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Bedraggled and wet, Gao Biao stands in front of the Guangzhou train station with an umbrella in his hand and stares glumly at the crush of people in front of him. For the past year the 27-year-old has worked for a cosmetics factory in this southern Chinese city, and now he's trying to get home to see his mother near Suzhou in eastern China, 20 hours away by rail. He's going to miss his connection. Around him hundreds of people, all hoping to find seats, push toward an opening in the metal fence surrounding the station as a police officer shouts into a megaphone, calling for order. The hands of the giant neon green station clock tick closer to Gao's 9:56 p.m. departure time, but the line is as frozen as the temperature. "There's nothing I can do," he says. "I don't think I'll be getting on that train."

Gao is one of more than half a million travelers who were stuck outside the station in the closing days of January after some of the most severe weather in decades brought China to a virtual standstill. Unusually frigid weather and heavy snowfall severed crucial transport arteries including major rail lines, highways and airports; power outages rolled across 17 provinces, forcing factories and businesses to close. The southern part of the country, which hadn't seen snow like this since 1954, was woefully unprepared. Even more northerly cities such as Shanghai, which is near the coast, were staggered by winter's wallop. At least 49 deaths were blamed on the storms.

The weird weather hit at a particularly bad time. Every year, in what is often called the world's largest annual migration, an estimated 180 million mainlanders go on holiday or travel home to be with their families to celebrate the Spring Festival, also known as Chinese New Year. Millions of these travelers are migrant workers — the real dynamo driving China's economic boom — who leave behind their jobs in factories and construction sites across the country for one of the few vacations many are allowed to take. But this year is different. Bad weather is making travel impossible; millions have been stranded on their journeys home, and with meteorologists predicting more snow in the days ahead for the country's already reeling central and southern regions, the crisis only looks set to worsen.

In a country depicted these days as an economic superpower, the storms were a reminder that for all its gleaming new airports and 2.1 million miles (3.4 million km) of highways, China remains a developing nation with vulnerable, overtaxed infrastructure. Officials said the snow caused more than 100,000 buildings to collapse. Some 6,000 vehicles carrying 20,000 passengers were stranded on a highway linking the provinces of Anhui and Zhejiang. A rail line that serves as the main link between Guangzhou in the south and the capital Beijing in the north was disabled when heavy snow and ice in Hunan province knocked out power lines, leaving at least 136 trains idled, according to Xinhua, China's official news agency. In neighboring Hubei province, some 100,000 people were without drinking water for several days. In rural Guizhou province, an electrical tower collapsed under the weight of the snow, cutting off power for 41 cities and counties. The supply of coal to dozens of regional power plants was disrupted, resulting in electricity outages throughout the country.

A Shock to the Economy
Almost 500,000 troops were deployed to help restore transportation links and clean up the devastation, the largest military deployment for a natural disaster since devastating floods almost a decade ago. But the economic damage is already done. The Chinese government estimated storm-related losses at about $3 billion. Economists say this figure is bound to rise. "I'd guess in the end [the crisis] will shave a couple tenths of a percentage point off China's GDP growth this year," says Ben Simpfendorfer, a China economist with the Royal Bank of Scotland in Hong Kong. That's not much considering that the country's GDP growth rate was 11.4% last year. But the situation may have been made worse because factories were forced to close and shipments disrupted just as the country's industrial base typically cranks up production to make up for the one- or two-week breaks many manufacturers take for the New Year holiday.

Exporters will get off relatively lightly, because most are located in warmer coastal provinces near ports, says Stephen Green, senior economist at Standard Chartered Bank in Shanghai. Hardest hit will be producers that rely heavily on electricity such as aluminum and steel makers. But few companies will escape unscathed. Million Freight, a logistics company based in the normally balmy southern city of Shenzhen, was forced to stop taking new shipments on Jan. 28 because existing freight was stacking up. "Nearly all trains coming in and leaving from Shenzhen are delayed by seven or eight hours," says an executive at the company surnamed Feng. The company also owns more than 200 trucks but the snow "affects our highway transportation more than it does railways," Feng says. "We used to ship two 40-foot containers daily, but given the weather conditions, we stopped our truck traffic completely on the 25th." Although it's hard to give an exact number for the losses the company faces, they "will no doubt be substantial," Feng sighs.

The Inflation Factor
Storm-related economic problems are likely to be temporary, but they are still worrisome because the nation is already facing the possibility of reduced growth if the U.S. slumps into a recession. In China, "risks to growth also inevitably mean risks to [social] stability," says Patrick Horgan, China managing director for Washington, D.C.-based consultants APCO Worldwide. "On a big scale like this, it's no longer just about the weather but about the ability of the government to govern." And if you had to pick one area of the economy that scares the authorities in China the most it would have to be inflation, which hits citizens where it hurts most — in the wallet. The country's consumer price index hit an 11-year high of 6.5% in October due largely to rising food and fuel costs. The storms will almost certainly cause another spike. Frigid temperatures across 14 provinces in China are destroying vegetable crops and will "push up food prices further in January and February," says Jun Ma, chief China economist at Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong. The consequences could be serious, says Simpfendorfer of the Royal Bank of Scotland. "Even if [inflation] creeps up to 7.5%, that grabs the headlines and will affect expectations."

There have been no reports of protests, but consumers are testy. On Jan. 29, Zhang Liying, a 36-year-old mother of one, shuffled into the supermarket near her apartment outside Shanghai, knocked snow off of her boots and started shopping for dinner. Bundled up against bitter temperatures, she had ridden her scooter to the store and was "frozen now," she said. But when Zhang got to the vegetable section, you could practically see the steam coming from her ears. Half a kilo of greens now cost 1.09 renminbi (about 15¢). "Before the snow, a week ago, it was only 0.59 renminbi!" she said. "How can that be?"

The government has imposed price controls on some goods to keep inflation in check, but such policies may be making matters worse. For example, Beijing imposed price controls on utilities in early 2006, stabilizing electricity rates. But at the same time the price of coal, used to generate some 80% of the country's electricity, was left to be set by market forces. With coal prices rising, some power companies curtailed purchases because their profit margins were being squeezed and they were unable to compensate by hiking rates. With reduced stockpiles, the utilities were unable to generate enough electricity when the cold snap hit and power demand soared — and transport disruptions made it difficult or impossible to replenish supplies. Official media say plants that produce 10% of China's power are now reduced to less than three days of coal reserves. To cope with the problem, authorities have banned exports of coal mined in China and diverted shipments bound for factories to power plants. A more lasting solution — allowing utilities to pass on at least part of the price rises to consumers in order to reduce demand — simply isn't an option now because of the political sensitivity of inflation.

Damage Control
Government officials — perhaps mindful of the criticism that was heaped on U.S. President George W. Bush's Administration after it was slow to react to the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster — are keenly aware of the importance of managing China's big freeze. "This government has made competence a cornerstone of their administration even more than their predecessors," says Horgan, the APCO consultant. So the state propaganda machine has been working flat out to show how officials are trying to ease the crisis. The main China Central Television channel regularly airs a special program called "Battling the Blizzard." An often repeated news clip shows Premier Wen Jiabao picking up a bullhorn and apologizing to a crowd of disgruntled travelers trapped in the train station in Changsha, the icy capital of Hunan province. (Even the Premier was inconvenienced by the weather: his plane couldn't land in Changsha and was forced to divert to Wuhan, 180 miles away. Wen arrived in the capital by train.) "I'm very sorry that you are stranded and not able to go home earlier," Wen told the throng. "We are doing our best to fix things so that you will all be home."

With tens of millions still on the road and forecasts predicting more bad weather, Wen may have committed the political sin of overpromising. But one political sin can often be expunged by another: deflecting the blame. A news clip airing on state television features an interview with a young migrant worker who insists loudly — and to the beaming approval of the collected cadres — that the crisis is "a natural disaster, not caused by administrative or leadership problems." True enough, but in a country where the public is constantly reminded of the omnipotence of the central government, some citizens may not be easily convinced that China's top leaders are not somehow responsible for the weather, too.

• Simon Elegant/Beijing