Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (
Wen suggested government offices set air conditioners' temperature to no lower than 26?C to set an example for the rest of society and advised officials to don thin clothes instead of Western-style suits and neckties, the Xinhua news agency said.
Government buildings should not turn on their lights during the daytime and definitely not keep them on throughout the night, said Wen in a recent speech at a national teleconference.
Hundreds of people have been hospitalized in Shanghai as a record-shattering heatwave showed no signs of letting up yesterday, straining already stretched power resources.
The thermometer hit 39?C on Sunday, making it a record ninth straight day above 35?C and the hottest July 3 in the city since 1873.
The sweltering heat has strained power supplies as air-conditioners were turned up to maximum, but hundreds, mostly elderly, were hospitalized with heat stroke and breathing difficulties.
Over 600 ambulances have been dispatched each day, the Shanghai Daily reported. No deaths, however, have been reported.
Residents of the city of 17 million will have to endure the hot, humid temperatures at least until tomorrow when meteorologists have forecast partial relief from expected rainstorms, the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau said.
China is bracing for electricity shortages this summer which are expected to be worse than last year, when the country experienced the worst shortfalls since the 1980s.
So far this year, 24 of China's 31 provinces and provincial-level administrative units have experienced power cuts.
Widescale rationing of energy and closures of factories are expected in some areas.
In the speech, Wen also called for deeper changes -- such as rethinking China's whole style of economic development and going down a "new road of industrialization."
Acknowledging the devastation the past two decades of rapid economic growth have wrought on the environment and resources, Wen said China must quicken the pace of building a "resources-saving society."
"This has a bearing on China's economic and social progress and the prosperity of the Chinese nation, and is a policy of strategic importance concerning the overall situation," Wen said.
"While promoting economic growth, we must strengthen environmental protection and improvement so that our people can drink clean water, breathe fresh air, have safe food and work and live in a sound environment."
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