Last updated at 07:52 04 August 2006

Somewhere under that lot, there's a beach. This was the astonishing scene yesterday in the northern Chinese resort of Quindao as an estimated 200,000 people flocked to be beside the seaside as temperatures soared.

As they clamoured to get near the water,

almost every grain of sand was covered - so packed that even a German tourist would be unable to put his towel down to claim a spot.

But summer in China is as unpredictable as here - in southern China, meanwhile, a typhoon was causing havoc.