How hot can the summer be in China? Just take a look at these pictures:

At 12:54 pm on July 30, in an experiment, a piece of bacon was put in a frying pan which was placed on the road by Shanghai Xujiahui Center (上海徐家汇中心). In about 80 minutes, the bacon was cooked well-done. During the whole process, the ground surface temperature remained over 60 C. The highest temperature that day in Shanghai was 39 C. Photo: weibo.com

A lorry carrying a truckload of fresh fish capsized on the highway near Zhenjiang in Jiangsu Province (江苏省镇江市) on July 29. Most of the fish got baked alive before they could be picked up. Photo: weibo.com

July 28, in Chongqing’s Pianyan County (重庆市偏岩镇), the heat drives people to the river where they set up tents and tables and eat with their bare feet in the water. On the hottest days as many as 300 dining tables could be seen on the bank of the river. Photo: weibo.com

On July 29, in Loudi, Hunan Province (湖南省娄底市), while preparing dinner, one Ms. Xie noticed something strange in an egg she just cracked. A closer look startled her as the thing turned out to be a half-hatched chick. She cracked more eggs and found all of them in the same condition. “The weather has turned the room into an incubator,” said Ms. Xie. Photo: weibo.com

The Chinese have taken after the Brits as #the weather# (yes, you need two hash tags to mark a topic on Weibo) has become a hot topic on China’s most popular microblogging platform. And if you hear a Chinese talking about “a pinch of cumin”, don’t make the mistake of thinking he is talking about food. In fact, it is the latest Chinese slang for hot weather, which makes people feel as if they were being cooked alive. "Just add a pinch of cumin, voilà, you are ready to be served," quipped one Weibo user.

Hot weather is making people do all sorts of crazy things, too. On July 31 in Nanjing, a 40 something swindler tried one of his usual tricks to make money: he threw himself to a truck, faked a fall, and claimed to have been hit by the driver. Though everyone saw through this pathetic show the man put on, he refused to get up and laid motionless on the ground for about 20 minutes. When the policeman came, the man admitted that it was so hot on the ground that he felt too dizzy to stand up...

A Weibo user claimed that this is what happened five minutes after a basket of eggs were dropped on the pavement. Photo: weibo.com

In disbelief, a man decided to see for himself whether eggs could be fried on the sun-baked road. So he picked the hottest spot on the road at two in the afternoon to do his experiment. After an hour and a half, the egg was still uncooked. He, however, suffered a heatstroke and was sent to the hospital...

Lastly, take a look at this...

Wuhan's Water Park on July 15, 2013. If people are willing to go for a swim in this condition... Photo: weibo.com