The full extent of the damage wrought by the extreme weather on the mainland is only just becoming apparent. The immediate challenge is to ensure that those who successfully braved the poor conditions to visit their families over the Lunar New Year are able to return.
But as the mainland authorities take stock, it is vital that lessons are learned. The crisis, caused by the worst winter for much of the nation in half a century, raises many troubling questions that require answers. Leaders have promised there will never be a repeat. But given the scale of the problems, much needs to be done if they are to make good on this pledge.
Serious flaws were revealed by the snowstorms. Shake-ups are necessary in disaster management, weather forecasting, infrastructure, electricity price controls and media freedom. Environmental protection measures have to be toughened.
This makes for a bulging in tray. None can be ignored, though: each broken part of the system has to be repaired or replaced so that the misery and hardship will not occur again - even if there is a repeat of the bad weather conditions.
An initial step is the decision to spend billions of yuan on improving weather forecasting. With the scale of the snowstorms not foreseen and a lack of information from forecasters about their duration, this is an obvious place to start.
Equally in need of prompt attention is a national disaster management system. It was not until two weeks after the storms began on January 10 that the central government reacted. A co-ordinating body was set up. Unused to such an effort, its response was too little, too late.