Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news

Two-hundred-and-sixty vehicles are ready in Shanghai to clear snow to ensure smooth local traffic, according to an emergency response plan prepared by the city's environment sanitation authority.
"If large areas of roads are covered by snow, these vehicles will clear them by using thawing chemicals," an official said in today's Oriental Morning Post.
If the snow is heavy, then we will clean at one hour intervals instead of the current two hours, he added.
In some areas where ice occurring after a snowfall makes the roads slippery, the sanitation department will cooperate with traffic police to sand the roads to prevent accidents, he said.
In the past, Shanghai has never needed to apply such methods in the downtown areas to clear snow because no heavy snowfalls have hit the city in the past few years, according to the official.
The year's first snowflakes fell on parts of Shanghai yesterday, causing a few traffic problems but not lasting long enough for a decent snowball fight or a snowman.
Sixteen of the city's 19 districts received at least some snow, with one to 1.5 centimeters falling on suburban Jinshan, Songjiang and Qingpu districts.
The snow is expected to take a short break today, but should return tomorrow, according to the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.