Millions of Chinese are likely to spend the biggest holiday of the year without power and water after more than a week of wild winter weather that shut down transport links across large parts of the country.
The freezing weather in the run-up to the Lunar New Year break, which begins on Wednesday and offers the only chance for many poor migrant workers to visit loved ones, has killed scores of people. Railways and highways were returning to normal across China on Tuesday but millions are still trying to catch trains, planes and buses to see family in what is normally one of the greatest annual migrations of humanity. Millions more have given up making the journey home.
In the south-western province of Yunnan, four teenagers were found dead after going missing in a snowstorm near the Myanmar border, the official Xinhua news agency said. But soldiers found three other members of the same party alive.
Whole cities have had their power and water cut off for more than a week and so far 11 electricians have been killed trying to reconnect lines or break ice encasing poles and cables. Chenzhou, a city of about 4 million in the central province of Hunan, began its 11th day without power on Tuesday, with people lining up at fire hydrants with buckets to get water.
The State Electricity Regulatory Commission said it intended to restore power to 80 percent of affected households in the next few days. Supply to the rest of the families would be resumed by tapping some 2,670 diesel-fired generating vehicles. Kaili, with a population of half a million in the subtropical southern province of Guizhou, was cut off for several days by thick ice and hail.