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Cold Causes Frostbite, No Deaths in Northeast China
Friday was the coldest day of the past 30 years in this capital city of northeast China's Heilongjiang province, with the temperature at dawn dipping to a bone-cracking minus 35.3 degrees Celsius.
Strong frosty winds from the Arctic and Siberia have swept through northeast China since January 10.
Local meteorological bureaus revealed that temperatures in some counties in the province even plummeted to as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius, a figure rarely seen in recent decades.
No deaths have been attributed to the extreme cold, and livestock have survived the icy blast, sources from the local administration said.
But hospitals in the city are admitting a number of frostbite victims. Some patients complained of especially stiff joints due to the cold, while the majority had frostbitten limbs, doctors said.
Heat and electricity have operated without glitches, local governments reported. The average temperature inside most homes is about 19 degrees Celsius or higher.
Down coats and other thermal clothing are flying off the racks of local department stores.
And despite the cold, Harbin is still accommodating large numbers of travelers eager to see the city's brilliant winter landscape.
Zhao Xiaoguang, who came from the toasty climate of China's southernmost island province of Hainan, is now enjoying his trip in a local ice-snow entertainment park with his family.
The on-going international ice-snow travel festival here attracts thousands of visitors daily, according to the local tourism bureau.
The local meteorological bureau has reported that the cold air mass will keep the chill in the area for a few more days.
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