CCTV9英语新闻：Drought continues in central and northern China（在线收听）

While torrential rains continue to pound south China, it's a different story in central and northern parts of the country over the past couple of months, with dry weather causing droughts in some places.

The situation was improved in parts of north China in late May, when rain showers gave a welcome boost to farmers planting crops. Inner Mongolia has also seen large scale precipitation, and even heavy snow in some places. However, parts of Hebei, Henan and Shaanxi provinces continue to be in the grip of droughts.

So far, over one million hectares of crops, 620 thousand people and more than one million livestock have already been affected by the dry weather.