China is about to enter what’s considered the coldest period of winter. Data from the China Meteorological Administration shows the national average temperature has reached minus 3.8 Celsius degree, the lowest in 28 years. In recent days, snow and rain has continued to hit most of China.
Southeast China’s Chongqing Municipality is seeing its lowest temperatures since 1994. Residents of mountainous areas lack adequate drinking water because the water pipes are frozen.
In Wuli town of Qianjiang district, the mountain spring has turned into an ice fall. The ice has caused the water pipes in villagers’ houses to burst.
Wang Shaobo, villager in Wuli, Chongqing, said, "The pipes have been frozen for many days, we can not open it to get drinking water. We have to collect melting snow to wash our faces and feed our livestock."
There are 5,000 villagers living in mountainous areas with an altitude over 800 meters.
Since heavy snow has cut off roads, the local government has to leave water tanks on the roadside. The villagers have carry them back home.
And in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, 16 electric transmission lines were covered by ice. The thickest point was 15 millimeters.
The Guangxi grid company issued an alert and put auto thawing devices into operation, combined with manual de-icing.
The Hezhou grid company has suffered the most serious ice-cover situation since 2008. Workers have to climb up the transmission tower located at the top of mountain.
Cheng Xiongfeng, transmission maintenance personnel, said, "I climb 5 towers a day by hand. In some places, it is difficult to walk, many tree branches fell to the ground. I have to cut them to open a way."
The main channel of the "West to East power transmission project", Hezhou has been able to continue normal operation.
In North China’s Tianjin municipality, the lowest temperature reached around minus 10 degrees. The number of shoppers are greatly reduced, and this means a decline in blood donors.
The blood center is growing concerned over the possible threat this poses.
And at the northern end of China, Mohe city, the lowest temperature has reached minus 35 degrees. Hundreds of workers in tree farms are continuing their work.
They are eating cold food, drinking icy water, sleeping in tents, as they continue irrigating and pruning dozens of hectares of natural forest.
Because of their efforts, the average height of trees in the Greater Xing’an forest increased by 1.3 meters since 2009, and the number of trees per hectare has also increased.