Students left their cooly dormitories in the corridors and supermarkets when Chinese authorities issued a huge heat warning in the eastern part of the country.
Some people have completely given up on their campuses.
“Sometimes we sometimes stay in the hotel for air conditioning,” the BBC told the BBC that a 20-year-old college student in Changqiu, Northeast, who declined to be named, said. “There are always days of the year and it’s unbearable.”
Hotels have become popular among students seeking to avoid sweating in dormitories, whose dormitories are usually a room of four to eight people and without air conditioning.
But for many, this move is the last resort. “Calling in a hotel is a huge fee for our students,” Changchun’s students said.
So on less desperate days he perched a bowl of ice in front of a small fan to cool the dormitory room – what he called “homemade air conditioning.” At the end of this week’s semester, the invention continues him.
The SANFU season is China’s “dog era” and usually starts in mid-July. But it arrived early this year, and in the past week, temperatures in the eastern region soared above 40°C (104F) and caught millions of residents off guard.
Qingdao weather authorities warn that temperatures may exceed 40c [Getty Images]
There are concerns over the heat after reports of the dormitory guard died on Sunday in his room at Qingdao University – as many think it’s lively.
A statement released by the university on Monday said his cause of death was “under investigation.” It said he found him in his room in an “abnormal state” and he pronounced dead when paramedics arrived at the scene.
The tribute soon poured in for the man, and fell in love among the students as the “uncle” in the dormitory, who took care of the stray cats on campus.
A Weibo user commented: “The kitten didn’t know that uncle had gone a long way.
The incident also attracted the attention of the living conditions of school faculty and students. Similarly, on Sunday, a student from the same university was taken to the hospital after suffering a stroke.
Another Weibo user wrote: “The quality of a university is not about how many buildings it has, but about how it treats ordinary people who quietly support the operation of the school.”
China has been dealing with extreme weather in recent weeks – a global phenomenon that experts have linked to climate change.
Chinese authorities issued a flash flood warning on Wednesday after the typhoon landed on China’s eastern coast. The storm killed two storms in Taiwan this week and spanned the provinces of China and Fuji’an.
On the other side of the country, floods swept away a bridge connecting Nepal and China. At least nine people died, and more than a dozen Nepali and Chinese nationals were missing.
At the same time, China’s heat waves are getting longer and longer.
According to the Lancet Medical Journal, in 2022, particularly hard heat caused more than 50,000 deaths. The following year there was a township in Xinjiang in northwestern China, recording 52.5C – the highest temperature recorded in China.
2024 was the warmest year in China, and July has become the hottest month in the country since it began tracking temperatures in 1961.
“It feels like global warming really affects our world,” Changchun’s college student said. “When I was young, the summer in the Northeast was really comfortable. But now the summer is getting hotter.”
Qingdao residents go to the beach this summer to calm down [Getty Images]
This year, the high temperatures have once again tested the limits of residents.
Last week, a video showed a man smashing a train window after train derailed and passengers were stuffed with stuffy heat for hours.
According to local media reports, an air-conditioned restaurant has become a hot spot for the elderly in the neighboring Jiangxi Province, and is annoyed by the restaurant staff without ordering any food in the afternoon.
It is reported that in northeastern Jilin Province, college students sleep in a tent equipped with air-conditioned corridor.
According to Hongxing News, a university arranged for its students to sleep in the library after reports of students in Shandong squatting in supermarkets and boarding a nearby hotel to escape the heat.
Several schools in Shandong Province have announced plans to make dormitory air conditioning – an increasingly indispensable amenities.
China’s energy authorities said more than a third of air conditioners, more than a third, as national electricity demand reached record highs in early July.
Qingdao University officials told local media on Monday it also plans to install air conditioners in student dormitories during the summer vacation.
This is exactly what a high school student in Jinan City needs to hear 350 kilometers away.
The teenager, who just finished his college entrance exam, told the BBC that he had been reluctant to go to Qingdao University (his best choice) because of its dormitory.
“Without the air conditioner, it’s too hot to survive,” he said.
