Shenzhen is expected to suffer a heat wave with temperatures set to rise to 35 degrees Celsius or more this weekend, according to the city's observatory.

A ridge of high pressure over South China has brought fine and hot weather to the city over the past two weeks.

The city would remain sunny and hot as the ridge hung over South China over the next few days, the observatory said.

The maximum temperature in the city reached 34 degrees Celsius on Thursday.

Influenced by a westerly tropical storm that formed on the western Pacific waters July 12, maximum temperatures in the city were likely to rise to 35 degrees Celsius or above with scattered showers and thunderstorms this Saturday and Sunday, the city's observatory said.

The city's observatory issued a high temperature warning, the first this year, when the maximum temperature reached 35 degrees Celsius on July 11.

According to the observatory, the highest temperature ever recorded in the city's history was 38 degrees Celsius on July 10, 1980.

The observatory advises residents to take precautions against sunstroke in consecutive sunny and hot days.

There was a sharp increase of tourists in the Xiaomeisha seashore resort village due to the heat wave, according to the village's general manger Liu Xianxue.

Liu said there were 5,000 to 6,000 people at the beach on each of the weekend days on average with most of them entering the village at night to avoid the heat in daytime.

The percentage of patients who suffered sunstroke, cold or other respiratory tract diseases also increased by 20 to 30 percent in the city's major hospitals such as Shenzhen Children's Hospital, Shenzhen People's Hospital and Beijing University Shenzhen Hospital.

Residents are advised to open their windows to ventilate after they have stayed in air-conditioned rooms for two hours and above.

(Shenzhen Daily July 15, 2005)