China swelters under punishing heatwave

Commuters here are avoiding non-air conditioned buses or taxis as a sweltering heatwave singes large swathes of the Chinese capital

It is so hot that some people in other heat-stricken cities turned to manhole covers to cook shrimps and eggs. In some cities, vehicles have self-combusted, and a highway billboard caught fire by itself, sending up black smoke in the air, according to media reports.

Beijing is melting from a heatwave that has sent the mercury soaring to as high as 41.1oC, prompting residents to avoid outdoor activities.

Many folks are taking more showers and drinking more water daily in order to survive the heatwave.

“It is the first time in my life experiencing such hot weather,” one German expatriate in Beijing was quoted as saying yesterday.

“In Europe, temperatures over 35oC are almost unbearable to us.”

Many people are wearing sunglasses, face masks, hats or using umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun.

Beijing is not alone in being cloaked by the blistering heat; much of north China has suffered through extremely hot and dry weather — with temperatures nudging above 37oC — since Tuesday, because of the warm air mass.

Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong and Henan have been especially hard-hit, the National Meteorological Centre (NMC) said.

The heatwave — the worst in at least 140 years in some parts — has left dozens of people dead, according to the Associated Press.

The NMC issued an “orange” high-temperature alert in 17 municipalities and provinces. In Tianjin and Henan on Thursday, the alert was raised to “red” — the highest level.

Even the animals were not spared. In a zoo in the northern city of Tianjin, keepers provided one tonne of ice cubes and one tonne of fruits to keep the 2,000-odd animals cool.

One heatwave-related-story that made its rounds last year was how the heat in China revived a “dead” man.

It goes something like this: A staged protest claiming that city officials had beaten a sidewalk vendor to death in central China went awry when the man playing dead under a white sheet was overcome by the region’s heatwave and sprang up to quaff a bottle of water.

“It’s too hot. I can’t bear it anymore,” the man was quoted as saying.

Apparently more than 10 protesters had gathered with a stretcher that purportedly carried the vendor’s body, covered by a sheet, in the Hubei provincial capital of Wuhan. They were demanding tens of thousands of yuan in compensation for the alleged death.

The incident drew 300 onlookers and about 80 police officers.

It was not immediately clear how the protesters had intended to press their claims without submitting the body for an investigation and autopsy. In any case, the game was up when the man jumped up from under the sheet.

Obviously, having the “dead” guy jump up for a drink probably wasn’t part of the script!