Stuck on the road in ‘snow globe’ China
Posted: Monday, February 04, 2008 1:11 PM
Filed Under:
Beijing, China
By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
CHENZHOU, Hunan Province – It was at Yizhang that our luck ran out.
Just 30 miles away from our destination, we were diverted off the Jingzhou Expressway heading north.
We had been traveling for two days to get to Chenzhou, a city located in Hunan Province, which has taken some of the worst hits from the freak winter weather that has gripped China in a major cold snap during the past four weeks. Chenzhou’s four million people have been without power and, increasingly, without running water, too.
The expressway only re-opened to traffic on Saturday, after being closed for several days. By mid-morning on Sunday we were moving at a good clip. Both sides of the highway were flowing with steady traffic – buses and cars brimming with passengers, trucks overflowing with supplies.
 |
| Adrienne Mong / NBC News |
| A pylon nears collapse over a field of iced-over rice paddies in Hunan. |
In fact, despite below-freezing temperatures, conditions for the highway were so surprisingly good that I merrily sent a text message to our bureau chief in Beijing and our ITN colleagues who had just left Guangzhou and were heading in the same direction as we were traveling: "Roads all clear!"
But then we quickly entered a bizarre looking landscape, where everything was covered in inches-thick ice, including downed power lines and tree branches. Even the rice paddies were iced up. Correspondent Mark Mullen said it was like being trapped in a "snow globe."
In a jam
At that point, we got stuck in miles-long traffic on the local road and were barely making any progress.
It was around this time that things began to heat up. (Sadly for us, travelling in an unheated "bread loaf" car – I’m only speaking metaphorically.)
"What are you’re doing?!?" The driver of a sedan in front of us had his head out the window, glaring ferociously up at a bus driver who was inching forward, trying to cut in front of the sedan.
After being immobilized for nearly two weeks, everyone was back on the roads, delivering much-needed supplies to hard-hit areas like Chenzhou or trying to get back to their home villages before Chinese New Year on Thursday.
But since this section of the Jingzhu Expressway was inexplicably closed again, people were now jamming all the arteries flowing off the highway.
And as with many situations involving travel and long hours, tempers were beginning to fray along with any civil conduct.
"You think you’re getting anywhere, driving like this?" said a plainclothes policeman who was banging a tree branch on the hood of one of several dozen cars that had tried to overtake the traffic by spreading out to the two far left lanes, effectively blocking all the traffic heading the opposite direction.
Life goes on
We were all settling in for a wait of several hours when after half an hour a group of policemen managed to bully wayward drivers into moving aside to allow oncoming traffic.
Before long, we were continuing our journey to Chenzhou, observing how much life carries on despite hardships.
 |
| Adrienne Mong / NBC News |
| A tree weighed down by ice in Hunan Province. |
We caught a fleeting glimpse of women squatting on the covered ground, washing clothes using ice.
A young man carried a basket full of homemade rice and fried beef in plastic boxes, hawking them to weary drivers and passengers stuck in traffic,
A convoy of army trucks sped past us, one of them flying a red banner, "Our heart is with the people of the affected areas."
See how the people of Chenzhou have been coping without power for more than a week on Nightly News Monday evening.
