Zhang Yang

    nicolezyyy@163.com

    GUANGZHOU saw its first snow in half a century yesterday, with pictures of the light snowfall spreading online.

    “It was raining bits of ice at the beginning and it started to snow at around 12:30 p.m.,” said Lu Shasha, a 23-year-old Guangzhou resident. Lu said the snow surprised her because the winter arrived late this year.

    “I was so exited because it’s the first time I’ve seen it snow in Guangzhou. It makes it really special,” Lu said.

    “Snow in Guangzhou” became a trending topic on Weibo yesterday afternoon, with netizens sharing snow photos from around the city.

    “My WeChat Moments was loaded with pictures and videos shared by my friends showing the snow in their neighborhoods,” said Lei Jinfeng, a resident in Guangzhou, who said the snowfall lasted around two hours yesterday.

    The Guangzhou weather bureau confirmed on its official Weibo account that it snowed in several places across the city yesterday, and the bureau issued a red alert for cold weather yesterday afternoon. The temperature will drop to around zero degrees Celsius today.

    Data from the weather department showed that the last time it snowed in Guangzhou was 49 years ago. It also snowed in Foshan and Dongguan yesterday afternoon, the first time on record for snow to fall in the areas, according to media reports.

    The northern part of the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Highway was closed as snow hit Shaoguan City in northern Guangdong at around 11 a.m. Saturday, according to the Southern Metropolis Daily.

    A resident surnamed Zhang in Keshuxia Village in Shaoguan said the snow came earlier this year than previous years, and he bought a heater in advance to cope with the extreme weather. Most residents in the area had prepared for the cold weather, fearing a repeat of the cold winter in 2008, the Daily reported.

    According to Shenzhen’s railway authority, the cold weather caused a malfunction on the Guangzhou-Shenzhen rail line, leading to the delay of high-speed trains at around 6:30 a.m. yesterday.

    The train service was back to normal around 12 p.m. and speed restrictions were lifted at 1 p.m.