Delivery service makes life cooler in Beijing

Zhou Yuan, a 28-year-old Beijinger, got McDonald's delivered to his home this weekend, though he usually keeps away from fast food.

"I can't stand the scorching heat outside, otherwise I would go eat at the restaurants nearby," he said .

As the searing heat wave in Beijing that started on the weekend continues, many, especially the young, have chosen to get their meals delivered, as well as other stuff they need, so they could relax in their air-conditioned apartments while outside temperatures hit record high.

Beijing reported an average temperature of 40.3 degrees Celsius at 4 p.m. Monday, the highest temperature in the first 10 days of July in 50 years.

At a small restaurant called Jingyundou adjacent to three college campuses, the manager said the phone never ceased ringing over the past two days, all calls being for home delivery. "We are running out of delivery boys," he said.

He said now they had 40 to 50 more orders than average days, even though most college students had left campus for the summer vacation.

At an outlet of a Chinese fast food chain restaurant, Jiaheyipin, the boss surnamed Wang said their 3 delivery boys could not handle the current workload, so they hired two more. He said, "For lunch, usually nobody made phone calls after 1:00 p.m., but now the phone calls were queued till 2:00 p.m."
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