Early-season snow blankets Beijing and northern China

A delivery man passes a car covered in snow in Beijing, China (Ng Han Guan/AP)

An early-season snowstorm has blanketed much of northern China, including the capital Beijing, leading to road closures and flight and train cancellations and delays.

Temperatures plunged to freezing and below as a cold front moved from west to east. A steady, blowing snow fell on Sunday in Beijing, the nearby city of Tianjin and north-eastern China after hitting parts of Inner Mongolia and other western regions the previous day.