China’s Xinjiang battles harshest cold spell in decades

BEIJING: Temperatures broke a 64-year-old record in China’s far western region of Xinjiang, plunging to a bone-chilling minus 52.3°C amid a cold spell and traffic disruptions following the Lunar New Year holiday. Several parts of China are battling another deep freeze as people return from week-long celebrations of the year’s biggest holiday. Just before it started, blizzards and icy rain had stranded travellers on railways and roads. State media said Sunday’s milestone in the Tuerhong township of Fuyun county was the lowest since records began in Xinjiang, surpassing a temperature of minus 51.5°C set on Jan 21, 1960. The figure was just shy of the lowest national temperature of minus 53°C in Mohe, a city in the northeastern province of…