Snow, Fog, Rain Likely To Cause China Travel Chaos

But the global financial crisis failed to dampen tourism as lower travel costs persuaded people to spend.

Snow, fog and rain across China are expected to cause seasonal travel chaos for millions of Chinese returning from their home provinces this week as the Lunar New Year holiday draws to a close.

The Chinese New Year break, or Spring Festival, is the biggest of two "Golden Week" holidays which give migrant workers their only chance of the year to return home with gifts for their families.

Last year, it was disrupted by the worst winter weather in the south in decades. This year the holiday had little meaning for millions who lost their jobs when factories shut down in the once-booming south and went home early.

But the global financial crisis failed to dampen tourism as lower travel costs persuaded people to spend, according to statistics released by the National Tourism Administration.

Nineteen major tourism hotspots, including Beijing and eastern Shandong province, recorded a more than 15 percent increase in both the number of tourists and revenue during the holiday.

Sichuan province, hit by a devastating earthquake in May, also posted impressive results, with the number of tourists climbing 21.9 percent to about 16.57 million and total revenue up 32.8 percent.

"With warmer relations between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, tours to Taiwan turned out to be popular, with more than 13,000 mainland travelers visiting the island during the seven-day holiday," Xinhua said.

But the weather is adding to the misery for many still yet to travel home.

"Post-festival transport will face more challenges as fog lingers and rain and snow are expected to lash parts of the country in the coming three days," Xinhua news agency quoted the National Meteorological Centre as saying.

Meteorological departments in the eastern provinces of Anhui, Jiangsu and Liaoning issued heavy fog warnings on Sunday morning.

The National Meteorological Centre also forecast fog in parts of Liaoning, Sichuan, Guizhou, Henan, Zhejiang and other provinces.

"The country is warned to brace for a new round of rain and snow in the following three days, which will hamper festival transport," the observatory said.

Light to moderate snowfall is forecast in parts of Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang province, Tibet and areas along the Yellow and Huaihe rivers.

So far, however, the number of traffic accidents is down 57.6 percent compared with the same period last year.