Weather is a hot topic

A period referred to as Minor Heat has begun, according to Chinese solar terms, a time when summer builds up its intensity, Deng Zhangyu reports.

As cicadas sing loudly and a scorching sun forces people to stay indoors to keep cool, xiaoshu, or Minor Heat, 11th of the traditional Chinese 24 solar terms, arrives on Thursday with heat and humidity to signify the start of hot days, but not the hottest, in summer.

Rain and thunderstorms are common during this period in northern China, while drought conditions are caused by the sizzling heat in some places in the south. The warmest and dampest period of the year, called sanfu by Chinese people, starts from the time of Minor Heat.

Fu in Chinese means "lying down", a sign that the weather is so hot that it might be better to rest than move around much. As the folk saying goes, the heat during xiaoshu and dashu (the periods of Minor Heat and the following Major heat) will "steam people first and boil them afterward", leading many, as the humorous saying goes, to even stop cooking for themselves.