High temperature in north China will decline in two days, said Chinese Meteorological Administration on Thursday.

From Saturday on, most parts of the scorched north will receive rainfalls, after having suffered from high temperatures for about a week, said Jiao Meiyan, director of the National Meteorological Center under Chinese Meteorological Administration.

The temperature in most parts of north China has reported temperature about one degree Celsius higher than the average figure in the previous years from the beginning of June.

High temperature hit most parts in north China, including Hebei Province, Shanxi Province, Henan Province, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, in the past week.

Many cities, including Beijing, reported electricity and water shortage as the citizens have turned on their air conditioners and used more water amid heat waves.

In the southwest, the government of Chongqing announced they would open underground air-raid shelters for residents without airconditioning to take refuge from the heat.

The rain belt will move northwards, and the flood in south China will be relieved remarkably from next Tuesday on, Jiao said.

Among the rainstorm-plagued areas, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region was one of them. Wuzhou, a city in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, reported the most serious rainfall in the past century. The flood peak of Xijiang River, a branch of south China's Pearl River, passed Wuzhou safely Thursday afternoon.   

(Xinhua News Agency June 24, 2005)