**Schools have been closed in the Chinese capital Beijing, and flights cancelled out of Beijing and South Korea’s capital Seoul, due to heavy snow.**About 30cm (almost 12 inches) of snow has blanketed parts of Beijing, the most since 1951.
The government has ordered residents to form work groups to clear snow and ice as transport systems come under strain.
Temperatures were well below freezing, partly because of winds from Siberia, although fewer snowfalls are predicted.
The Chinese government had ordered 300,000 people to help clear roads, the China Daily reported.
Not over yet
The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville says the cold snap is halting normal activities in an area already used to heavy weather but is not yet as bad as a 2008 freeze which caused huge power outages and transport breakdowns.
More than 3,500 schools in Beijing and Tianjin were forced to shut their doors on Monday, giving more than 2.2 million students an extra day of New Year’s holiday, state media reported.
More than 30 highways in and around the capital were impassable, although ice-covered inner city roads were carrying light, slow traffic.
“Low temperatures and ice-covered roads are expected to severely affect local traffic on Monday,” Song Jianguo, the head of the Beijing traffic management bureau, told the official Xinhua news agency.
The authorities warned the conditions could push up food prices, delay further flights, and hold up some business in Beijing and other cities for several days.
The cold snap could also strain gas supplies, the government said.
Airport officials told reporters that the runways were being cleared and operations would soon be returning to normal.
However, more than 100 flights were delayed and dozens cancelled, leaving thousands of people stranded, as workers de-iced snow-covered planes unable to take off over the weekend.
Airports in the nearby cities of Tianjin, Hohhot and Shijiazhuang were closed completely and most main roads out of Beijing closed.
China’s national meteorological office warned that temperatures in its far north could fall to -32C (-26F), with Beijing temperatures around -10C in daytime.
Large parts of the Korean peninsula were also blanketed with heavy snow that caused chaos in Monday’s rush-hour.
Heavy snow also grounded dozens of planes at major airports in South Korea after more than 17cm of snow fell in just four hours.
Gimpo airport in Seoul, a hub for South Korea’s domestic flights, was forced to cancel 90 outgoing and inbound flights because of the snowfall, airport officials said.
Incheon airport, the main international airport west of Seoul, also reported four cancellations and 40 delayed flights, they said.