As the biggest snowfall to hit China in five decades has caused transport chaos at a time when millions are trying to get home for the upcoming Spring Festival, two men are showing great determination to be reunited with their loved ones.

Braving freezing gusts and snow, Du Dengyong, a migrant earning his living in the southern boom city of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, is traveling 400 kilometers to be reunited with his snow-stranded girlfriend.

Unusual freezing weather, heavy snow, sleet and icy rain have hit 17 of the country's provinces and regions and disrupted the travel plans of millions trying to get home to celebrate the Chinese New Year next week.

Du's girlfriend, Zhou Yonghong, who also works in Shenzhen, was among hundreds of thousands of migrants in Guangdong who experienced an erratic passage home.

She started her journey on January 23 on a long-distance bus bound for her hometown in central Hunan, the province adjacent to Guangdong.

The journey was fairly smooth for two days until she became stranded in Hunan's Hengyang County. In the freezing temperature she caught a cold.

After learning of his girlfriend's plight via cell phone text messages, Du, who originally was going to stay in Shenzhen for the holiday after failing to get time off work, decided to go to see his sweetheart anyway and take care of her.

Worried about his girl, the anxious man borrowed 500 yuan (US$68.5) and took a train to Guangzhou, the Guangdong provincial capital. He then caught a bus to Shaoguan, a city near Hunan. His journey stopped there, however, as long-haul buses could not enter the province because the Hunan section of the Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway, the country's key north-south trunk road, was closed because of a dangerous icy surface.

As his girlfriend's bus began to move on slowly, Du decided to walk day and night for more than 400 km to meet Zhou.

"I must see her," Du said.

Reporters spotted him as he trekked alone in the wind and sleet for about 16 hours in the minus two degrees Celsius temperature on the quiet closed expressway, carrying only a knapsack. The ice on road was about seven to eight centimeters thick.

With only 32 yuan left, Du had only one meal along the way. He was afraid of being short of money and did not buy more food. At present, his journey continues.

By Wednesday afternoon, more than 3,000 vehicles had taken a detour route to the expressway, partly easing the burden on the trunk road's section in Hunan where 37,000 people and 12,000 vehicles were stranded for days in the chilly weather.

Hunan Department of Communications official said it would take at least a couple of days more to finally free-up the passenger build-up in the section.

In order to avoid traffic congestions, a student at Yangtze University in Jingzhou, central Hubei Province, was spotted skiing along a highway. Traffic cops then put the man onto a bus bound for his home in Wuhan, the provincial capital, about 200 km away.

The student, carrying only food and water, said he had rented a full set of ski equipment and set off for home after learning buses had stopped operating due to the impassable highways.

(Xinhua News Agency February 1, 2008)