We are flying to Weihai 威海 this morning. I wake up earlier than before to get the new Hongqiao Airport Terminal 2. On the way, I took some picture of the rare blue sky of Shanghai.

After paying attention the pattern of blue sky in Shanghai, I found out it is a rule that whenever there are wind from the sea (south-east wind), Shanghai will be very beautiful, especially after a typhoon.

P.S. I am in Weihai, and had two wonderful sea-food meals already.

We went to Qingdao and we really loved it. We want to visit somewhere near Qingdao in area. It turned out Weihai is not another Qingdao.

Typhoon is coming to Shanghai tomorrow. It will be the first day Yifan go to kindergarten. His teacher in kindergarten sent us SMS that the kindergarten will be closed tomorrow due to typhoon. So, Yifan has one more day at home before he can play his favorite cars in his classroom.

Take care, my friends, if you are in Shanghai or southeast coast of China.

After a week of incredibly nice weather, and beautiful sky, Shanghai returned to its gray, hot, and humid nature of summers.

Currently, the temperature of Shanaghai is 35°C, and humidity is 53%. I often pay more attention to temperature (well, this time, the visit to US enforced my attention to this metrics), but generally ignore humidity.

What does 53% means? I need to find out later. According to Wikipedia article on Humidity, “Shanghai and Hong Kong in China also have a extreme humid period in their summer months”. It is talking about weather like today. The 6km SW wind does not help at all.

Visiting Shanghai these days? Bad choice.

P.S. I am still keeping the sleep early and raise early theme after getting back to the States. The jet lag on the way back always helped to keep me an early raiser for a week or two before I return to my normal status. The key learning is, the only way to raise early is to go to bed early enough that you cannot fall asleep easily (an indicator that you slept early enough).

It rains all day today. Not today, it rains all the time in the last few weeks, and we expect it to rain every day in the next few weeks too.

It is called the Meiyu Season (or Rainy Season). It is a two-month long period of time around the Yangtz River that it rains almost everyday without significant pause in between. This is maybe the toughest time for many new visitors to this region – it is even more terrible than hot summer or cold winter. I call it wet world.

The Meiyu, or Rainy Season

The season typically last from June to late July in Shanghai. The rainy season is called Meiyu because “Yu” means rain, and Mei means “ume plum”. Since the rain arrives exactly as the season of havest of ume plums, it is called Ume Plum Rain in Chinese.

I have 5 big ume plums tree before my garden, and I can see the ume on the tree. When it turned red, I know the rain is coming.

More Rain to Come

During the rainy season in Shanghai, don’t panic. It won’t be heavy rain at all – just those tiny small rain drops coming down all the time. It is annoying though, but what we can do?

The other day, when I went to my car, I just realized there are many mushrooms growing out of the grassland on the way… A sign of arrival of very wet season, isn’t it?

There is one thing we should be happy about – you can enjoy wonderful Ume fruits although it is raining outside!

I completely have no idea when the hot summer of Shanghai will be over. Recently, everyday when I step out of my room, the hot (extremely hot air) reminds me of what was shown in the film An Inconvenient Truth. Shanghai broke track record of extreme hot weather in the last century, many times!

Poor visitors! If you are in Shanghai, I promise you Shanghai isn’t always so terrible to live, and there are some days better than today. Do come again at other time. These days, Shanghai is just like a hot spot, and the air is burning my nose.

So, to remind people that there are cool days (acturally cold days) in Shanghai, let me post a photo I took back in Dec 29, 2004 of the heavy snow in Shanghai. We just got back from our long trip in New York at that time, and Shanghai was not THAT cold, and we were very happy about it.

Feeling cool now?

This is Wang Jian Shuo’s weather station, broadcasting from Shanghai. :-)

Just kidding. I know many people will come to Shanghai recently. You can imagine how frequently I receive emails to tell me they are coming to Shanghai and with exact date. I wish I have a public calendar to mark my reader’s trip to Shanghai, so people can share information, and best of all, ask those who just returned about timely information, like weather or the status of Xiangyang Market. You may not always get the latest information on my site. Some information is 2 years or three years old. How I wish I could help to add updates to those entries. I simply cannot do it.

Back to the topic, I have the impression that July will be the month with more visitors than other month. This is only from my very limited survey pool. So let me tell you something important – the weather.

I am sorry, but I have to tell you, July is not good time to visit Shanghai, if it is not the worst time.

About one week ago, Shanghai officially entered the rainy season. By using “official”, I mean media reported that all metrics show the rainy season arrived. Shanghai will be humid and hot in the next month. The season is expected to end on July 9.

Recently, it is really hot, and hotter every day. It is 33 C today, 34 C tomorrow, and 35 C the day after tomorrow.

So here is my suggestion:

1. Don’t worry. Most places have air/con, and you won’t suffer too much. For example, it is very cold in my office, and I have to put on my jacket.

2. Don’t bring any heavy and warm clothes. No worry. Definitely not useful.

3. Prepare to buy umbrella. It may be a better idea to buy one locally. Anyway, you will need it.

If you have more question about weather, feel free to post. Have a great trip in Shanghai!

From Friday night till tonight, Shanghai is experiencing Typhoon. For me, it is a pleasant experience – the wind goes up and it rains heavily these two days. I was not able to go out yesterday and today, when I checked out Goudaner, it is completely a new car – the rain washed the car completely – I have never seen a car washer that clean it so completely. Shanghai is lucky. Every time Typhoon comes, it majorly brings fresh air, cools down the hot weather. There are some smaller accidents caused by the Typhoon in the city, but it is still much better than cities in Zhejiang.

All flights were delayed by differenet degrees. Wendy is back from Lijiang today. I drove to Hongqiao airport to pick her up. Her flight was delayed only by 40 minutes, while most other flights were delayed without a determined time. However, the last minute, it was announced Wendy’s flight arrived in Pudong Airport – the other airport. So I get back home with an empty car.

OMG. Shanghai has never been so hot. My last memory of such weather is around 1995.

Wendy posted some pictures in Seattle after her trip there. She was so happy that Marriott sent her camera that lost in one hotel to the other free of charge.

(actually, this should be an OOB)….

Shanghai is hot. Today is, maybe, the tenth hot day without any rain. The temperature is consistently above 35°C. Yesterday and the day before yesterday are all 37°C. This morning, the weather station issued red alarm for high temperature again – the red alarm rings every day.

According to the government’s regulation, all lightening system outside buildings are required to turn off if temperature is higher than 35°C. This is part of the effort to fight against the energy crisis. The Bund and the Oriental Pearl Tower are deeply affected.

Can you imagine if the lights on the Bund are all turned off at night, how it looks?

Image taken by Edward Wang. More Bund pictures can be found at Edward Wang’s On the Bund Album

Tourists are complaining about it. Some even sued the tour agent and asked for compensation for the lack of the view during their stop in Shanghai.

If you want to come to Shanghai, don’t come here now. It is toooooo hot. I cannot imagine a tour in the city at noon.

P.S. Claire hosted her blog at my site https://home.wangjianshuo.com/claire

Around 6:15 yesterday, I stood at the lobby of Metro Tower, waiting for Wendy to go home together. I waited for about 5 minutes, felt boring and started to browse the free travel magazines on the reception’s counter. I even noticed the cheap tour package as low as 999 RMB, including round trip flight + 4 night of hotel – just incredible. I guess they must have great ways to make the money back from the rebate of all goods their customers buy in Hong Kong.

It looks nice outside and there is no hint for storm at all. Around 6:20, when Wendy shown up at the elevator, in just few seconds, almost everyone started to look straightly to outside the window and some opened their mouth widely. This surprised me. I turned and saw something I never seen before. It rained heavily outside and the sky out of the big window in the lobby turned completely white – I thought the rain of June 24 was the heaviest in Shanghai. I am obviously wrong when I see how the water splashed down to earth yesterday.

From the News

I didn’t know how destructive the storm was. Today, my father chatted with me and asked about the storm. I said I didn’t notice it – I thought there was a bigger storm at night. Soon, Wendy’s mother also checked with her to see if there is any damage to our home. Then I started to realize the storm is noticed by the media, and our parents who are not in Shanghai also know about it. I checked Sina and found some astonishing news. Seven people died and 20 wounded (Chinese site) in the storm.

After the Storm

The storm lasted for about 20 minutes and when I drove my car out of the underground garage, the wind and storm became weaker. 20 more minutes later, the rain completely stopped. Water is still kept on the elevated highway and cars ran very slow. Here are some pictures Wendy took when I drove our car home.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

The Tian Yao Qiao Road, driving southward.

Photograph by Wendy Fan

Photograph by Wendy Fan

The elevated highway at the Wan Ping Road entrance.

Photograph by Wendy Fan

Wow. Typhoon Mindulle hits Shanghai today!

I happened to drive to Beijing Road from Pudong around 10:00 AM today. It started to rain. Soon, it became super heavy rain. I shifted my windscreen wiper to the fastest but still cannot see the car before me clearly. I felt my car was running at the bottom of sea, like a submarine. There is a long tail of splashed water after every car. The whole city looked so strange when I passed the Nanpu Bridge – like those in oil-painting.

At night, the wind became stronger and stronger. I sat before the window and watched the huge trees outside swinging back and forth. I have bind all the two small trees to the fence tightly so they will not get hurt in the typhoon.

Unlike Taiwan and Fujian, people in Shanghai seem to love typhoon. It cools down the whole city but does not bring too much trouble as it does in other places.

Shanghai enters the rainy season these days. I can expect 2 month long of raining days. Now, it rains heavily outside, from yesterday night, to this morning, till now. I will expect it to rain the whole night again till tomorrow morning, and maybe continue to rain….

In short, I mean we have to say goodbye to sunny days in Shanghai temporally for about 2 months. It is like the weather of Seattle in winter. The cloths never dry in these days. It is called Mei Yu in Chinese, or Berry Rain because it is the season for harvest of berry. The cold air and the warm air counterstrike on the Yangtze River before the warm air moves northward. So it rains everyday. This is what I learnt on geography text book.

Note: I will be OOB (Out of Blogging) from tomorrow till next Tuesday (namely SAT, SUN, MON). I am going out town this weekend so I will access Internet during the time. I will update you about the trip when I am back.

Shanghai Continue to be Hot – Exteremly Hot

The whether broadcast reported 39 degree C in Shanghai today. What? It is crazy. That is already 100+ degees F. I want out to transfer money between bank accounts this noon and feels like chicken on the frying pan. It is burning outside.

Shanghai Scenery

I think to post some Shanghai street scenery photos here will be more interesting than explain the daily life myself. I don’t have the current Shanghai photos. Here are some photo I took during the sunney winter weekend at the end of the year 2002 (in Novemember).

Below: The Hong Kong plaza. It is still under construction at that time and it should have opened already now. The greenish lower building at the right most is the famous Shui On Plaza. It is No. 333 Huai Hai Zhong Road, Shanghai, PRC. :-) Famous company like IBM and other consulting companies put their office there.

© Jian Shuo Wang

Below three: these ugly buildings are residential buildings. The were build just along the north-south elvelated highway. The road you see is elevated about 15 meters higher. The traffic is not heavy in Sunday. It may be a mess (as I would call it, the elevated car park) in rush hours.

© Jian Shuo Wang

© Jian Shuo Wang

© Jian Shuo Wang

© Jian Shuo Wang

Below: The Lupu Bridge was under construction. I has opened to traffic last month.

© Jian Shuo Wang

Shanghai is changing everyday and I believe when I take photos exactly at the same location, the scene will be different. Enjoy.

Oh. My God. The weather these two weeks is crazy. Very hot – It is reported 35 degree C recenlty. The actual Feel-like temperature should be even higher. There is no way to walk outdoors. In my memory, Shanghai hasn’t been so hot in the recent years – expect the year of 1995, when it was still exteremely hot in Sept.

My personal suggestion is, if anyone want to come to Shanghai recently, reconsider your plan. It is really too hot. I cannot survive without A/C now. :-)