Schools have been suspended and emergency workers put on standby in China as the country braces for historically cold weather, including 30-year lows in places, the government and state media said on Thursday.
At 1pm on Thursday, it was already a biting -28 Celsius (-18 Fahrenheit) in Yakeshi in Inner Mongolia, with Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province in the northeast at -19 C and Changchun in neighbouring Jilin at -17 C.
"I've put on all my clothing, but I still don't feel warm!" state broadcaster CCTV showed a pedestrian saying in Altai, in the western region of Xinjiang, where temperatures reached -26 C. "The wind is very strong -- when it blows on my face it hurts horribly." The National Meteorological Center predicted temperatures would drop up to 10 degrees C across much of the country over the next four days. It will be below freezing in over 90 per cent of the world's most populous country, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Beijing is forecast to see a low of -17 C on Saturday, but some of the most unusual weather patterns were projected for further south. Zhejiang province in the east declared a yellow alert for the cold -- the second-highest on a four-level scale. Commercial hub Shanghai and Changsha, capital of the central province of Hunan, are expected to see their coldest temperatures for 30 years, with lows forecast to hover around -5 C over the weekend.