Latest news with #dormitory
BBC News
09-07-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
Chinese students sleep off heatwave in libraries and tents
As Chinese authorities issue warnings for extreme heat in the country's eastern region, students are leaving their stuffy dormitories to camp in hallways and have ditched their campuses altogether."We sometimes go out to stay in hotels for the air-conditioning," a 20-year-old university student in the northeastern Changchun city, who declined to be named, tells the BBC. "There are always a few days in a year where it's unbearably hot."Hotels have become popular among students seeking to avoid sweaty nights in their dormitories, which typically house four to eight people a room and do not have air for many the move is a last resort. "Checking into a hotel is a huge expense for us students," the student in Changchun says. So on less desperate days, he perches a bowl of ice cubes in front of a small fan to cool down his dormitory room - what he calls "a homemade air-conditioner". The invention has tided him over as the semester ended this sanfu season, known to be China's "dog days", usually starts in mid-July. But it arrived early this year, with temperatures in the eastern region soaring above 40C (104F) over the past week - and catching millions of residents off guard. Concerns about the high temperatures spiralled after reports that a dormitory guard had died in his room at Qingdao University on Sunday - from what many believed to be cause of death was "under investigation", said a statement released by the university on Monday. It said that he had been found in his room in an "abnormal condition" and pronounced dead when paramedics arrived at the quickly poured in for the man, known endearingly among students as the dormitory "uncle" who took care of stray cats on the campus."The kittens don't know that Uncle has gone far away. After today it met a lot of people, but never heard Uncle's voice again," a Weibo user incident has also cast a spotlight on the living conditions of the school's staff and students. Also on Sunday, a student in the same university was sent to the hospital after suffering a heat stroke, Jimu News reported."The quality of a university does not lie in how many buildings it has, but rather how it treats the regular people who quietly support the school's operation," wrote another Weibo user. In recent weeks China has been dealing with extreme weather - a worldwide phenomenon that experts have linked to climate authorities issued flash flood warnings on Wednesday after a typhoon made landfall on China's eastern coast. The storm, which killed two in Taiwan this week, and has moved across the Chinese provinces of Zhejiang and the other side of the country, floods swept away a bridge linking Nepal and China. At least nine died and more than a dozen- both Nepalese and Chinese nationals - remain heatwaves in China have become hotter and 2022, particularly gruelling heat caused more than 50,000 deaths, according to estimates by medical journal The Lancet. The following year saw a township in Xinjiang, northwestern China, logging 52.5C - the highest recorded temperature in China.2024 was China's warmest year on record, with July becoming the hottest month the country has seen since it started tracking temperatures in 1961."It feels like global warming has really affected our world," says the university student in Changchun. "When I was young the summers in the northeast were really comfortable. But now the summers are getting hotter and hotter." This year, high temperatures again tested the limits of residents. Last week, a video showed a man in Zhejiang province smashing the window of a train to let air in, after the train derailed and passengers were stuck for hours in the sweltering heat. In the neighbouring Jiangxi province, an air-conditioned restaurant has become a hotspot for elderly folks to while away their afternoons without ordering any food - to the chagrin of restaurant staff, local media the northeastern Jilin province, university students reportedly slept in tents lining an air-conditioned after reports emerged of students in Shandong province squatting in supermarkets and checking into nearby hotels to escape the heat, a university arranged for its students to sleep in the library, Hongxing News schools in Shandong province have announced plans to make their dormitories air-conditioned - an increasingly indispensable has accounted for more than a third of the demand on the power grid in eastern China, China's energy authorities said, as nationwide electricity demand reached a record high in early University officials told local media on Monday that it also had plans to install air-conditioning in student dormitories over the summer is just what one high school student in Jinan city, 350km away, needed to teenager, who had just completed his college entrance examinations, tells the BBC that he had been hesitant to go to Qingdao University - his top choice - because of its dormitories."Without air-conditioning, it's too hot to survive," he says.
Reuters
07-07-2025
- Climate
- Reuters
Students shelter in libraries as heatwave hits eastern China
BEIJING, July 7 (Reuters) - Universities in eastern China scrambled to upgrade their dorms with air conditioning, and one let students sleep in cooler libraries, after near record temperatures raised concerns about the health of students and staff. One student at Qingdao University in Shandong suffered from heat stroke, and the school would upgrade its student accommodation over the summer break, Jimu News, an arm of state-run Hubei Daily, reported. One member of staff there died on Sunday morning after showing signs of "physical distress", the university said, without saying whether that was linked to the heatwave. The staff member was a dormitory supervisor, Jimu News said. A total of 28 locations across central Henan and eastern Shandong provinces issued their most severe alerts for extreme heat on Monday. Parts of the coastal city of Qingdao saw temperatures soar to 40.5 degrees Celsius (104.9 degrees Fahrenheit) over the weekend, just 0.5C below the highest recorded there since records began in 1961, according to the official Qingdao Daily. Qingdao University, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters, was one of at least six colleges in Shandong to announce plans to upgrade student accommodation in recent days. Yantai Nanshan University, also in Shandong, said on Monday it would let students stay overnight in libraries as it prepared to work on the student halls. Video footage posted by Jimu News showed scores of students sitting on the floor in air-conditioned supermarkets to escape the heat. The heatwave has piled pressure onto China's power grid. The national electricity load surged to a record 1.47 billion kilowatts on Friday as demand for air conditioning spiked, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The announcements will fuel concerns over Chinese institutions' preparedness for extreme weather events, which scientists say are exacerbated by global warming. In 2022, China was hit by the worst heatwaves since 1961, with many parts enduring a 79-day hot spell from mid-June to late August. According a 2023 report published in the medical journal The Lancet, there were about 50,900 heatwave-related deaths in China that year. No official death toll was disclosed at the time. China does not provide regular tallies of heat-related deaths.
Malay Mail
04-07-2025
- Malay Mail
Electrician jailed in Singapore for biting off co-worker's earlobe in drunken dormitory fight
SINGAPORE, July 4 — A 21-year-old electrician was sentenced to six months in jail in Singapore yesterday after biting off part of his co-worker's earlobe during a drunken altercation in a Kallang dormitory. The Straits Times reported that Senthilkumar Vishnusakthi had pleaded guilty to one charge of voluntarily causing grievous hurt to fellow electrician Nesamani Hariharn, 31, in the incident that took place on February 15. The court heard that Senthilkumar, who had consumed three cans of beer, returned to the dormitory around 7pm and confronted Nesamani, accusing him of spying and reporting on his work performance. He also insulted the victim, calling him a 'dog'. Tensions escalated when Nesamani responded to the accusations. As the exchange grew heated, Senthilkumar punched him, sparking a fight between the two men. During the scuffle, Senthilkumar bit off a portion of Nesamani's left earlobe. Other dormitory residents intervened to stop the fight and contacted the authorities. Nesamani was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital with a torn earlobe and facial injuries. He was placed on hospitalisation leave for nine days. Although his wounds have healed, a part of his ear was permanently lost. The maximum penalty for voluntarily causing grievous hurt is 10 years' imprisonment, along with a possible fine or caning.
Free Malaysia Today
26-06-2025
- Free Malaysia Today
Cyberjaya varsity student found dead in dorm, murder suspected
The student was discovered with injuries on her body by a friend at about 10am on Tuesday. PETALING JAYA : A 20-year-old university student in Cyberjaya was found dead in her dormitory room yesterday morning and believed to have been murdered. The victim, from Kuching, Sarawak, was discovered with injuries on her body by a friend at about 10am. The friend called the police. According to a source, the student was pursuing a bachelor's degree in physiotherapy and had been staying in the room with five other students, Berita Harian reported. 'However, her five roommates had returned home for the holidays on June 21. 'The victim had remained behind as she had been scheduled to sit for an examination,' the source was quoted as saying. Several of her personal belongings, including her laptop, were believed to be missing. In video clips circulating online, police personnel were seen removing her body from the premises before it was taken to a hospital. Sepang police said they will release an official statement soon.
Daily Mail
20-06-2025
- Daily Mail
Boarding school gave me PTSD but I locked it away until my daughter started to board. Then it triggered a breakdown that saw me sectioned: DR CATHY WIELD
Lying in the darkness, the loneliness and panic hit. It was terror, mostly, of the dormitory bullies who could strike without warning or reason. Also the cruelty of the matrons, picking up on some minor infringement. And that all-consuming feeling of abandonment. The nightmare of boarding school was beginning, all over again. This may sound familiar to many of the alumni of this very British institution, particularly those who boarded in the 1970s like I did. But the dread and horror I was experiencing was not due to revisiting my own school.
