Tourists play in a water park in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, July 15, 2017. Days of heat wave drove many citizens to the water park for fun and coolness. (Xinhua/Xiong Qi)
China is feeling the heat. Besides turning cities into ovens and putting loads of extra pressures onto the power grid, the high temperatures also brought an upsurge to China's economy, according to Singaporean newspaper Lianhe Zaobao.
High temperature continued to sear large swathes of the country on Tuesday, as the National Meteorological Center (NMC) issued in the morning of Tuesday an orange alert for high temperatures for areas including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Chongqing, Jilin and Inner Mongolia.
According to the NMC, temperatures in those areas could surge to 37-39 degrees Celsius, and could even exceed 40 degrees Celsius in some areas.
Lianhe Zaobao reported on Monday that the local government of Chongqing, a municipality in southwest China, also known as among the country's "four ovens" due to its hot and humid weather in summer, has come to the rescue. It promoted earlier this month at least 63 traveling routes for people to shun from the scorching heat, with at least 285 tourist attractions.
Most of the routes lead to mountainous areas with an altitude of 800 to 1,500 meters above sea level. The average temperature there is 20-25 degrees Celsius in the summer. The largely vegetated areas also feature multi-ethnic cultures.
Besides, there are some creative ways of spending summer downtown as well.
Underwater Mahjong or Mahjong table placed in aquatic parks have once amazed the social media outlet users, especially those in Chongqing, who boast the two as their most favored summer season entertainments.
Chongqing's newly opened ice bars have also gone hot.
Chongqing Daily reports said every year, the local market of "shunning summer tourism" could fetch an estimated 50 billion yuan (7.4 billion US dollars).
Chongqing was not the only Chinese city benefiting from the sweating season. In many cities, online food ordering services have witnessed a business burst. In many stores of Ningbo city, east China's Zhejiang Province, food ordering has grown by 20-50 percent.
In northwest China's Gansu Province, the sales of air conditioners have seen a 70 percent year-on-year surge since June.
Meanwhile, cooler areas that see more more tourists could put southwestern Guizhou Province a standout.
Local tourism authorities have seized the opportunity to further develop its tourist resources, and the transport networks composed of airports, high-speed rails and expressways have also accelerated its development.
With a total investment of 81.6 billion yuan (12 billion US dollars) into tourism and fueled by the season, the province expected to see further growth in the realm.
