LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - China has shivered at an average of minus 3.8 degrees Celsius, 1.3 degrees colder than the previous average since late November.

Subhuman cold has even frozen the sea in Laizhou Bay on the coast of Shandong province in the east, stranding nearly 1,000 ships, the China Daily newspaper reported.

Chief meteorologist at the Yantai Marine Environment Monitoring Center Zheng Dong, under the State Oceanic Administration, told journalists that the area under ice in Laizhou Bay was 291 square kilometers this week.

Transport around China has been severely disrupted. Over 140 flights from the state capital airport in central Hunan province were delayed. Heavy snowfall has forced the closure of some sections of the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Expressway, according to local newspaper reports.

Temperatures in the northeast fell even further, reaching a 43-year low of minus 15.3 degrees Celsius, about 3.7 degrees below the previous recorded average.

One truck driver in southeastern Jiangxi province, caught in a three mile line caused by a pileup that happened after heavy snowfall, told journalists the snow and extreme cold had caught him unawares.

"I didn't expect such a situation, so I've brought no warm coats or food. All I can do now is wait," he said.

The cold weather will prove challenging as the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday approaches, with icy rain and snow disrupting transportation, power supplies and electricity networks, the agency said.

Two people died and 770,000 people have been affected by record-low temperatures and snow in Inner Mongolia in northern China, Xinhua said yesterday, citing the local government. More than 260,000 people are in need of emergency aid and about 180,000 head of livestock have died, according to the report.

© 2013, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.