As its streets freeze coldly over much of the year, ‘Chongqing’ is a hot-weather capital, as this series of animated animations by Yungai Gu and Ma Xue shows
The coldest and snowiest winter in history is still an impressive thing to see. On 10 February 1995, the highest recorded reading was minus 50.2 degrees in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, only a month after the first recorded snowfall in Bishkek.
Gorky Park in north-west Beijing recently saw minus 26 degrees Celsius – colder than the minus 19 recorded in Sviatogorsk, Siberia, in the winter of 2011. This year the authorities opened more than 250 emergency hot lines with heating advice, while hot and warming centres became widely used. In Chongqing, it is not the cold winter weather that makes people vulnerable; it is the hot summer weather that makes these temperatures unbearable.
Ewe in an alpaca factory demonstrate their ability to cope with the country’s hot temperatures. Photograph: Han Yan /Corbis/Getty Images
What follows are some animated “images on a loop” showing the impact hot weather in China has on plants and animals:
Domestic cats in the Shaanxi region on 24 June 2017
Drought-stricken corn crops in Guangdong province, in China’s south-east, on 19 February 2013
People playing after listening to a friend’s story in Tangshan, China’s north-west. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
The impact of China’s hot weather on hot weather plants in the Hebei province, in the east. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Satellite image of large patches of sand along the east coast of China showing continuing drought. Illustration: Nasa
Corn domesticated from saplings in Shaanxi and again in Guangdong.
Trees in Laoxi province, southern China, in summer 2016. Photograph: AP
Wild plum trees in Shaanxi province, in summer 2016. Photograph: AP
Lavender plants in Chongqing. Photograph: Xijing Zhu / AFP/Getty Images
Lavender plants in Chongqing. Photograph: Xijing Zhu / AFP/Getty Images
Wild lily plants in the Hebei province. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Jaw-dropping images of hot temperature growth across the country. Photograph: EPA
Beijing fire brigade: The man who understood how hot it got, then created this innovative heating system. Photograph: Zhao Jing/EPA
Credit: china street/Flickr
This story was amended on 18 August 2017 at 10.44am after a correction was added in a few instances.