By Chris Buckley
Scores have died in snow-related accidents in the run-up to the holiday, one of the greatest annual migrations of humanity, with the usual travel chaos compounded by the coldest winter in 100 years across vast swathes of the south, centre and east.
But a resident surnamed Cao who lives in the old part of town begged to differ.
Another Chenzhou resident said: "A small number of places have electricity."
But skies were clearer across most of the country on Wednesday, a three-day rain and snow "severe alert" was lifted for the worst affected areas and temperatures had risen to well above freezing in the south.
President Hu Jintao visited the autonomous region of Guangxi in the south where state television showed him helping soldiers load food and other aid on to a helicopter.
Whole cities had had their power and water cut off for more than a week and 11 electricians have been killed trying to reconnect lines or break ice encasing poles and cables. Livestock and crops have been destroyed.
"At night, it's like a blanket of darkness," said resident Pan Zhengkai, adding that families ate their dinner at 4 p.m. before darkness set in.
Across the country, 170 of more than 2,000 counties had suffered outages. By Wednesday, 169 counties had had their power restored, or partially restored.
"Only when the masses are reassured can the country be at peace," Xinhua quoted him as saying. "Only when the country is at peace, can the leaders be relieved."
Rising prices of coal, vegetables, pork, rice and other staples have added to the holiday misery, but the sea of travellers waiting for trains, especially in Guangzhou in the south, had cleared.
Firecrackers, which will explode through the night across China and for much of the next 10 days, had already started.
"Our problem is that our homes and everything else are not used to such cold."
With safety in mind, the Beijing city government sent out an SMS wishing residents a happy Spring Festival, a period when firework accidents kill some and injure many across the country.
(Additional reporting by Jason Subler and Li Jiansheng in Beijing and John Ruwitch in Hong Kong; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
