Chongqing residents seek shelter as heatwave hits China's southwest

People ride paddle boards on the Jialing River amid a red alert for heat in Chongqing, China July 31, 2025. REUTERS

Temperatures topping 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) have broiled Chongqing, a metropolis in China's southwest known for its fiery hotpot restaurants and cyberpunk cityscape, pushing some locals to cope with the increasingly hot weather in innovative ways.

"It's getting hotter and hotter," said Liu Fengying, 60, a local resident.

As afternoon temperatures soared on Thursday, Liu avoided the heat by playing card games and sharing snacks with friends among around 100 retirees sheltering in the air-conditioned chill of a subway entrance.

"Aside from coming here, there's really no other way to avoid the heat. Last night, even with the AC set to 17 degrees C, it was still hot and wouldn't cool down."

Record heat across China has strained its power grid as demand surges to new all-time highs, now in excess of 1.5 billion kilowatts, with records broken four times just in July.

After daily peaks exceeding 40 C for a week, Chongqing elevated its heat-wave warning to the highest level - a red alert - on Thursday, with 21 out of its 38 districts forecast to hit up to 43 C. A peak of 44 C is projected for Sunday.

Historically, daily peaks in the city of nearly 32 million people have rarely exceeded 39 C in July, which is already very hot by global standards.

Since the start of May, the number of days the city recorded temperatures exceeding 35 C this year was double the historic average.

But some Chongqingers remain unfazed - for now.

Xie, 79, one of dozens of swimmers who gathered at a tributary of the Yangtze as the sun started to set on Thursday, cools down with regular swims in China's longest river.

"Chongqing has always been a furnace city, but we have the river to cool down," he said before diving off a two-metre tall river bank in his underwear.

On the same night, Qiu Xianhui, 36, came with friends to eat hotpot, Chongqing's famously spicy broth, at a restaurant in one of the city's old bomb shelters, where the air cools naturally.

"We're locals, so we're used to 40-plus degree weather. We've seen it all," he said.