Hangzhou school drops weekend homework to enjoy sunny Sunday

A primary school in Zhejiang province's capital, Hangzhou, asked all teachers not to assign any written homework over the past weekend to encourage its students to go out and enjoy the sunshine, Qianjiang Evening News reported.

Since December, Hangzhou, together with its surrounding cities in the Yangtze River delta region, has experienced a winter that is the wettest and cloudiest since 1961. In the 82 days between Dec 1 and Feb 20, 44 days were rainy in  Hangzhou.

Due to the lingering rainy weather in the region, it was impossible to carry out any outdoor activities or physical exercise, which greatly worried students and teachers.

After seeing weather forecasts that said the city would see sunshine on Sunday and Monday before being rainy again starting Tuesday, Luo Jiaqi, the school president, decided to ask all teachers not to assign written homework. Instead, the school gave a special assignment called "I've a date with the Sun", asking students to participate in an interesting outdoor activity over the weekend.

Some students went climbing with parents and took a photo of themselves with the reflection of the sun in the river to record that special occasion, while others stayed at home and helped with laundry work. 

Previous reports said due to the rainy weather sales of dryers and umbrellas have skyrocketed, and the search for socks and underwear has also increased greatly.

Xie Jianing contributed to this story.