Festival travel season to peak with more snow

More snow will fall on China's northern provinces, while rainfall will weaken in the south one week ahead of Chinese Lunar New Year, traditionally the peak of the ongoing travel rush, China's meteorological authority said Monday.

In the next 48 hours, snowfall will hit most of China's northern regions, while parts of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region will see heavy snow, according to a statement posted on the National Meteorological Center(NMC) website.

Meanwhile, South China is likely to take a breath from days of heavy rain, said the NMC. This could help ease pressure on the transport rush, which started on January 8 and will end on February 16, it said.

Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on January 23 in 2012, is the most important Chinese holiday for family reunions. The Spring Festival holiday is thus always a hectic time for China's public transportation system.

The NMC warned passengers about safety as the upcoming peak of the travel rush is to coincide with snow and rain in many parts of China, as well as foggy weather.

Fog expanded to many regions in Northeast, East and Southwest China on Monday morning, while haze also covered parts of Shanxi and Jiangsu provinces, said the NMC.

Rain and fog caused several train delays along the the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway on Saturday afternoon.