Goodbye blue skies?

I took this shot from the plane on the way to Chengdu thinking that it might be the last blue sky I'd see for a very long time. And sure enough, when we got here skies were a pretty grubby greyish colour and you could just about make out the sun beyond the murk.

But, as we turn toward autumn, the temperature is gradually falling and we've had a couple of torrential downpours. I was caught in the first of these, a refreshing kind of shower to take the sting out of the summer heat until, that is, the rainwater got in my eyes. Boy, did it sting!

Down the road (a couple of hundred miles) they'll be grateful for any wet stuff in Chongqing which has suffered its worst drought in years. Temperatures topped 40 degrees at the height of the summer and the glass panes on its skyscrapers began to crack. I believe that there too the worst of the summer is over although it'll take a while for river levels to return to normal.

But, after the rains, the skies have cleared here in Chengdu and we've had some beautiful days. No longer do we need the airco on constantly and there's even a little chill in the air of a morning as we head toward the back end of the year.

They don't put air conditioners in the homes in the north of China, just central heating. Down here, it's the other way round. I'm starting to wonder just how cold things could get...