Elderly people from South China are increasingly fleeing to northern Heilongjiang province to escape the punishing summer heat, Harbin Daily reported.

According to data from Heilongjiang’s Civil Affairs Office, more than 180,000 elderly tourists from South China traveled to the province this summer, and local hotels and apartments have already received more than 10,000 bookings from elderly southerners for next summer.

South China endured another blisteringly hot summer in 2016, with Hong Kong recording the longest run of consecutive days with temperatures above 35 degrees since records began in 1885. And as income levels have risen across China, a trip to the cooler northern regions has become increasingly attractive to many people.

"Harbin is a good place to spend the summer holidays, since it’s very cool here and it also has excellent quality rice. We had very happy summer days here," said one elderly man surnamed Liu, who traveled up from Nanjing, Jiangsu province to spend the summer at Runfu Apartment, a guesthouse in Harbin that caters specifically for the aged.

As he checked out of Runfu Apartment, Liu also booked a room for next year.

The growing influx of silver-haired southerners during the summer months is transforming Harbin’s tourist industry. The city’s hotels provided more than 50,000 beds for elderly guests from the south this summer, and institutions like Runfu are offering ever more services to cater to their needs.

Runfu now runs special bus services to take its elderly guests to famous tourist spots like Harbin Central Street and Volga Manor, and the hotel even provides an express delivery service to deliver local Harbin specialty products to their guests’ homes in the south.