China swings into action to tackle fresh cold wave

CHANGCHUN, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- China was swept by cold wave over the past several days. Although the northern part of the country no longer experiences snowfall, actions have been taken to ensure the normal life of residents.

Northeast China's Jilin Province issued a new yellow alert for a cold wave on Saturday, with many parts of the province forecasted to experience a drop of temperature by 10 to 12 degrees Celcius.

The Jilin power supply company under the State Grid Corporation of China has beefed up maintenance of the rebuilt power supply network, and carried out inspections for hidden hazard in the Shulan City which was hit by flood in early August. At the same time, the company pledged to reduce waiting time for power repair service to 30 minutes.

Heating companies in the province are also making efforts to ensure that the local people could enjoy heating services in the cold days. The Chuncheng Heating Company Limited provides heating to more than 500,000 users in Changchun, capital of Jilin. According to Li Yeji, head of the company's production department, their production, dispatch, customer service and emergency repair personnel are on duty 24 hours a day to solve problems on a timely basis for its users.

In China's capital Beijing, which had been blanketed by heavy snow, the ensuing icing continued to affect traffic on Saturday. According to local sources, as of 10 a.m., at least 45 trains from the Beijing West Railway Station and seven from the Fengtai Railway Station were cancelled.