Snow snarls traffic in North China

A mother and her son shovel snow on the streets of Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, Nov 18, 2013. [Photo/Xinhua]

The National Meteorological Center continued to issue a yellow alert for blizzards on Nov 18 as it forecast that heavy snow will continue to fall in Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces.

As of Nov 18, there were four dead and seven injured because of eight traffic accidents in Jilin province, according to Xinhua News Agency.

In China's color-coded warning system for severe weather, red is the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

The snow has affected traffic flow in the two provinces. Most of the expressways have been closed, and more than 20 trains in Heilongjiang ran late.

Because the intercity buses have suspended operations, all passengers transferred to the railway system.

On Nov 17, 310,000 passengers left Harbin Railway Station by train, 40,000 more than the day before.

The weather put great pressure on urban traffic in the two provinces, especially in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang.

Wang Yuan, who works for a 4S automobile store, drove to work on Nov 18 as usual.

But she found she couldn't move when she came to an uphill section. With the help of pedestrians, the car moved.

She decided to park her car and choose the shuttle bus.

But the shuttle bus didn't guarantee its passengers could get to work on time. It took nearly three hours for Wang to get to her workplace while she needs half an hour on a normal day.

The situation in Changchun, the capital of Jilin, seemed better than Harbin.

There wasn't a heavy traffic jam and the drivers all drove slowly, which ensured the flow of traffic.

In Harbin and Changchun, some taxi drivers decided to take a break because of the terrible weather.

“My income has dropped because I have to drive much more slowly than usual and the risk of an accident has increased,” a taxi driver in Changchun surnamed Wang told China Daily.

To ensure traffic safety, all traffic police in Harbin were on duty.

A traffic policeman, surnamed Zhu, in Harbin, advised people to choose public vehicles.

In Harbin, cleaners and the snowplows kept working.

The weather also forced schools in Harbin and Changchun to close on Nov 18, and parents were told that schools would also be closed the next day.