During the weekend, Beijing residents were also happy to welcome the city's second snow, three days after the first one this winter had ended the capital's dry spell that extended for 108 days.

The depth of the snow reached 15 cm in some parts of the capital's Haidian district, according to local media reports.

On Sunday morning, the snow grounded 34 flights for more than an hour but things quickly returned to normal, Beijing Capital International Airport announced at noon.

The capital's artificial weather intervention office said precipitation enhancement measures had been taken and silver iodide had been dispersed into the air to encourage more snowfall.

Zhang Qiang, who heads the office, told Xinhua News Agency that 657 loads of silver iodide were burned and dispersed into the atmosphere to encourage more snowfall between 7 pm on Saturday and 10 am on Sunday.