HEAVY FLOODING HAS displaced thousands of people around China as Beijing recorded an intense heatwave for more than a week.

Beijing reported 9.8 straight days when the temperature exceeded 35 degrees Celsius, according to the National Climate Centre. Such a streak was last recorded in 1961.

A lack of rain may be contributing to the heat, with the notoriously dry capital receiving even less than usual this year.

While temperatures have smoderated slightly – today’s temperature at noon local time was 33 degrees Celsius – they are expected to rise again this week to as high as 39.6 in Beijing and other parts of the country, authorities said.

Meanwhile, more than 10,000 people were urgently moved to safety due to flooding in the central province of Hunan, the Xiang’xi Emergency Management Bureau said yesterday.

Around 70 houses collapsed, 2,283 were damaged and farm fields were flooded.

Losses so far have been estimated at least 575 million yuan (€73 million).

To the north, in Shaanxi province’s Zhenba county, authorities reported that the worst flooding in 50 years had washed out roads and damaged homes.

No deaths have been reported from the floods so far.

The heat this year has been unusual, although China has regular summer flooding.

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Eleven provinces – around half of China’s land area – are expected to receive heavy rain in the coming days, mainly in the humid south.

In 2021, more than 300 people died in the central province of Henan.

Record rainfall inundated the provincial capital of Zhengzhou on July 20 that year, turning streets into rushing rivers and flooding at least part of a subway line.

China’s worst floods in recent history were in 1998, when 4,150 people died, most of them along the Yangtze River.