Snowstorms cause chaos for travelers

A passenger eats at Kunming Changshui International Airport as he waits for his flight on Monday. The city's first snow of the winter delayed about 10,000 passengers on Sunday.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Early winter snowstorms of rare intensity blanketed Yunnan province on Monday.

Road travel was badly disrupted and flights canceled, with thousands of passengers stranded at Kunming Changshui International Airport.

Local meteorological authorities issued 16 alerts for snowstorms and 41 for sudden falls in temperature, warning of icy roads and temperatures below freezing.

A cold snap affecting the province since Friday brought rainstorms, snowstorms and temperature falls of up to 18 C across Yunnan. The hazardous weather is expected to end on Tuesday, the Yunnan Meteorological Bureau said.

Heavy snowfall stranded more than 2,770 vehicles on highways throughout the province and blocked hundreds of kilometers of roads, provincial transport bureau spokesman Zhang Changsheng said.

The bureau said that since Sunday, 207 workers and 116 snow plows have been allocated to clear the snow and guarantee safety, with 198 metric tons of de-icing salt used.

In Heqing county, the army helped police rescue 1,400 people stranded in vehicles on highways and accommodate hundreds in the county on Monday morning.

"With the timely and effective measures guaranteeing road safety, we have not received any reports of road accident casualties," Zhang said.

Nearly 600 incoming and outgoing flights had been canceled or delayed at Kunming Changshui International Airport as of Monday afternoon, leaving more than 2,000 passengers stranded, the Yunnan Airport Group said.