Heavy snow has blanketed roads and pastures in the northern part of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region over the past two days, with authorities responding by taking timely measures to ensure smooth flow of traffic and the safety of people and livestock.
In Urumqi, capital city of Xinjiang, the snowfall lasted a whole day till Saturday afternoon, with the maximum snow depth reaching 20 centimeters.
The municipal urban management department has worked overnight and sent heavy snow plowing vehicles and thousands of sanitation workers to clear the snow off roads.
"The Tianshan District sanitation department has deployed 157 snow plowing vehicles to remove the snow from all the main and secondary roads in the urban area, and has organized 1,616 sanitation workers to clear the snow off the main and secondary roads, laneways and sidewalks in the urban area," said Zhang Haibing, a sanitation management official.
Traffic police in the city have issued a warning of severe weather conditions and have increased patrols over and presence at intersections to direct traffic.
Similar snow response measures have also been taken in the county-level regions of Changji, Fukang and Manas in Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture.
In the southern mountainous areas of Manas County, the snow depth has reached 10 centimeters, and the temperature has dropped to minus eight degrees Celsius.
Herdsmen at the Shihuiyaozi Village in Manas on Saturday drove their livestock from the nearby autumn pastures to a breeding center kilometers away, where they can keep the animals warm and have sufficient fodder.
"Bracing for this snowfall, we have alarmed herdsmen in the areas under our jurisdiction in advance, instructed them to drive livestock back to warm shelters in a timely manner, and keep reserving winter fodder, and alerted the herdsmen on livestock wintering risks to ensure the safety of livestock in the winter season," said Lu Yaoyong, a town official in Manas.
So far, over 90 percent of the more than 300,000 heads of cattle and sheep in Manas have been relocated from autumn pastures to warm shelters for wintering.
Northwest China's Xinjiang hit by heavy snowfall
The balance of China's inclusive loans to small and micro businesses achieved a year-on-year increase of nearly 15 percent by the end of October, according to data released on Sunday by the National Administration of Financial Regulation.
The data show that the balance of China's inclusive loans to small and micro businesses came in at 32.45 trillion yuan (about 4.48 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of October, up 14.98 percent year on year. The growth rate was 7.47 percentage points higher than that of all loans.
The data also show that the balance of inclusive credit loans to small and micro enterprises increased by 30.56 percent year on year, continuing to maintain rapid growth.
Experts said that the balance of inclusive loans to small and micro enterprises has maintained a high growth rate, indicating that the production and operation of the enterprises have remained relatively active since the beginning of this year.
Experts also said the effects of various stimulus policies adopted by the government are continuing to emerge. Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese government has lowered the deposit reserve ratio twice by a total of 1 percentage point, and lowered the main policy interest rate twice. It has also optimized relevant policies to expand the scope of loan renewal to all small and micro enterprises. All of these measures have helped alleviate the financing burden on enterprises.
"On the one hand, the finance system should provide more precise 'blood transfusions' for small and micro enterprises, and on the other hand, it should better help them 'produce blood' by themselves, to fundamentally improve their 'blood-producing' function, so that they will have healthier and more stable development. This is the next important goal of financial services for small and micro enterprises," said Dong Ximiao, chief researcher at the Merchants Union Consumer Finance Company Limited.
Data from the administration also show that in the first 10 months of this year, the average interest rate of newly issued inclusive loans to small and micro enterprises nationwide was 4.42 percent, a decrease of 0.35 percentage point from 2023.
Inclusive loans to small, micro businesses up nearly 15 percent by late October
Inclusive loans to small, micro businesses up nearly 15 percent by late October
