As many as 1,800 patrol cars were guiding traffic through a massive backup along an expressway linking Beijing with Macao as temperatures in Guangdong province dropped to their lowest for mid December in more than 30 years early Friday morning.

More than 8,000 people in a line of vehicles nearly 20 km long were stranded at 1 am on Thursday on the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao expressway, shortly after more than 5 cm of ice froze on the road, China News Service reported on Friday.

As of 8 am on Friday, about 200 tons of snow-melting agents had been used in the frozen areas and patrol cars were guiding stranded vehicles away from the frozen road.

Truck driver Li Yanli told Guangzhou Daily on Thursday he had been stranded on the same expressway in 2008 for more than 10 days, freezing all the oranges in his truck.

He said this time he was carrying oranges worth about 100,000 yuan (US$14,700) and he just hoped things would get better soon.

The Guangdong Meteorological Center said temperatures in north Guangzhou dropped to -3 C on Friday, and on the expressway linking Beijing to Zhuhai temperatures dipped below -5 C.

More than 5,000 passengers were stranded at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport on Thursday night with 14 flights delayed and 18 canceled due to the bad weather, Guangzhou Daily reported on Friday.

Ice off Laizhou Bay stranding nearly 100 fishing boats with more than 40 rescued since Wednesday, Qilu Evening News reported on Friday.

Authorities issued warnings in five counties and cities in Guangdong, including Lechang, Ruyuan and Yangshan, saying icy roads could cause traffic congestion over the next 12 hours.

Traffic on all other affected expressways is expected to be back to normal before Friday night, except the G315 expressway from Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to Xining, capital of Qinghai Province, which is partly closed due to ice, the ministry said.

Guangdong Meteorological Center forecast temperatures in Guangdong would start to climb on Sunday.

Meanwhile, many northern Chinese cities already hit by the cold front reported the coldest temperatures in a decade.

In one extreme case, temperatures in Hulunbuir city in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region dropped to -46 C.

In the coming three days, the temperature will rise with most areas seeing sunny days, the China Meteorological Administration said on Friday.

The sudden snow and dramatic drop in temperatures since Monday have affected traffic on 13 expressways in Guangdong, Sichuan, Liaoning, Anhui, Inner Mongolia, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Xinjiang as of 8 am on Friday, according to the Ministry of Transport.

(Xinhua News Agency December 18, 2010)