Snow blanketed Beijing on Sunday, shutting down highways and forcing the delay or cancellation of scores of flights. The snow that began falling Saturday night piled up around China"s capital, with more than 1 1/2 inches (4.4 centimeters) accumulating in the center by early morning Sunday, according to the National Meteorological Center. It said upward of 4 1/2 inches (11.7 centimeters) had been recorded in the suburbs of Changping near the Great Wall of China, one of the country"s top tourist attractions. By 10:00 a.m. (0200 GMT) Sunday, 120 flights out of Beijing Capital Airport had been delayed and 86 canceled, according to the airport"s information center. The snow forced traffic to slow to less than 25 miles-per-hour (40 kilometers-per-hour) on the usually bustling freeway from the new international airport into town. Several key highways linking the capital to Inner Mongolia and outlying provinces had been closed or access restricted, according to news reports. Temperatures hovered around 16 degrees Fahrenheit (-9 Celsius) Sunday morning, with the cold wave forecast to continue well into the week.
