Weather Chills China's Economy

Here.

Excerpt:

One of the worst snowstorms to hit China since the government began keeping records in 1950 has wreaked havoc throughout the country. At least two dozen people have died in accidents and 827,000 people have been displaced. Heavy snowfall has caused gridlock at train stations and airports, just two weeks before the Chinese New Year begins and hundreds of millions of Chinese return home for the holidays.

The weather is already taking its toll on the Chinese economy. So far the snowstorms have cost $3 billion in damages, according to the Civil Affairs Ministry. The heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain have created transportation bottlenecks for travelers as well as for shipments of coal, vital to fueling China's power plants. Over the weekend a power outage forced authorities to cancel trains from Beijing to the southern metropolis of Guangzhou, stranding 600,000 passengers at the Guangzhou train station. Guangdong province has halted train ticket sales from Jan. 27 to Feb. 6, and bad weather has forced 19 airports across China to shut down. On Jan. 28, the Shanghai stock exchange plunged 7.2%, hitting a five-month low, on worries about the economic impact of the freeze. Shares did not recover much Jan. 29, rising less than 1%.