The Beijing Weather

[roddy]

Was it just me or was that the heaviest rain we've had in a looooooooooooong time . . .

[girlwonder]

I am currently like because of the rain! Thunder and lightning and everything! I've just checked the weather for Beijing for the next week and it's forecast to be pretty much the same.. my first week here and it's going to be MIIIIISERABLE. Damnit.

[roddy]

Welcome to Beijing in summer

Basically, the thunderstorms are the alternative to oppressive heat. You learn to love them. Wait till the rain's stopped and go out for food . . .

[heifeng]

Having spent a summer in Shanghai I am very much enjoying these Beijing storms and haven't even coughed up the money to buy an umbrella yet....The only bad part is walking through the mud...squish...squish....

Ok, since no one at my office wants to walk home yet I'm off to torture my coworker and make them revise my E=>C translation just to prove how much of a headache it is to fix other people's translations... mohahaha

[girlwonder]

Hmm I haven't yet experienced Beijing's oppressive heat yet but I'm sure I'll find out soon enough!

I haven't actually been walking around much yet, perhaps will do that tomorrow.. for now I think I'll just stay in the hotel and eat here.. I'm not really sure where to go or what to do!

[roddy]

Which hotel are you in?

I want to go out for a walk, but no umbrella . . . hmmmmmmmmmmmm

[badr]

Geez...

I just can't take the rain anymore. I think it's rained almost every day this month and it only seems to be getting worst. I remember visiting Beijing last summer and it was nowhere near this wet.

Where is the heat? where's the sun? :help

At least, I know that in 12 days, I'll be out of this bloody rain and up in the mountains where if I feel like getting wet, i'll jump in a lake.

[girlwonder]

roddy - I'm at the XiJiao hotel next to the BLCU.

It was pretty hot earlier today (on par with Seoul, I think, where I had flown in from) and I could handle it, it was okay but the rain?

[roddy]

Ah, would be a shame to stay in the hotel when you are that close to everything. Wait till the rain eases off (almost stopped here, I'm going to go out in a minute) and go sit in Sculpting in Time or Cava with a book - 10Y says you make three new friends and get five language exchange offers before bedtime. Or take a muddy walk round campus

[girlwonder]

Thanks Roddy for that piece of advice, I may pop out in a bit to Sculpting In Time (if I can find where it is! Haha).. haven't managed to find the address for Cava but perhaps I'll find it tomorrow.

We'll see if this rain eases off..

[roddy]

If you get to the Wudaokou crossing, just past where the light rail station crosses the road, you'll see a bunch of places - Lush, the O2 bookshop, Cava, Sculpting in Time stretching away to the south. You'll also see a bunch of shops and a supermarket towards the west. All fine places to while away an evening.

Right, I'm off to Xinjiekou for a bit of DVD shopping and quite possibly some fast food - photo updates guaranteed

[girlwonder]

Awesome, will do that tomorrow probably, I'm feeling a little worse for wear I think, all the travelling in the past week is getting to me! Thanks!

[roddy]

Fair enough, I made it to the ground and realised that while the rain might not be very heavy up here on the 22nd floor, it's picked up a hell of a lot of velocity by the time it reaches the bottom. So I came home. Plenty of DVDs I haven't watched here anyway.

Enjoy your jetlag.

[Shadowdh]

Rain... RAIN... thats a bloody typhoon... at least where we were in the summer palace... I managed to take refuge in on of the temple pagoda thingys on the back of the hill just as it started pissing down... two kindly ladies who were selling things prior to the storm yelled at me to come in and I werent arguing... then a Chinese family joined us and we braved out some pretty serious winds and very heavy rain (and did I feel at one point hail!!!) the water levels rose rather quickly... I must say that I enjoyed it a bit as I got to practice some Chinese and the family and ladies were very nice... still got incredibly soaked though... just made it home about 30 mins ago... hot shower something to eat and then some study... wow... just love Beijing...

[boomerang]

The rain definately caught me completely off guard, the afternoon had been so nice! Though I must say, getting lost in the hutongs around Liulichang made for a nice last date with my friend from 内蒙古 before she heads home tomorrow

[Josh-J]

Personally I like the rainstorms; that amount of thunder is pretty rare in the UK so it was good to watch, even though it did mean I had to wait in a bank lobby for ages for it to calm down a bit. Perhaps my opinion would be different if I had been here for longer

[gougou]

There also are good things about the rain, though: clean air and blue sky today, for instance!

[roddy]

It takes a bit of getting used to if you are from the UK, where it will just rain moderately all day. Personally I prefer it the Beijing way - you get plenty of warning from the color of the sky, it's fun to watch and all over in an hour or two. A couple of times early on I got caught out by thinking 'oh, it's going to rain - best take an umbrella', when that kind of rain pays no attention to umbrellas, it just bounces up off the pavement and still soaks you head to toe.

[girlwonder]

Yeah thinking back now I think the rain did some good.. because I went out around Wudaokou today and it was HOOOOOOTTTTTT. I nearly collapsed bringing shopping from Lotus Center because it was so hot and I underestimated how "far" the hotel was from the place. Haha.

I found the O2 bookshop and Lush as well, so perhaps I'll go check that out later this evening.

[Josh-J]

Yeah thinking back now I think the rain did some good

That depends if you enjoy the bright blinding sun straining your eyes, and swealtering heat..