Heavy snows and biting cold hit parts of Asia today, with unusually harsh winter weather snarling up transport across north China, South Korea and India, but little lasting economic damage was expected.
Dozens of people were reported to have died after the cold snap swept over northern India at the weekend.
Beijing began the working week after a blast of harsh cold and heavy snow blanketed the capital and surrounding cities over the weekend, paralysing highways and forcing the cancellation of dozens of flights.
As the cold snap pressed east, swathes of the Korean peninsula were also hit by heavy snow today, choking up the rush hour commute in Seoul, where the main domestic airport, Gimpo, cancelled all domestic flights.
In China, there were no signs that the cold spell would trigger the weeks-long disruptions and power cuts that hit some parts of southern China in unusually icy weather in 2008.
The icy conditions could push up food prices temporarily by stalling shipments and damaging greenhouses, delay flights, and hold up business in Beijing and other cities for a few days.
Beijing has become used to milder, largely snow-free winters in recent decades. The snow over the weekend was the capital's biggest since 1951, with falls of up to 20 cm in the city's far north near the Great Wall, local TV news reported.
The wave of cold across north China is expected to continue through the first part of the week. The national meteorological office warned that temperatures in the nation's far north could fall to around -32 Celsius.
Beijing is likely to shiver at about -10 Celsius in daytime and colder at night, touching decades-old records.
Airlines at Beijing's main airport laid on an extra 100 flights today to help get stranded passengers out, but hundreds of flights were still either severely delayed or cancelled.
A heavy blanket of fog in New Delhi over the last few days forced airport authorities to cancel or delay dozens of flights from the capital. Train services were also disrupted.