No AC. Yet people survived summer, for thousands of years.

The secret? Let's find some clues in traditional Chinese paintings.

A bowl of iced fruit. Fresh lotus root, sliced and cool. A painted screen for the mind to wander into.

A bamboo grove. A stream running clear. A pond bursting with lotus flowers. And a heart in no rush at all, happy to let the summer wander off on its own time.

They weren't just cooling the body. They were cooling the mind.

Maybe real coolness is never about the temperature.