Scorching heat has baked northern and eastern China since July 1, leading to an increase in ambulance calls and sending hundreds of people to hospitals with heat-related illnesses.

The municipalities of Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing, and Hebei, Henan, Shandong and Jiangxi provinces all issued heat-wave alert warnings as temperatures soared up to 40 C on Wednesday.

He Lifu, chief forecaster of the National Meteorological Center, told China Daily on Wednesday that temperatures in the affected areas should cool by the end of the week. “The heat wave is expected to move south, with rainfall coming around Friday in the north,” He said.