1st Ld-Writethru: Snow disrupts traffic in China

Heavy snow blanketed north and central China Tuesday, grounding flights and bringing traffic to a standstill.@ Light to moderate snow started to fall in Beijing at around 9 a.m., alleviating the winter drought. This winter, Beijing has only seen 0.9 millimeters of rain, around 10 percent of the seasonal average, according to the local meteorological center.

Buses on nine routes in Beijing were temporarily suspended, and six others changed or shortened their routes due to safety concerns. Subway trains in the capital were switched to manual mode for their ground sections.

Many highways in Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Hebei were closed, as were airports in Henan and Shanxi. At least 236 flights were delayed or canceled at Zhengzhou, capital city of central China's Henan Province. The airport was closed in the afternoon and is expected to resume operations Wednesday morning.

Snow also fell in Shandong, Shaanxi, Hubei, Ningxia and Gansu.

Qiao Lin, head of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei meteorological center, said snow was forecast across a vast area of north China from Monday to Wednesday.

"Icy roads and low visibility could affect urban traffic in the rush hours on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning," said Qiao. Endi