Beat The Heat

It's rainy here in Zhongshan today. The wind is whipping around, the squalls are coming in fits and starts, and the rain is pounding down on our patio, all making it very cozy, warm and dry inside. Although I'm not much of a "macro girl," I thought I'd play around with a new lens Chris got me for my birthday in March. I haven't had a chance to use it much yet (what, with getting on and off airplanes every other week), so between cloudbursts, I headed out to the patio and took a few shots. (As a result, I'm now considering renaming my journal "Hit or Miss Photography" - wow, you macro-people really impress me!)

One of the perks of living in Southern China is that the weather never gets too cold. There's never a flake of snow, and the winters, although rainy, are just slightly cooler than in Florida. Even if the temps drop down into the low 40's, most buildings are not constructed with heaters, and the windows remain open year round (much to Chris' dismay when he's bundled up wearing a coat on a damp winter day at the office while being told "the fresh air is good for health!") Despite the occasional chilly day, we admit to taking some joy in "gloating" to our friends back in wintery New York that we're traipsing around Hong Kong in flip flops while they shovel out their cars in knee-deep snow!

On the other extreme, however, the summer heat in China can be overwhelming, and the sun is like nothing we've experienced anywhere else, even in the Arizona deserts. Our friend Larry used to describe walking out into the summer heat like "standing right next to a blast furnace" or as if you had "just opened up a king-sized BBQ grill." Between the relentlessly pounding sun and the extreme humidity, spending time outdoors in the summer is a risk often not worth taking. Coolers full of water, endless bottles of sunscreen, hats of every shape, size and color, even an umbrella, all become necessary accoutrements to any time spent outdoors between the hours of 10:00am and 6:00pm, when the sun mercilessly beats down and absorbs every last hint of shade.

The girls and I used to spend hours and hours in various hotel pools trying to beat the heat on summer afternoons, only to find the water was many times too hot to get into, and even when the water did offer some relief, too many hours outdoors could still cause heat sickness. The sheer amount of sunblock we went through was staggering, and protecting their perfect young skin from the relentless rays was a daily challenge. Most of the time we had the pools to ourselves, since the locals thought we were absolutely out of our minds, spending time outdoors in the blazing mid-day heat.

Summer hasn't reached full swing yet here in Zhongshan, and the rains still offer some relief to the steadily rising temperatures. But it won't be long before tiny droplets like these are just a momentary illusion after a summer storm, quickly soaked up by the merciless sun, leaving these lush green leaves begging for some reprieve, perhaps a cool and shady spot to escape the sun and beat the heat.