Keeping cool amid the heat

People dine, rest and socialize in the public areas to avoid the heat trapped inside their homes.

Heat wave in history

The heatwave of 1934 was so serious that on June 26, 61 million gallons of water was used. It was the largest daily consumption volume of water for the year. The heat had also caused the stock market in Shanghai to halt its afternoon trading for the entire month of July.

The municipal government took measures to help people cope with the heat as well - companies and factories were told to let their employees off work at 4 o'clock, an hour earlier than normal.

The rickshaw pullers' union also helped their members submit less of their earnings to their bosses so that the latter could buy apair of shoes to protect their feet from the scorching hot tarred roads.

Over at the 44 air-conditioned cinemas in the city, the movie The Song of Fishermen had an unusually long run of 84 days as it gave residents the opportunity to enjoy two hours of reprieve from the heat for just 50 cents. Because of this incident, a neighborhood was later named after the movie.

Other ways of escaping the heat wave was making a trip to the mountain resorts in the north. For those who could not afford to do so, they resorted to finding a spot in the shade and passed time by exchanging ghost stories, according to local newspapers back then.