Worst blizzards in 50 years create travel mayhem (STANDARD) 01月 28日 星期一 05:30AM
Severe weather continues to wreak havoc with air and rail traffic between Hong Kong and several mainland cities, with the number of passengers stranded at Guangzhou rail station
expected to reach 600,000 today.
The Airport Authority said 20 arriving or departing flights between Hong Kong and the mainland had either been canceled or delayed.
Rail services were also disrupted, with at least five trains between Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing delayed up to 24 hours.
Among the angry passengers was Zhao Dan, 30, who has been hit twice in nine days by the country's worst snowfall in 50 years.
On January 17, the businesswoman was stranded at Shenzhen airport for six hours while on a flight to Changsha which was closed because of the snowfall.
She later spent four hours on a vehicle to get to her hometown.
On Friday, Zhao cut short her Lunar New Year holiday and chose to return to Shenzhen by train to avoid a similar stoppage. But after traveling for four hours, the train was stuck in the snowstorm and all passengers had to spend the next 24 hours huddling inside the train compartment. Zhao described her experience as a "nightmare since there was no water supply and no food."
"We stopped in the middle of nowhere without any explanation or announcement. The conductors were rude, children were crying and no one knew what had happened," Zhao said.
"After being cooped up for 15 hours, tempers started to flare, with the conductor threatening to lock up angry passengers."
The heavy snowfall brought traffic to a standstill in five provinces, cut off a key rail link and stranded thousands of vehicles on icy highways, state media reported. Up to 150,000 passengers were stuck yesterday at the Guangzhou railway station, the southern end of the key rail link to Beijing, with numbers expected to grow to up to 600,000 by today, the Southern Metropolitan Daily reported.
The large manufacturing and commercial city has issued emergency orders to help cope with the swelling crowds and called on local universities and other public facilities to provide shelter for stranded passengers.
Amidst the transportation chaos, small businesses are doing well, with a captive market of thousands of people stranded at Guangzhou station. The price of a rice box has reportedly rocketed from five to 50 yuan.
Snowstorms that swept Hunan, Guizhou, Anhui and Jiangxi have affected industrial production.
Premier Wen Jiabao warned of a nationwide energy shortage due to a drop in coal inventories which was forcing power stations to cut output and heavy snowstorms which damaged the power grid. Five percent of the country's coal-fired power plants were closed yesterday.


p.s. plz help updating the blog-v-
melanie;]

Amendment on Answers of Ex. 6

Please note that answer for question 3 should be Tensional instead of compressional.

Add oil tmr!

Remember to allocate your time better when doing the exam.

There are 40 MCs. And you need to answer 3 long questions which carries 60 marks.

So, you may consider allocating your time in this way:

1 Hour for 3 long questions

30 mins for 40 MCs.

Good Luck!

And Happy New Year!

Cheers,
Miss Chow