Summer in China: the plum rains, the 38°C days and how to travel Shanghai and Beijing in June, July and August anyway

We are honest about summer: it is the fourth of China’s four seasons for the eastern cities, hot and wet in a way Melbourne never is, and the one we steer guests away from when the dates are flexible. Some dates are not flexible, the Australian winter school holidays in July fall in the middle of it, and a summer trip done knowingly is still a good trip. The spring, autumn and winter guides make the case for those seasons; this one makes the most of this one.

The three summers

June: the plum rains. From mid-June to early July the Meiyu front sits over the Yangtze delta and Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou get three weeks of grey, humid, on-and-off rain at 25 to 30°C; the plums ripen, the mould grows, and the umbrellas come out. Beijing is dry and hot, 30 to 35°C, with its best clear skies of the summer. Early June, before the front arrives, is often lovely in Shanghai.

July: the furnace. The rains clear around 10 July and the heat arrives: Shanghai 33 to 38°C with 70 per cent humidity, Beijing 32 to 36°C with afternoon thunderstorms, and both cities’ nights barely below 28°C. This is the Australian school-holiday fortnight, and it is the hardest two weeks of the year to walk around a palace.

August: the same, with typhoons. August is July with a risk of a typhoon brushing Shanghai once or twice a season, bringing a day or two of heavy rain and cancelled flights, then clearing; and with the lotus in full flower on every lake. The last ten days of August begin to soften.

The best time guide has the year.

Building a day around the heat

The summer day in China has a shape, and the locals keep it: out at 6.30 or 7 am when it is 26°C and the parks are full (the parks guide); the one big outdoor sight done by 10.30; indoors from 11 to 4 (the museums, the malls, the tea houses, the hotel pool, a long lunch, a nap, which is a Chinese institution); out again at 5 for the evening, which in summer runs to midnight: the Bund, the night markets, the river cruise, the beer gardens, the lit gardens of Suzhou, the Summer Palace’s evening opening. A guide builds every summer day this way, and it halves the discomfort. The nights guide has the evening; the rainy day guide covers the plum-rain afternoons.

The sights in summer

The Forbidden City has no shade and 40°C paving by noon: be at the gate at 8.30 and out by 11. The Wall at Mutianyu is cooler than the city by a few degrees and shaded in the towers; go first thing or late afternoon, and the cable car up is non-negotiable. The Suzhou gardens are at their most lush and their pavilions were designed for exactly this weather; the lotus in their ponds is the point. West Lake’s north shore is a sea of lotus; a boat at dusk is the summer Hangzhou, as the two-day Hangzhou guide suggests. The Summer Palace was built as a summer escape and the lake breeze works. The Terracotta Warriors’ halls are covered and cooler.

The refuges

The mountains: Huangshan at 1,800 m is 10°C cooler than Shanghai and summer is its clearest season after a storm (the Huangshan guide); Moganshan, the bamboo-forested hill resort two hours from Shanghai where the 1930s Shanghainese and foreigners built their summer villas, is now boutique hotels and pools and is the single best summer add-on; Lushan and the Yunnan plateau further afield. The water towns at dusk, the indoor food streets, and the hotel pool, which in summer is a reason to choose the hotel; the where to stay guides note the ones with pools.

What to wear and carry

Light, loose, quick-drying clothes; a hat; a folding umbrella, which the Chinese use for sun as much as rain; a small towel; electrolyte sachets; sunscreen from home (the packing guide says why); and a light layer for the air-conditioning, which is fierce in every mall, train and restaurant. Convenience stores sell cold water, iced tea and ice cream on every corner; the supermarkets guide covers them. Heat rash, sunburn and dehydration are the summer clinic visits, as the healthcare guide notes.

Children in summer

The July school holidays bring families, and the heat is harder on small children than on adults: prams in 36°C are miserable, and the baby guide is blunt about it. The answers are the morning-evening shape, a pool hotel, Disneyland on a weekday with the indoor rides and the water play area (the Disneyland guide), the water towns by boat, the aquarium and the science museums, and Moganshan. Teenagers cope better and like the night markets, as the teenagers guide says.

The typhoon question

One or two a season affect Shanghai between July and September, usually as a day of heavy rain and wind rather than a disaster; flights and trains are cancelled for the day, sights close, and the city reopens the next morning. Travel insurance covers the disruption; a guide watches the forecast three days out and swaps the Suzhou day for a museum day. The safety guide has the sense of proportion.

A summer week that works

Tell us your dates on the contact page; if they are July, we will build the days around the heat and say frankly which sights to drop. Summer China is a trip of early mornings, long lunches and late nights, which is not the worst way to travel.