Lingering heat wave altering lifestyles across China

People feel the heat in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, as the city issued an orange alert on Tuesday. DAI ZEJUN/CHINA DAILY

Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, which has sweltered in heat for six days, saw no relief on Tuesday. Instead, it got another orange alert from provincial weather authorities.

And that's changing daily lives, including the choice of food.

As many parts of China entered into summer with temperatures above 35 C, an increasing number of people are choosing to avoid the heat and are ordering meals online, bringing brisk growth for restaurants.

"It is burning outside and I cannot stand walking under the sun for one second," said Li Mei, an office worker at a trading company in Xi'an. "I have been ordering takeouts online for lunch for the past week."

Jiang Hua, a regional manager of Yum! Logistics in Xi'an, said there has been a clear spike in takeout orders recently. Each food delivery person is responsible for 30 orders a day on average, which is 30 percent more than in stretches of cooler weather.

People are even complaining about cooking at home, saying it's like a sauna in the kitchen.

"No matter what dishes I'm cooking, it ends with me sweating and with no appetite," said Zhou Hui, a woman in Xi'an. She decided to order from nearby restaurants for the family's dinner instead of cooking herself.

"I used to go to the supermarket once a day for fresh vegetables," she said. "I cut back to half that because of the heat."

Avoiding the heat has become people's top concern these days.

At Zhengzhou University of Aeronautics in Central China's Henan province, about 1,000 students flooded into the school library, and a long line waited to enter, because there was air conditioning inside. Dormitories are not equipped with fans or cooling devices.

The school decided to extend the library's hours.

Similarly, some elderly residents, who are trying to save electricity used for air conditioning, are taking their grandchildren to nearby shopping malls because the buildings are cool.

It's not uncommon to see elderly people sitting in a shopping mall rest area all afternoon without even glancing into a store.

According to the China Meteorological Administration, the high temperatures in South China will continue in the coming 10 days.

Some lucky people may get a brief respite from the heat. In Shaanxi, the provincial observatory lifted the heat alert at 10 am on Tuesday, forecasting that the temperature will drop as a result of cloud cover over the next 24 hours.

But in places like Turpan in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the daily high temperatures will remain above 35 C.

In South China's Guangzhou province, temperatures are expected to reach 45 degrees over the coming week.

So far, 28 provinces and autonomous regions have provided a high-temperature allowance of 100 yuan ($15.20) to 300 yuan a month.