Chinese premier Wen Jiabao took a bullhorn in hand to encourage stranded passengers in the snow-bound city of Changsha, as unusually severe winter weather snarled transport throughout the south amidst the country's worst power crisis.
Millions of migrant workers in the booming southern province of Guangdong were urged to abandon plans to go home to celebrate next week's Lunar New Year holiday, or Spring Festival, because train tracks were blocked by snow.
Icy temperatures, snow and sleet blanketing much of central, eastern and southern China have crippled thousands of trucks and trains loaded with coal, food and passengers in the most severe winter weather seen in 50 years.
A bus plunged more than 40 metres (130 ft) from a snowy mountain road in the south-western province of Guizhou, killing 25, the Xinhua news agency said, the first known major accident caused by the freak weather.
Premier Wen Jiabao visited stricken Hunan province, north of Guangdong, first flying to neighbouring Hubei province because Hunan's main airport was iced-in. "When the electricity network is back, then the trains can run, so it will not be long before you can all go back home to celebrate the New Year," state-owned television showed Wen shouting to crowds of passengers in the Changsha railway station, in a hasty trip to Hunan Province. CCTV showed a woman crying as she listened.
The Politburo, the Communist Party's top echelon of power, has put disaster relief at the top of the agenda after a meeting chaired by President Hu Jintao. "The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China urged local authorities to regard disaster relief as the 'most pressing task' at present and make 'all-out efforts' to ensure normal production and life," Xinhua said.
The Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday in a statement that it would offer 98 million yuan ($13.6 million) to people suffering from the bad weather in Anhui, Jiangxi, GGuangxi and Guizhou provinces. The insurance regulator also ordered all insurance firms on Tuesday to award compensation as quickly as possible.
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