Strong winds battered Beijing Saturday and kept people from the street as the daytime temperature dropped to minus 1 degree Celsius, the coldest day recorded by the meteorological station in the Chinese capital this winter.

The local weather forecast said the temperature would plummet to minus 10 degrees late Saturday night but the wind scale would weaken to gentle or light breeze from strong breeze during Saturday daytime.

Far less people were seen on the street and most people who ventured out wrapped themselves up in thick overcoats and hats and hurried by.

"The cold weather will continue for two or three days under the influence of the powerful cold front from Mongolia," said Zhou Xiaoping, a senior engineer at Beijing Municipal Observatory.

Zhou said the temperature would rise to above zero after the chilly weather and clear weather would appear over the coming week.

He said it was still too early to tell whether this winter would be warmer or colder than the previous winters as the current temperature was at about the same level compared to the past years.

Medical experts advised citizens not to stay too long outdoors and urged the aged and the weak to keep warm and avoid possible colds.

(Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2003)