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BEIJING : A cold snap that blanketed China's far-western Xinjiang region with snow, sparking power cuts and flight cancellations, is spreading across other parts of the nation, state media said Thursday.
Temperatures have fallen as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius in parts of Xinjiang, and winds of up to 100 kilometres (60 miles) an hour whipped some areas, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The cold spell is now moving east, and the National Meteorological Centre has forecast heavy snow over large swathes of northern China over the next few days, the report said.
China's capital Beijing is also expected to be hit by strong winds and icy temperatures, while several provinces in the south are experiencing fog, rain and sharp drops in temperature, it added.
Heavy fog in southwestern Sichuan province has closed down the airport in the capital Chengdu.
The international airport in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi was closed earlier this week due to snow, leaving nearly 4,000 passengers stranded, Xinhua said.
Employees cleared the snow off the runway and planes started taking off again Wednesday afternoon.
The snow also cut off power and heat supplies in Yining, a city of 430,000 people, overnight from Tuesday.
In January and February 2008, China was hit with its worst winter weather in half a century, when heavy snow and freezing cold swept across the south, destroying crops and wreaking havoc on infrastructure.
The cold spell that winter killed at least 107 people and caused over US$15 billion in economic losses.
- AFP/al
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