Temperatures in China's northernmost city plunged to short 53°C (less 63.4 degrees Fahrenheit) — its coldest at any point recorded, meteorologists said.

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Located in the northeastern Heilongjiang province and nestled near Russian Siberia, Mohe is widely known as “China’s North Pole” and is one of the few places in the country to have a subarctic climate.

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The temperature at 7am on January 22, also the first day of the Lunar New Year, registered at minus 53°C, according to the Heilongjiang Meteorological Bureau. It beat its previous record of minus 52.3°C in 1969, officials said. 

China’s meteorological authority has forecast big temperature drops in parts of the country and issued a blue cold wave on Monday. 

In neighboring Russia, Yakutsk, which has the distinction of being the world’s coldest city, saw temperatures plunge to minus 62.7°C (minus 80.9 degrees Fahrenheit) — the coldest in more than two decades. 

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