China's Chongqing deserted amidst intense heat
STORY: A handful of people walked past in a hurry carrying umbrellas to prevent sunburn.
Forty-eigh-year-old tourist, Xu, from China's Guangdong province likened it to a furnace.
“I do not regret (coming here)", she said. "Just feeling the heatwave. To feel what it’s like to be in a furnace. It’s stifling hot. But it’s ok. Those tourist spots are still quite distinctive.”
Offices have been turning up the temperature of air conditioning and keeping the system off to rest from time to time for the purpose of reducing the burden of electrical loads and preventing the circuit breaker to trip, 34-year-old local resident Peng Rong told Reuters.
Hit by rare heatwave, 66 rivers across 34 counties in Chongqing have dried up, state television CCTV said on Friday (August 19) as weather service data showed a district in Chongqing to be the country's hottest, hitting 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).
