The Portrait of a Miserable and Freakish "Olympic Host" -- Winter chaos
in China spreads holiday misery/Reuters

Winter chaos in China spreads holiday misery

Sun Feb 3, 2008 9:27am EST

By John Ruwitch

CHENZHOU, China (Reuters) - China's fiercest winter in half a century
brought renewed misery for millions of travelers on Sunday as they
struggled to make their way home for the year's most important holiday.

Traffic on major highways slowed to a crawl as people took to the roads,
despairing of lengthy rail delays which cost one traveler their life
when frustrated passengers stampeded to board trains.

Icy conditions made travel treacherous, one traffic jam stretched 70 km
(43 miles) and the army deployed tanks to clear roads of ice.

"On the road, we had to move forward step by step, stopping every 100 or
200 meters," said Feng Quanfu, after he arrived in the southern
metropolis of Guangzhou 11 days after setting off from the north on what
should have been a two-day journey.

"Yesterday, the whole day, we moved only one kilometer," he told China News.