Snow brought by the avalanches reached as high as seven metres in some parts
\nXinjiang
\nAround 1,000 tourists remain stranded in a remote holiday village after avalanches hit China\u2019s northwestern Xinjiang region with metres-high snow and fickle weather impeding evacuation, state TV reported on Tuesday.
\nRoad access to Hemu village, a scenic destination near the borders of Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia where the tourists were trapped, has been cut off by avalanches for several days now. The village is situated in Xinjiang\u2019s Altay Prefecture where continuous snowfall in some areas has lasted 10 days, it said.
\nThe heavy snowfall triggered dozens of avalanches along large sections of highways in the Altay mountains leading to the Kanas scenic area, and some tourists were lifted by helicopter to safety, Chinese state media outlets reported over the weekend.
\nSnow brought by the avalanches reach as high as seven metres in some parts and in many, was higher than snow clearing equipment, CCTV said.
\nWork to clear the 50-km (31-mile) stretch of buried road started a week ago.
\nComplicating the rescue and snow removal work were rocks, debris and tree branches mixed in the snow, broken off as avalanches gushed down pine and birch forest slopes towards a river valley, rendering rotary snowplow vehicles useless. Rescuers have resorted to shovels and excavators.
\nAs weather changes rapidly in the mountainous area, the windows for operating supply missions have been narrow too. A military helicopter scheduled to send supplies – such as flour and fuel – to Hemu village was delayed on Tuesday morning, CCTV said.
\nThe highway management authorities in Altay said they have organised 53 personnel and 31 sets of machinery and equipment for the rescue and relief work.
\n\u201cThis avalanche situation is relatively special, we have seen such heavy snowfall before, but we have not seen such high frequency of avalanches,\u201d the head of the highway management bureau, Zhao Jinsheng, told CCTV.
\nZhao said he expected snow clearing work to restore access to Hemu village to continue for some time due to the large volume of snow on the last four kilometres (2.5 miles) of road affected by the avalanche.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Snow brought by the avalanches reached as high as seven metres in some parts Xinjiang Around 1,000 tourists remain stranded in a remote holiday village after avalanches hit China\u2019s northwestern Xinjiang region with metres-high snow and fickle weather impeding evacuation, state TV reported on Tuesday. Road access to Hemu village, a scenic destination near the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-381216","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n