Local residents are seen with umbrellas over their heads after they left their homes this morning, not because of rains but of heavy snowfall.

A rare, unexpected snowfall has turned Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, reputed as "spring city" for its pleasant climate, into a silvery world when early risers were surprised to see it was all white outside their homes this morning.

"This is the heaviest snowfall in approximately two decades since 1983," said Duan Xu, deputy director of the Yunnan Provincial Meteorological Bureau. The snowfall, the first since this winter season set in, started in the small hours today and reached its climax around 6 A.M.

The accumulated snows on the ground were somewhere between 15 and 20 centimeters thick. Thin tree branches in the foliage along the roads in the city of Kunming were bent with snows and got broken.

"A northernward warm current from the Bengal Bay has met the cold front from the north in the skies," explained Duan. So the snowfall is conducive to relieving winter crops of drought. But the greenhouses where vegetables grow suffered heavy losses.

Locals who seldom see snowfall could hardly hold back their excitement. Children were playing and chasing each other in the snow fields. Even adults joined them stacking snowmen and even attacked each other with snowballs.

The snowy weather, however, is worrisome to some others. The operation of 26 electronic lines suspended and were under emergent repair in Kunming. The power supply on its outskirts was cut temporarily but local communications remained unaffected.

The Kunming International Airport had to close today, with all 88 flights canceled and about 12,000 passengers stranded at the airport. The airport will probably resume operation tomorrow morning.

Both railway and long-distance highway traffic came to a standstill. All trains originally scheduled to depart Kunming this morning were suspended till 10:20 A.M. when the first train set off to Xichang city of neighboring Sichuan province.

The highway linking Chuxiong City in the central part of the province with Dali City, a tourist resort in the west, was sealed off with some 3,000 passengers stranded.

Another highway from Anning City to Chuxiong City was to be closed while thousands of vehicles lining up simply because of bad weather.

Workers were working hard to clean away the snows on the rail routes, highways, and airport runways in an effort to resume normal traffic as soon as possible.

During the traditional Spring Festival busy transport season, which began on January 21 and ends February 29 this year, over 1.6billion passengers are expected to travel by all transport means for family reunion during the Spring Festival holiday which falls on February 5 this year.

The snowfall came in a surprise as it was sunny yesterday. But according to local weather forecast, Kunming would have sleet to moderate snow today with the lowest temperature of zero degree Celsius. The annual average temperature in the city is 15.1 degrees Celsius.

The '99 World Horticultural Exposition was held in Kunming from May 1 to October 31 last year.