Along with lies like it has clean air, it’s beautiful and it’s clean in general, another apparent lie told by the good people of this town, is the weather extremes.
“Oh, behing located nestled in the mountains, Shiyan has fine weather. In winter, it doesn’t get that cold and in summer, it doesn’t get that hot.”
To be fair, in winter, it didn’t get that cold, I think the coldest day might have been -5 or -6. However, the ‘not so hot’ was vastly understated, or, like so many other things in China, is a matter of opinion.
This past weekend was rather toasty and I didn’t venture outside of my home that much. Once, perhaps, I made the short distance to the office to connect to the internet, but quickly returned to the relative cool of my apartment. Eventually, this was at about 5 o’ clock in the afternoon, I ventured as far as the front gate to see what the temperature was.
It was 40 degrees celcius.
I’ve been in hot places before. My hometown has summers around 30 degrees and, having spent time in Malaysia, I’ve seen 33 and 35 degrees. It’s hot, but manageable.
Over the last week or so, I’ve slept practically naked and not under any cover. I would have slept completely naked if it wasn’t for the mosquitos in my room. I don’t fancy having to scratch myself in an embarresing place. Anyway, so if, for instance, I crossed my legs, where my legs touched would sweat immediately.
At first, I couldn’t explain it, although it was hot, I didn’t realise how hot. So I nearly fell over when I saw the temperature.
This is officially the hottest temperature I’ve been in. Now, if this isn’t that hot, I think I will stay out of the places that are that hot.
In the meantime, the time to depart is drawing near. Some of my classes have been cancelled this weeked (yah!) which means it will go even faster. On Thursday I’ll buy the train ticket to Guangzhou. The trip itself, looks like a 24 hour affair. Sigh.
Then, just to pick up my ticket and… Bon Voyage!