We are almost in the hottest period of the year for Beijing, the so-called “fu tian” (伏天), better known as the “dog days of summer”. There are three of them:
- The first fu runs from July 7th to July 26th,
- The second fu runs from July 27th to August 15th,
- And the third and last fu runs from August 16th to August 25th.
Most Chinese people think that the second “fu” is the hottest. Which means the past few weeks of +35 was balmy compared to what’s to come in August. And it’s not just hot, it’s humid and it rains a lot. Just take a look at the calendar for the next two weeks:
I’ve never stayed in Beijing throughout the summer so this will be a first. Moreover, I’ve never had to really work in this type of weather either, especially not in clothes for work. I have yet to perfect the “travelling” clothes and then the “work day clothes” switcharoo.
To be honest, I’ve always wondered what it would be like to live in this kind of weather. You see, I’m from a prairie city in Canada called Winnipeg and the winters there are quite cold (-30C) and drawn out affairs, which has many of us yakking about how we’d love to live somewhere warmer. But it wasn’t really until I visited Singapore on my first big excursion outside of Canada that I got a taste of what “hot and humid” really meant. And now, here in Beijing, I get to actually live in it.
So what’s it like?
Well, you sweat. A lot. All the time. Even when the air conditioning is on. And should you leave your air conditioned room to the “normal” temperature outside, you get sweaty very quickly (think of a glass of water with ice cubes in it) and once you return to your nice and air conditioned room, you freeze. I’ve given up trying to look suave and debonair, I just let the sweat wash over (and down) me. I wonder if the women judge a man by how much he sweats? And all that sweating means lots of laundry to be done. Sometimes the clothes dry before I need them again. Not just the clothes, the towels, too.
But it’s not difficult to stay hydrated as water is plentiful in the city. I do drink more beer and carbonated water these days. Beer because there are good beers to be had here, and carbonated water because I’m trying not to drink so much beer. Oh, and I also drink plain ol’ water with iced cubes, much to the chagrin of my Chinese friends who think it’s an obscene thing to do… because cold water freezes your insides.
That being said, I haven’t stopped drinking hot coffee, not least because I think the Corporate Coffee Chains that offer iced coffee are doing so in an effort to cut down costs, both by way of less actual coffee and reusing old coffee (just my opinion!). And, to be honest, isn’t there some sort of diet wherein you sweat out calories or something? Maybe that’s just some fiction I’m making up?
Although China doesn’t do desserts like other countries, they do have their own unique “keep cool” treats, such as this frozen red bean popsicle:
And, finally, despite the heat, I still try to get my 10,000 steps in every day. But I have a new soundtrack where I live and that’s the cicadas (pronounced si-kay-das) around my apartment complex. In case you can’t immediately bring to mind what they sound like, here’s a sample. They start at about 3 or 4 seconds in:
That’s all for now! Stay cool and have a great summer!