A highly promoted Chinese New Year's gala by Hunan Television in central China has been canceled due to the rare and persistent blizzard.

Heavy snow has been preventing performers from reaching Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province and where the television station is based, resulting in a call-off of the star-studded show scheduled for Thursday night, Sohu.com quoted station officials as saying.

Stars invited included Hong Kong singer-actor Nicholas Tse, Taiwan singer Fei Yu-Ching, Super Girl champion Li Yuchun and actor Wang Baoqiang.

Hunan Television has spent several million yuan in preparation for the event, the report says.

Hunan is among the most plagued areas in the current nationwide snow havoc. The province is suffering from its coldest winter in half a century, which has greatly affected transportations and daily lives, stranding railway passengers, closing airports, and causing power shortage.

Beijing-based China Central Television is scheduled to hold its highly expected New Year's gala on February 6. So far no information is showing that the bad weather will impact CCTV's event.

This year's lunar New Year falls on Feb. 7.

(CRI January 29, 2008)