River bottoms reduced to cracked earth attract the curious, some taking selfies on the sun-baked expanse exposed by the receding waters. Farmers lament their yellowed rice stalks, their famed hot pepper plants bereft of almost all fruit, their dry reservoirs.
The very landscape of Chongqing, a megacity that also takes in surrounding farmland and steep and picturesque mountains, has been transformed by an unusually long and intense heat wave and an accompanying drought.
Chinese meteorologists are calling it the nation’s strongest heat wave since record keeping began in 1961, based on its intensity, geographic area and duration. Now into its third month, it has surpassed the previous record of 61 days in 2013. Temperatures are topping 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in cities and villages across southern China. Chongqing in the southwest has been hit particularly hard.
At Longquan village in the rolling hills south of urban Chongqing, a…
