Some extreme summer rain in the summer heat!

Beijing can be very hot in the summer.
In general the air has been more dirty this week than the previous 2 weeks. But still AQI under 200, so not to worry about. It has also been raining a lot this week. Rain in Beijing means heavy rain, with intense thunder and lightning. It suddenly starts and floats the streets. The other day, after such a rain, there were suddenly 2 big turtles in the courtyard of my apartment building, on the grass. No idea where they came from, I mean, we are in the middle of a 20 mio. people city… ?!? All the security guys were standing around them, wondering what to do with them… very funny. Hope they did not end up in a soup…. 😉
Or, last weekend the world suddenly turned upside down when the temperature was totally going crazy, and, in the heat of over 30 degrees, hail stones big like tennis balls were falling down from the sky!! Within a few minutes, the city of Beijing was floated… have never seen something like that!

The weekend before I was trying to stand under a thick-leafed tree, thinking that it might be enough to keep up the drops and that most likely it will stop raining within a few minutes anyways… it did not, and the leafs held up the rain for maybe 2min, and then the rain became that heavy that I ended up completely soaked. Good side of it: I could practice a little bit of my Mandarin, as I was sharing the ‘shelter-tree’ with a Chinese man with the same hope. We did not converse a lot, I must say. I really need to focus on my Mandarin learning, it has not been very successful so far. Other example: I was buying a subway card the other day, and even if I understood that the woman was telling me “twenty”, we would not come to an understanding of what this means, as I wanted to give her 20 RMB, but that was apparently not enough money. She finally charged me 40 RMB, and I ended up understanding that the card costs 20 RMB, and I have 20 RMB of charge on it to use the subway. The sales-woman was definitely more stressed-out about the situation than myself: She kept on yelling to the long line-up behind me to know if anyone speaks English, to help her communicate with me. It was hilarious. 🙂

I do understand different words in day-to-day situations, but definitely: I need to learn now for real. The other night I have met a Chinese teacher who has been recommended to me by other foreigners. Want to start learning with her in September, once I get back from my business trip, probably twice a week. To be continued…


Read more stories about:

Read more stories tagged in: