads and restore power to the millions of people who have been without electricity for over a week.
The storm is also causing severe transportation problems. Many roads are covered in snow and ice, thousands of cars are stranded, and many rail lines are out of service, due to toppled power lines and icy rails. We had a visitor from Xuzhou in the office on Monday. She was stranded in Shanghai when her flight was cancelled, managed to take a train to Nanjing on Wednesday, and as of Friday, she was trying to get a train ticket or a ride with a friend to Xuzhou.
Here in Suzhou, we have seen little evidence of these cataclysmic events. Chinese friends travelling next week are concerned about the trains and some expat friends have been delayed on their R&R trip departures. Our biggest challenge was keeping the kids entertained for a week of snow days. We did have a brief power outage last week at our home, but it was fixed during the night.
Above are some pictures of our house and neighborhood. Joseph crafted a snowman. All of us were caught here without boots or snow gear because we were told that it never snows in Suzhou !
2 comments:
Whe I talked about visiting you the last think I thought about was SNOW!
Sorry about the spell check
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