A heavy thunderstorm hit Beijing yesterday, delaying hundreds of
flights at the Capital International Airport and snarling traffic
across the city.
Early yesterday morning, this summer's heaviest fog surrounded
Beijing. At 6 AM, visibility was about 250 metres in urban areas of
the capital city.
The fog was followed by a severe rainstorm from 9:00 to 10:30
AM, temporarily closing runways at the Beijing Capital
International Airport.
More than 300 scheduled flights were delayed by noon, China
Central Television reported.
The expressway connecting urban Beijing and the airport was also
affected by the rainstorm, as standing water caused serious traffic
congestion that lasted into the afternoon.
A Beijing resident surnAMed Pei was caught in the traffic jam
yesterday afternoon when he went to the airport to see his friends
off.
"We saw cars jammed on the expressway and they did not move at
all," he said. "So we chose another path besides the expressway.
But it was still too jammed.
"Finally my friends and I had to take all of our luggage out of
the car and walk to the airport. It took us more than two hours to
cover the 30 kilometres from hotel to the airport because of the
traffic congestion."
Also because of the heavy storm, flights at seven other airports
in Tianjin, Shenyang, Dalian, Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan, Xi'an and
Chengdu were also delayed.
Many streets and intersections in urban Beijing gathered large
AMounts of water yesterday morning.
Engines of many cars went dead under the Mingguang interchange.
The cars stopped there in water to leave traffic at a
standstill.
By 10:00 AM, nearly 360 traffic accidents and nearly 160 traffic
congestions were reported, according to sources with the Beijing
Traffic Management Bureau.
The bureau adopted various measures yesterday morning to direct
traffic.
The eastern section of the Sixth Ring Road was closed early
yesterday morning because of the heavy fog, and local residents
were advised not to drive cars by themselves but to take buses and
subway trains.
No economic losses or casualties were reported in Beijing
yesterday.
(China Daily August 1, 2006)