DALIAN, China: Thousands of holidaymakers flocked to the sea in northeast China to cool down, only to find it was even hotter than back home as a heatwave bakes the region.
Along the pebble beach of Fujiazhuang Park in Dalian, a city famed for its fresh seafood and Yellow Sea coastal sights, beachgoers young and old in bright-colored floats dotted the water on Friday.
China has seen more frequent heatwaves in recent years due to the impact of climate change. The latest heatwave has swept through northeastern China and broken records in the nearby Korean Peninsula, with South Korea declaring an emergency.
On Friday, the first day of autumn according to the Chinese agricultural calendar, Dalian recorded a high of 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit). That is nearly 10 degrees Celsius above the average August peak, according to the national forecaster’s data from 1981 to 2010.
“Originally, we thought Dalian would be cooler, because it’s in the northeast. But it turned out to be hotter than in Shanxi where we are from,” said a 44-year-old mother of two, who gave her surname as Miao, referring to her native inland province west of Beijing.
