A dense fog rolled across Shanghai early yesterday, shutting down one of the city's airports along with highways and river traffic.

Despite the inconvenience suffered by morning commuters, there were no major mishaps.

The bad weather also delayed the homecoming of 7-month-old Chen Yu'an. The infant, born two months premature in Shanghai on May 1 and still suffering serious medical complications, was supposed to leave the city around midnight Thursday for a trip to her parents' home in Taiwan.

A combination of falling temperatures and high humidity caused visibility to fall below 200 meters in most parts of the city around 4am. One of the worst-hit areas was the suburban Qingpu District, where visibility dropped to 60 meters.

The Shanghai Meteorological Bureau declared a fog alert that remained in effect until 9:45am.

Dozens of flights were disrupted at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, where normal service did not resume until nearly 9:30am.

The bad weather forced shutdowns along all local expressways, according to the Shanghai Highway Administration.

The A30 Expressway, the local section of the Tongjiang-Sanya National Highway and the Shanghai-Hangzhou Expressway were the first to close shortly after midnight Thursday.

The A4 Expressway and other highways were shut down a few hours later.

Officials said visibility on the Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway was only 30 meters at one point.

The highways began to reopen after 8:30am, and the last one, the Shanghai-Hangzhou Express, resumed normal traffic at 9:16am.

Officials from Shanghai Ferry Company said all services across the Huangpu River were halted around 4:30am. Nine ferry lines were affected and an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 commuters were delayed. Services resumed after 8:40am.

Similar weather conditions were expected this morning, but the rest of the weekend promises sun and a mix of clouds. Daily highs are expected to reach 14 degrees Celsius, and lows will fall to 7 degrees.

Hooked to a respirator, young Chen was loaded into an ambulance shortly after 11pm Thursday.

She, her parents and her medical attendants planned to drive to Xiamen in Fujian Province, take a boat to Jinmen in Taiwan and from there board a plane for Taichung.

But electrical problems in the ambulance delayed their departure for more than 30 minutes. The vehicle finally pulled out of Fudan University's Children's Hospital shortly after midnight, only to be forced to return an hour and a half later after encountering heavy fog on the expressway.

"The girl was rehospitalized and is in stable condition in the intensive care unit," said the hospital's Luo Weifeng.

The girl's parents said they won't try to resume the journey until at least today's night.

(Shanghai Daily December 11, 2004)