Shanghai is now blanked with thick white snow. This is a series of snow storm that affected large portion of central and southern part of China since January 25th, and is also the worst winter storm in five decades! The storm affected these areas with heavy snow and cold temperatures causing extensive damage, power shortages and transport disruption for millions of Chinese travellers who return to their hometown to celebrate the Spring Festival (which begins on Feb 7). More than 400,000 people were stranded at Guangzhou Railway Station on Friday. Trains have been delayed or canceled as a result of power failure and railway damage. The snow has also blacked out many cities in central provinces.

The weather was unusual especially for the southern part of China. Weather forecast predicts more snow, sleek and strong cold wind will hit central and eastern province soon. The snow will continue to fall accompanied by cold winds and would probably continue for at least the next 3 days!

Here’s some photos taken outside my apartment.

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We arrived at Kuala Lumpur at about 5 this morning. Coming out of the terminal, we did not expect to see so many people at the check in terminal so early. But then again, it is Chinese New Year and many of the chinese are leaving the Malaysian capital to go home to their hometown. We managed to find seats at a restaurant and had Nasi Lemak and Mee Siam for breakfast. It tasted like heaven to us. We miss Malaysian food so much!!! We left after finishing our meals and again struggled to find seats at the airport to rest our weary foot. We finally settled down at the Coffee Bean and surfed the internet using the airport’s wireless network.

Kuala Lumpur, I’m coming….

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Ok, we are off to Kuala Lumpur today for the Chinese New Year holiday in China. Although our flight to Kuala Lumpur was at 12 midnight the next day, we left Shanghai at about 2pm. Normally it only takes 2 hours to drive from Shanghai to Hangzhou. However, the recent heavy snow meant that the highways could be sealed off and it might take longer for us to reach the airport. Fortunately it stopped snowing and the trip to the airport was pretty smooth although it did started to snow lightly just as we were about to reach the airport terminal. At this point we were worried that the snow might cause our flight to be postponed or worse, cancelled.

In the car to HangZhou. Traffic jam in the journey… It tooks about 3 and a half hours drive today because of the snowstorm.

AirAsia advertisement can be seen everywhere at HangZhou airport.

HangZhou International Airport

Most of the flights are either canceled or delayed.

Lots of people were at the Hangzhou airport waiting to go home for the Chinese New Year. With no where to sit and 7 hours to kill, we placed our bags on the trolleys and sat down on the edge of the trolleys. We literally had our lunch on the trolleys. While waiting, we saw a group of Taiwanese arguing with the airport officials. Apparently, they were upset that their flights were delayed while another later flight took off. The airport official was having a hard time dealing with this rowdy crowd and had to call the security in the end to help calm them down. Two airport officials were pushing a trolley among the crowds offering hot water.

2 hours before midnight, we checked in. There was some confusion during the check-in as some of the passengers were confused about the way AirAsia charges for check-in luggage. The AirAsia flight we were going to board was the first flight from Hangzhou to Kuala Lumpur. There were quite a few AirAsia senior personnel there to make sure everything went smoothly.

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The Shanghai World Financial Center was planned to be the tallest building in the world when it was frist designed in 1997. This 97 storey building has surpassed the spires of Petronas Tower in Kuala Lumpur. When construction started, the 508m tall Taipei 101 was already underway to becoming the world tallest building. Plans was change since then because the tower couldn’t be build any higher as the foundation was meant to support a 460m tall building.

To protect the building from natural disaster like earthquakes and windstorms, the building holds 2 tuned mass dampers below its observation floors to reduce the building’s sway. It were installed on the 90th floor. The mass dampers use sensors to detect any swaing of the building and connects with a computer controlled. It is the first mass damper installed in Mainland China. It also design to withstand disaster such as plane crash including 12 fireproof refugee areas and 2 external elevators.

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Welcome 2008! There’s nothing quite like it in the world. Beautiful, unique, chaotic, exhilarating and violent are the words that best describe the New Year in Shanghai which come just after the hula gala of Christmas. Many have joined the New Year countdown at The Bund and XinTianDi Countdown Parties. The new Year was welcomed by fireworks and a sudden blast of cold weather as temperatures dropped below zero. It’s 1:48am now and I can still hear fireworks in the distance. Again and again! The city glows. It ignites… It howls and cackles…

Happy New Year!!

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