The disaster has also caused direct economic losses of about 111 billion yuan ($15.4 billion), Civil Affairs Minister Li Xueju said: 21 provincial-level areas had been affected, with Hunan, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Anhui, Hubei, Zhejiang and Sichuan provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region the worst hit.

About 1.5 million people have been evacuated and more than 1.9 million travelers were stranded at some point.

The extreme weather affected close to 24.4 million hectares of farmland, with crop failure in 168 hectares of farmland, and led to the destruction of more than 350,000 homes; 18.6 million hectares of forest have been damaged in 19 snow-afflicted regions including Hunan and Hubei provinces.

The snowstorms, the worst in five decades and up to a century in some areas, caused deaths, building collapses, blackouts, accidents, transport problems and livestock and crop loss in the country’s eastern, central and southern regions for about a month.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday chaired an executive meeting of the State Council and warned of “arduous tasks” for the hardest-hit areas to recover.

“Some major power grids have yet to be repaired. The straining of coal supplies for electricity plants has not been fundamentally resolved,” Wen said at the meeting.

The premier urged local governments to put restoring power supply as the top priority. Local electricity networks should be repaired and work normally by the end of next month, Wen said: efforts should be made to mobilize and organize farmers to prepare for the spring farming season, as crops in most disaster-stricken areas will bear no harvest.

Meanwhile, production and transportation of coal for power generation should continue to be guaranteed, and efforts must be made to help victims, he said.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has ordered all of the country’s military forces to continue supporting reconstruction work in snow-hit areas.

The disaster is also testing insurance firms, which have paid out more than 1 billion yuan on claims (over 165 million US Dollars) stemming from the severe weather in south and central China, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) said yesterday.

More than 855 million yuan were on property claims and more than 56 million yuan on health and life policies.

The power sector received about 254 million yuan and the farming sector 40 million yuan, the CIRC said in a bulletin.

Meteorologists forecast a warm-up for most areas south of the Yangtze River in the coming days, which could help the thawing of piled snow and ice.

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Weather conditions in southern China will remain severe and relief work difficult, Chinese leaders warned yesterday as the country battles with the worst snowfalls in decades.

The warning came after a meeting chaired by Chinese President Hu Jintao to study the relief effort.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has just concluded his second visit in a week to central Hunan Province, the region worst hit.

Wen’s last stop, Chenzhou City, is still suffering power failures and a lack of running water.

Visiting homes of local residents who have had no water and electricity for 10 days, Wen said: “Please be patient. The situation will be better in a few days as the government is going all out to help you.”

A statement issued after the meeting said: “We have to be clear minded that certain regions in the south will continue to undergo icy weather caused by rain and snow and severe disasters will continue.”

“Relief work will remain very grim, posing a tough task on us,” it added. The statement noted that it remained a priority for the government to restore transport and power supplies and guarantee people’s daily needs.

The meeting urged local officials to make relief work a priority even though the transport and power supply problems in some disaster-hit regions have eased. The transportation authority will concentrate on helping stranded people on their way home, and the delivery of relief materials, daily necessities and coal to power plants.

China is facing its worst energy shortage in many years, with heightened demand caused by the intense cold and the snow, and insufficient coal supplies unable to keep up. After an energy shortage that has struck at least 13 provinces and reached about 70 gigawatts, approximately equal to the entire capacity of Great Britain, the government has ordered that coal be supplied first of all to the power plants.

Governments of all levels are told to crack down upon overcharging, especially on daily commodities such as rice, meat and cooking oil.

Chinese army sent out military vehicles, from tanks to armored cars, to clean the highways while the air force’s helicopters and transporters lifted relief material such as candles and quilts to several heavily-affected regions.

Some private companies yesterday donated more than 10 million yuan (US$1.36 million) to victims in affected areas.

And 65,000 medical workers are serving victims in the fields, according to the Ministry of Health.

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Heavy white storms staged a comeback late yesterday as China’s transport network remained crippled by the heaviest snowfall in five decades.

Millions of people trying to head home for the Spring Festival are stranded.

The big freeze has killed dozens of people, impacted on the lives of at least 80 million others and caused economic losses estimated at more than 53.8 billion yuan (US$7.5 billion).

Snow began to hit central Hunan Province and eastern Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces yesterday afternoon.

The national meteorological center forecast red-alert-level snowstorms in the northern and central parts of Zhejiang today.

Sleet is today set to hit major parts of Guizhou Province, and southern regions of Hunan and central Jiangxi - three areas where icy weather has seriously disrupted power supplies. Fujian Province in the east can also expect sleet, weather experts said.

Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday made a second trip to Changsha, capital of Hunan, within a week to help direct emergency work. Wen visited railways in Changsha and Guangzhou on Monday and Wednesday in an effort to calm stranded passengers. After several days of respite from the heavy snow, traffic along the expressway linking Beijing and Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, began to pick up speed after ice was removed.

More and more trains also resumed operations on the Beijing-Guangzhou railway. The north-south trunk line had been paralyzed since last Saturday from the Hunan section southward where power-transmission facilities were knocked out by heavy snow.

Guangzhou, home to millions of migrant workers seeking to go home for the holidays, has been the worst affected.

The number of stranded people in Guangzhou yesterday dropped to 400,000 from a peak of 800,000.

The cold weather is China’s worst since 1954.

Between January 25 and Thursday, a total of 5.8 million passengers were stranded throughout the railway system, said Zhao Chunlei, deputy director of the Regulation Department of the Ministry of Railways.

So far at least 60 people have been killed and nearly 1.76 million have been relocated.

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From 2002 through the first half of this year, the country’s industry and commerce departments at all levels have dealt with 60,203 IPR infringement cases valued at 1.4 billion yuan (186 million U.S. dollars), said Li Wenzhang, deputy director of the fair trade bureau of the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC).

The IPR of overseas companies, such as Estee Lauder, Coca Cola and Anheuser-Busch, have been protected in China after infringements were solved, Li said at the China Trademark Festival held Friday to Saturday in Changsha, capital of central Hunan province. The event attracted more than 1,200 companies and officials both home and abroad.

The SAIC will continue to focus its crackdown on illegal activities faking trademarks, names and packaging from others, Li added.

Li also said a research report on commercial secrets in China has been completed as part of the country’s implementation of its IPR strategy. The comprehensive research, launched in 2005 by a 16-member team of experts, tells the status quo of commercial secrets in China and its future development measures and goals, according to Li.

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