Cicadas are the soundtrack to my summers in Asia. In Korea the local kids would try to catch them out of the trees. When we arrived in Beijing last August, the cicadas were almost deafeningly loud. And now they are back. Cycling back from our local cafe two weeks ago (and supermarket- yes we now have a supermarket in our area again!), the roads were lined with trees and I heard the first chirp of this year’s cicadas. Justin doesn’t care for it but I find something comforting in their endless 24 hour singing! Now the roar is becoming louder, I know Summer is well and truly here.
They aren’t the only summer sounds of Beijing. There’s a bird that flies around near our apartment. He makes a sound that I’ve never heard from a bird before. It’s most like a British cuckoo if a cuckoo sang three notes instead of two. But I have no idea what it is. I’m convinced there is only one of these birds as I have never heard two sing at once. I’ve asked around and no one can tell me what it is. All I know is that he starts singing at the crack of dawn and seems to sit outside my window.
There are other unknown noises in suburban Beijing too. There are parts of the city which were countryside not long ago. You can still see shepherds tending to their nomadic flock of sheep in amongst the tress and the American style housing compounds. Buzzes and croaks and cheeps and clicks and squeaks. And the dreaded hum of the mosquito. Mosquitos are back and putting on repellant is now a several times daily ritual for me (why do I taste so sweet?).
Thunder and rain have arrived too. Apparently Beijing doesn’t have a proper rainy season like Seoul or Tokyo, but we’ve had rain several times in the last few weeks which is a lot more than we had for most of the last year. The thunder and lightening are amazing in Beijing. Rather than the low rumbles we have in England, in Beijing you hear huge cracking noises so loud you jump.
It’s been hot here over the last few weeks. We even had a few days at 40+c (over 100f) two weeks ago. I took the most horrific taxi ride of my life (that’s saying something for Beijing) in the 41C dry dessert heat. There was no AC so the windows were open but that just made my face burn from the boiling hot wind! I’ve lived in hot places before (Valencia, Venezuela is pretty hot for one) but this was an entirely different kind of heat. There was no humidity, only a scolding feeling of being in an oven. Luckily, the weather has calmed down and the humidity has risen slightly. Now it’s a much more manageable 32 degrees C. On Monday the temperature only reached about 29C and I mentioned to my Chinese colleague I was feeling cold! That must be a sign I’m definitely settled in Beijing now.
I’m British and I love to talk about the weather. So tell me, what’s the weather like where you are? is it rainy season? Is the UK in for another beautiful Sumemr like last year or a damp one like most of the other years?