Higher temperatures from today will have Shanghai authorities on the alert for serious health problems, Shanghai Daily reported.

Heat has become an important factor in disease and death, said Song Guixiang, director with the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

An older resident with his head wrapped in a cooling towel rides a bicycle on Shanghai's Huangpi Road N. yesterday while his younger companion holds an umbrella to shade from the baking sun. Yesterday's temperatures topped 37 degrees Celsius, the 16th day this summer that the mercury has hovered above 35.

(Shanghai Daily July 26, 2007)