First Snow in New Century Blankets Beijing

First Snow Blankets Beijing

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A slight snowfall of about three centimeters blanketed the Chinese capital since January 6.

The snowfall, the first for the city in the new century, is conducive to purifying the air, alleviating drought and growing of farm crops, and has also caused inconvenience to local traffic.

Sources with the Beijing Municipal Emergency Aid Center said that by 09:30 hours this morning, the ambulance had been called out 17 times, with eight people being admitted into the center for emergency treatment of trauma and fracture.

Because of the snow, several expressways, including Beijing-Tianjin-Tanggu and the expressway to the Great Wall at Badaling, have been closed to traffic. However, the expressway to the Capital Airport has remained open, and takeoff and landing of planes at the airport are normal.

The Beijing Municipal Meteorological Observatory engineer Li Deguang attributed the snow to the converging of warm and humid air current from the southern areas of north China and cold and humid air mass in the low altitude of Beijing.

The local Meteorological Observatory predicted that the snow will continue.