China works to limit snow-inflicted chaos ahead of Spring Festival

In Shanghai, extra buses were sent to major traffic hubs to deal with a surge of passengers as more people left their cars at home. Anti-skid devices were installed on buses in Nanjing.

In Changsha, Wuhan and other hard-hit cities, vegetable prices have more than doubled. To help keep prices down, the Wuhan government has ordered all highways and expressways not to charge tolls to trucks carrying vegetables to the city.

Firemen tried to rescue the trapped people out of the collapsed market house in Chaohu, east China's Anhui Province. A 3000-square-meter market of farm products was weighed down by heavy snow Saturday, leaving 8 people trapped in ruins. All of stucked victims were rescued several hours later. (Xinhua Photo)

Eastern Jiangsu Province has seen 1,597 houses collapse due to the snow and 4,370 others have been damaged.

In the agricultural province of Jiangxi, where 13 people have died in snow-related accidents, 220,000 were forced to evacuate and 8.18 million were affected in one way or another. About 2,700 houses were toppled and 56,400 hectares of crops were ruined by the snow.

The local government has allocated 8 million yuan to the 38 hardest-hit counties, cities and districts to ensure that residents have enough food, clean water, warm clothes, safe housing and timely medical care ahead of the Spring Festival.