Snow hits city ahead of holiday

Shanghai will experience sleet and snow Friday and Saturday, and the wet weather will persist into the week-long Spring Festival holiday, the local weather bureau predicted Thursday.

The temperature will fall as low as -1 C Friday and Saturday downtown and -3 C in the city's outskirts, according to the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.

The weather bureau predicted that snow and ice will accumulate on the ground, which may cause trouble for travelers heading back to their hometowns. The high temperature is not expected to exceed 4 C over the weekend.

The snow began falling downtown Thursday, following rain showers earlier that morning.

The bad weather forced the Chongming Island ferry and the ferry running from Jinshan district to Putuo Mountain to suspend their operations, according to the Oriental Morning Post.

The bureau issued a yellow weather alert Thursday afternoon due to the icy roads. It forecasted that the icy conditions could slow traffic across the city. It also reminded drivers to drive carefully on the slippery roads.

To ensure that adequate transportation continues to run to and from the city during weather-related emergencies, the Shanghai Municipal Transport and Port Authority has added about 8,400 short and long distance buses to the roads.

It also put 200 buses and 2,000 taxies on standby, according to the local news website xinmin.cn.

Starting Wednesday, local authorities will create 27 special public transportation lines running from midnight to 6 am to carry passengers returning from their hometowns, according to the xinmin.cn report.

The lines will run from transportation hubs, such as Shanghai South Railway Station, to locations all over the city.

Those driving back to their hometowns in vehicles with no more than seven seats will not have to pay highway tolls from February 9 to February 15, according to a press release from the Shanghai Urban Construction and Communication Commission.

Temperatures are expected to rise on Sunday to a low of 2 C and a high of 10 C. The city will receive some sunshine on Wednesday, though the rest of the holiday will be overcast and rainy, according to the weather bureau.