…it is frickin’ cold in Beijing right now.
I don’t know what it is, I grew up in New Hampshire and went to high school up in the White Mountains, but there is something about the Beijing winter that chills me to my core. Perhaps subzero temperatures divorced from snow simply feels colder. It probably doesn’t help that our little pingfang lacks a significant source of warmth, relying solely on two moderate-sized space heaters (one per room). Suffice to say that I can see my breath as I write this and the cat has spent the afternoon buried under the eight layers of blankets which cover our bed.
Taking a shower this morning was…an experience. The small bathroom (located across our courtyard from the main house) heats up quickly once the hot water gets going but the before/after can be a bit chilly.
Nevertheless, I wouldn’t trade our little home for anywhere else (at least in our price range). Now if only spring would come and we can get the garden in and the barbecue grill up and running…
It’s the wind outside and the lack of heat inside.
If anything, damp (like in a place covered in snow) would make you feel the cold worse, so it’s not the lack of snow. When you step outside, the wind cuts straight through everything you’re wearing.
And the lack of heat inside means you’re starting the day cold, meaning you don’t have a hope warming up.
Spend a winter in Changsha or in a student flat in Dunedin, New Zealand, you’ll see what I mean.
Both true…and in NH we always had the benefit of a trusty wood stove. Nothing heats a room quicker!
Brrr…well, you know, I’m a Southern California native. The first time I was ever in prolonged cold was in Beijing in the winter, and this was before most buildings were heated. I taught conversational English at a branch school and it was sooo flippin’ cold. They only heated the building enough so that the pipes wouldn’t freeze (it was steam heat). So the students would play badmiton in the halls between classes to stay warm.
And I’m going to Xinjiang in the dead of winter, why, exactly?
I bought some Sorel boots though. I will be warm, dammit.
Even Taipei in winter gets a little cold for me. No breath visible while inside, but lack of insulation, the wind coming in through open doors/windows (gotta have that circulation!) and no heat indoors makes 10C pretty cold.
Jeremiah,
When I lived in South Korea, I stayed in a little cottage in a wooded area on the edge of Seoul. The good part: I had a lawn, a BBQ pit, and lots of nature around.
The bad: The military training center nearby meant the regular sound of machine guns and, much worse, we froze our butts off during the winter.
The place had “ondol” heating, i.e. came from hot water pipes beneath the floor. Thus, while our feet might be touching a fairly hot surface, at head level, it was almost cold enough to see our breaths. Needless to say, we spent quite a bit of time spread out on the floor during winter.
And yes, taking a shower was “an experience.”
Cheers, Boyce
R,
That sounds a lot like the stories my friends south of the PRC “heat/no heat” line tell. Ah well, spring is coming….so sayeth the lunar calendar.
Thanks for stopping by.
Boyce,
Reminds me of a place I had when I first graduated from college and was living back in NH. It was a 2-story cabin on a lake in the center of the state with an ineffective furnace and a wood stove. The wind would whip across the ice and through that house like it was made of paper. It was pretty routine for a cup of water left on my bedside table to be partially frozen in the morning. Beautiful spot but damn cold…even colder than the hutong this morning.
It’s -15C outside now and its still OK in this Great White North. Bless the insulation and the central heating.
Just remember to give a swift kick to the next person who mentions Climate Change / Global Warming!
My first winter in China (which was really only a 1/2 winter — I returned home before the holidays), I lost 10 pounds between 11/1 and 12/20, which I attributed mostly to shivering — all the rooms I spent time in were unheated, including a classroom that was very pleasant in the heat of late summer, but perhaps colder than the outside temperature come winter.
Davis…don’t be a maroon…
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE50I4G520090119
Actually, it’s some of the old buses in city center that bother me the most. I swear it’s colder INside those buses than it is OUTside! That’s the downside of everyone having gone home for Spring Festival…fewer people to heat up the bus.