[China Maxxing] The Weather We're Having Now Is Called Dashu

Dashu (大暑, dàshǔ), or Major Heat, is the 12th of the 24 solar terms and marks the hottest stretch of the year across much of China. It's also the last solar term of summer – a kind of high-water mark before the heat (supposedly!) begins to break.

What It Feels Like Right Now

This year, Dashu falls on Thursday, July 23. The plum rains are behind us, but so is the relief they brought. That means longer stretches of uninterrupted sunshine, less cloud cover, and daytime highs that regularly push past 35°C (though the heat index climbs well beyond that). It's the humidity that makes this time of year truly oppressive – even a short walk can leave your clothes clinging to your back.

Sudden afternoon thunderstorms are still common, bringing brief bursts of heavy rain that rarely cool things down for long. Dashu also falls squarely within typhoon season, when tropical systems can bring anything from a couple of grey, muggy days to heavier rain and stronger winds, depending on their path.

Things People Do (Or Used to Do) During This Term

Drinking fu tea (伏茶, fúchá): Dashu often overlaps with the middle of the sanfu (三伏, sānfú), the hottest days of the year according to the traditional calendar. A cooling herbal tea brewed from a mixture that can include honeysuckle, self-heal (夏枯草, xiàkūcǎo), chrysanthemum, licorice root, and other botanicals is a common sight in neighborhood pharmacies and old-fashioned beverage shops.

Eating "fu" foods: In different parts of China, people also eat seasonal dishes believed to help the body cope with the heat. In Shanghai and across the Yangtze River Delta, cooling mung bean soup, red bean soup, and chilled desserts become seasonal staples.

Sun-drying ginger (晒伏姜, shài fújiāng): In parts of northern China, particularly Shanxi and Henan, ginger is mixed with brown sugar and left to dry under the summer sun during the sanfu period. The preserved ginger is later stirred into hot water; it's believed to help balance the effects of excessive cold foods and air conditioning.

What's In Season Right Now

Watermelon reaches its peak during Major Heat, along with fragrant peaches and locally grown grapes that become increasingly abundant as the season progresses. Cantaloupe, Hami melon, and figs also begin appearing more regularly in fruit markets.

On the vegetable side, fresh lotus root (藕, ǒu) is now prevalent in wet markets – young enough at this point in the season to eat raw or barely cooked, with a crisp, watery bite that develops into a starchier, denser texture better suited to soups and braises later in the year.

Water caltrop (菱角, língjiǎo) also starts appearing at wet markets around now. The distinctive horn-shaped pods are usually boiled, then cracked open and eaten for their mildly sweet, chestnut-like flavor. Winter melon, bitter melon, and okra are still in season, doing the same heat-clearing, digestion-friendly work they've been doing since Xiaoshu (Minor Heat).