Summer is almost at the door when we stepped into the month of May. This weekend the highest temperature is expected to rise to 28℃. These days you can smell the scent of summer in the evening breeze. Girls are wearing summery dresses. Compared with the scorching part of the hot season, it is more pleasant at the moment for us to enjoy summer.

In accordance to the definition in meteorology, it is summer when the average daily temperature reaches over 22℃ in 5 consecutive days, that is, you have to wait till the end of May to taste the real summer in Hangzhou. However, according to the lunar calendar, Li Xia, meaning Summer Begins, falls on this Saturday, 5th May. The 24 solar terms in the lunar calendar are about 15 days apart from each other. Stated on Book of Yi Zhou, a compiled historical record from War States Era, "Frogs croak to announce the beginning of summer. Five days after Summer Begins, worms work diligently on the field. Another five days, wild vegetables grow in the fields. After the day of Summer Begins, more stormy weather is to be expected, too." Lu You, a famed poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, described the beautiful moment of the Summer Begins in his many poems.

Personally I reckon other solar terms like Chun Fen and Bai Lu are more poetic while others like Qing Ming and Midwinter contain more cultural heritage. Summer Begins, on the other hand, is a day full of fun. It is a tradition to weigh yourself to bring fortune and health. The elderly will boil some Li Xia eggs for kids, who then will bump the eggs with each other to see which one is the hardest. In some regions, kids hang the eggs on the neck to avoid any sickness due to the coming heat.

There is special food on Summer Begins, being an essential part of Chinese culture. The Summer Begins Rice, originally cooked with red bean, yellow bean, black bean, green bean and Chinese peas and known as "five-colour rice" is now simplified. The Summer Begins Rice in nowadays is generally cooked with sticky rice, peas and salty pork. There are two ways of cooking the Summer Begins Rice.

Firstly, rinse the sticky rice, stir fry the peas, diced salty pork and diced bamboo shoots with some vegetable oil, pour in water to cover the rice and all the stir-fried ingredients, add a pinch of salt, chicken stock, then boil it in an electrical rice pot until fully cooked.

The other way is to soak the sticky rice in cold water for over 5 hours, drain the rice, add three tablespoons of vegetable oil in a big wok, stir fry the peas, diced salty pork and diced bamboo shoots, add sticky rice till fully done, add a pinch of salt and chicken stock for more flavour.