The heaviest fog to affect southwest China's Chongqing Municipality so far this winter has delayed more than 200 flights and led to the cancellation of another 10, affecting about 15,000 passengers.

The fog, which the municipal observatory said reduced average visibility to less than 100 meters in Chongqing, virtually closed Jiangbei International Airport during Saturday morning, with no departures or arrivals before 11:30 AM, airport authorities said.

Flights began to resume at midday, but further delays were reported in the afternoon due to the backlog of flights.

At least three international flights, bound for London, Frankfurt and Nagoya, were delayed for an average of four hours, according to the website of Chongqing Airport Group, which is at www.cqa.cn.

The heavy fog closed down all nine expressways in Chongqing, the expressway administration told Xinhua.

Visibility was only five meters in some areas between Friday night and Saturday morning, the observatory said. It said the foggy weather, which started on Friday, will persist through Monday.

On Friday, fog delayed about 100 outgoing flights at Jiangbei. Nearly 10,000 passengers were affected.

In Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province, heavy fog delayed all 23 departing flights on Saturday morning, airport authorities said.

Visibility fell below 50 m in the cities of Heze and Dezhou, according to the provincial meteorological station.

Hebei Province was forced to close five inter-provincial expressways on Saturday as heavy fog reduced visibility to less than 500 m, including the Hebei section of two expressways to Beijing, said Guo Yingchun, a spokesperson with the provincial meteorological bureau.

Guo blamed global warming and industrial emissions for the fog, which began to affect most parts of Hebei Province on Thursday.

Affected by the fog system in Hebei, Beijing skies were also misty on Saturday but traffic was largely unaffected.

(Xinhua News Agency November 25, 2007)