Beijing embraces new year's first snow

BEIJING, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Beijingers woke up to see the first snowfall of the new year Saturday, after nearly two months of drought.

The snow began before daybreak in Beijing and parts of the neighboring Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province, the weather bureau said.

Photo taken on Jan. 2, 2009, shows a snow-covered  car with the characters "the snow falls" in  Beijing, China. Beijingers woke up to see the  first snowfall of the New Year Saturday, after  nearly two months of drought. (Xinhua/Lu Peng)

"I dozed off in my car after 3 a.m. and woke up to see snow everywhere," said taxi driver Cheng Yong.

At 6 a.m., the snowfall measured less than 1 millimeter in the city proper. The mountainous areas in the western suburbs, however, received 2.9 millimeters of snow, Beijing Meteorological Bureau said on its website.

As of 2 p.m., nearly 100 inbound and outbound flights were delayed at the Capital International Airport in the northeast of Beijing, airport authorities said.

The snow, which stopped in the downtown areas in the morning, was just a prelude to the cold snap that was expected to hit Beijing on Sunday and would last four or five days, the weather bureau said.

It said Saturday's maximum temperature would be around minus two degrees Celsius, and would drop to minus six Sunday, when most parts of the city would expect moderate snow.