Beijing: Beijing, China has recorded its longest cold wave since it began in 1951, as freezing temperatures and snowfall began to subside in the Chinese capital and elsewhere, CNN reports.
Chinese local media, Beijing Daily, said the temperature at Beijing’s Nanjiao weather station reached above zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time on Sunday afternoon.
“Since the temperature first dropped below zero degrees on December 11, the temperature had remained below that line for more than 300 hours,” the Beijing Daily wrote.
This month, a severe cold wave swept across much of China and the heating capacity of some cities in northern China reached its limit, CNN reported.
Following this severe cold wave, several system failures were observed in China’s central province of Henan.
In Jiaozuo city, heating was partially halted after a fault at the Wanfang power plant on Friday.
However, according to Jiaozuo Daily, the city’s official newspaper, the problem was resolved on Saturday and heating is expected to resume on Sunday night.
Additionally, two other cities in the province, Puyang and Pingdingshan, have cut heating in most government buildings and state-owned enterprises since Friday to “prioritize limited heating resources for hospitals, schools and residential buildings”, The governments of both cities said in a statement.
According to CNN, the bad weather in the capital Beijing began several days ago and has also caused problems in the city’s subway system.
Hundreds of passengers and dozens of people with broken bones were sent to hospital in Beijing after two trains collided on a busy metro line during snowy conditions earlier this month, the city’s transport authority said.
Additionally, freezing temperatures also hampered rescue efforts as a deadly earthquake struck China’s northwestern Gansu province this month.
