A rare blizzard has hit most areas of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province Monday, in place of spring blossoms that are a pretty common at this time.

 

The heaviest snowfall ever in spring started yesterday afternoon in most areas of Heilongjiang, causing widespread chaos on roads and left thousands of passengers stranded at airport and coach stations.

In its capital city Harbin, some primary schools have closed as meteorological department issued a red alert this morning.

Inconvenience is of course everywhere. Vehicles are either trapped in the slushy snow or moving slowly to a crawl on roads. Pedestrians are winding their way through the blizzard, waiting for quite a long time to call a cab.

Harbin resident Zheng Lin said, "It is a really suffering today and so inconvenient to do anything. I got on a bus at 7 o'clock this morning and I just arrived here. We were stuck in the traffic jam for over 3 hours."

Harbin bus driver Mr. Ma said, "It's too hard to drive. I usually finish a shift within 50 or 60 minutes; however, today it takes me more than four hours to run one circle."

Harbin taxi driver Mr. Zhang said,"It's really hard to drive under this kind of weather. I suggest people stay in their homes."

Meteorological department says that the weather is forecast to be sunny again by tomorrow and there will no sharp temperature drop.

Zhang Chen from Heilongjiang TV, said, "Unlike their counterparts battling droughts in Southwest China, farmers here in Heilongjiang need to worry about how to channel out water in their fields when the snows start melting. And it's really baffling that how often the abnormal weather occurs and when the real Spring finally comes to the region.