Ningbo cafes offer relief from heat for outdoor workers

To offer relief from the sweltering summer heat for outdoor workers, a community cooling initiative has been launched on Huayan Street, a quaint thoroughfare lined with more than 20 cafes and bakeries in Ningbo, Zhejiang province.

On July 24, as the clock struck noon, sanitation workers Li Baoqin and Bai Congzhen, having concluded their morning shift, accepted glasses of lemonade from Gao Qicheng, owner of the cafe Nanyang Hand Drip Workshop. Positioned on lounge chairs outside the establishment, they savored the refreshing beverages.

This week marked the debut of Huayan Street's first public cooling spot, located at Gao's cafe, providing cool beverages and a place to rest for outdoor laborers and delivery personnel. Gao took on the role of this week's "Cooling Station Manager".

Since the start of summer, Li has been starting her cleaning duties at 4:00 am daily, finishing by 11:00 am. With her own water supply depleting quickly during the 8-hour shift, having a spot to cool down along the street is a blessing for outdoor workers like her.

To offer respite to outdoor workers during the scorching summer days, the Huayan community began planning the "Summer Cooling Relief Rotation" initiative in early July. When the community workers proposed the idea in the Huayan Coffee Alliance group, owners of the cafes and bakeries promptly joined in. Currently, six shops are taking part in the initiative, each taking weekly turns, and are scheduled to continue throughout the entire summer.

"Outdoor workers endure hardships. The community has supported us since we opened the shops on the street. We also want to contribute to the community," said Gao, whose wife's bakery will take over as the cooling spot next week.

To promote the initiative to more outdoor workers, the Huayan community has also created a guide map for the public cooling spots.