Sunny skies in Beijing hide a stormier secret further south: rain and snowstorms have hit central and south China. The news has made it big time across mainland Chinese media: it is headline news in CCTV and the People’s Daily, with live calls to train drivers confirming problems part of the ongoing coverage.
Telco signals are also affected in these areas. Recovery is slow, but mainland media has it that 65% of damaged telecommunications bases are now back online. The figure of telecommunications bases hit is staggering:
- 21,210 mobile communications bases have been hit
- 36,180 fixed-line telecommunication poles have fallen (that’s 2932.55 km of interrupted services lines)
- 331.6 million users have been hit (in a nation of 1.3 billion, that’s a quarter of the population!)
- 79.08 million Chinese yuan in losses have been incurred as a result of the bad weather
The provinces and autonomous regions hit include Anhui, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hubei, Jiangxi and Yunnan.
Flights and trains to these areas have also encountered massive delays.
