China, like South Korea, is grappling with a record-breaking heatwave with temperatures around 40 degrees, and the extreme heat is causing a considerable number of casualties. Concerns are also growing over damage to crops.
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| Corn crops in Shandong Province on the verge of withering. Continuous heatwave conditions have put the region's harvest at risk of failure. / Xinjing Bao (Beijing News) |
According to state-run Xinhua and other outlets on the 4th, an intense heatwave is continuing across China's northern and eastern grain-producing regions, with temperatures nearing 40 degrees in many areas. A number of deaths from heatstroke have reportedly occurred as a result. Damage to major crops, including corn, rice, and cotton, is also proving severe.
Shandong and Liaoning provinces are among the hardest-hit areas. In major corn-growing regions, recent highs of 35 to 38 degrees are believed to be harming crop growth. Shandong, which accounts for about 10% of China's corn production, faces a growing risk of reduced yields and pest outbreaks due to high heat and humidity. In Liaoning, corn and rice have entered a critical growth stage even as soil moisture rapidly declines, raising concerns over crop damage.
The situation is even more dire in the northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which produces the bulk of China's cotton. With temperatures in some areas forecast to reach as high as 50 degrees, little further explanation is needed. A local climate center has warned that prolonged high heat could delay cotton growth and cause issues such as premature maturation — a warning that appears well founded. Local forecasts indeed suggest cotton output could fall by as much as 5% due to the heat and drought.
As the situation has grown this severe, preparations to cope with the prolonged heatwave are also getting underway in earnest. Chinese delivery platform Meituan offers a clear example of this swift response — on the 1st, in Chongqing, the company reportedly began providing delivery riders with so-called "air-conditioned vests" equipped with circulating cool-air devices and battery packs to help lower their body temperature.
Quan Zhe, a delivery rider working in the Jiuxianqiao area of Beijing's Chaoyang District, said Meituan is reportedly rolling out the air-conditioned vests to all its delivery riders in Chongqing in stages, and that Beijing is expected to follow — expressing envy of Meituan workers and hoping his own company would offer similar support.
Beijing, for now, has been largely spared the extreme heat, with daytime temperatures rarely climbing to around 35 degrees. Instead, the city has increasingly seen the kind of torrential rain rarely witnessed in the past. It's little surprise, then, that the afternoon of the 3rd brought storm-driven downpours across the city — rainfall intense enough to uproot massive, mature trees. Many Beijing residents in their 50s and 60s remarked that they had never seen rain like it in their lives, and with good reason.
Hong Soon-do
