CHONGQING, China: Temperatures topping 40 degrees Celsius have broiled Chongqing, a metropolis in China’s southwest known for its fiery hotpot restaurants and cyberpunk cityscape, pushing some locals to cope with the increasingly hot weather in innovative ways.
“It’s getting hotter and hotter,” said Liu Fengying, 60, a local resident.
As afternoon temperatures soared on Thursday (Jul 31), Liu avoided the heat by playing card games and sharing snacks with friends among around 100 retirees sheltering in the air-conditioned chill of a subway entrance.
“Aside from coming here, there’s really no other way to avoid the heat. Last night, even with the AC set to 17 degrees Celsius, it was still hot and wouldn’t cool down.”
Record heat across China has strained its power grid as demand surges to new all-time highs, now in excess of 1.5 billion kilowatts, with records broken four times just in July.
After daily peaks exceeding 40 degrees Celsius for a week, Chongqing elevated its heatwave warning to the highest level – a red alert – on Thursday, with 21 out of its 38 districts forecast to hit up to 43 degrees Celsius. A peak of 44 degrees Celsius is projected for Sunday.
Historically, daily peaks in the city of nearly 32 million people have rarely exceeded 39 degrees Celsius in July, which is already very hot by global standards.
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