Waiting for the Heat Everyone says the best weather in Beijing happens in October. For a few brief days the humid summer gives way to clear autumn, crisp and lovely. Enjoy it while you may, this golden interlude: clear skies that are neither too hot, nor too cold. Then comes November, an abrupt change. This year it was November 3rd, I believe, when I noticed a sudden icy chill in the morning. Then a day later I had occasion to walk through Tiananmen Square in a damp ghostly fog that penetrated every bone in my body; I couldn't get myself warmed-up until I found a sidewalk noodle shop and managed to lower my face close to a bowl of steaming broth, a sort of make-shift sauna. Two days after that, I saw icicles in the shaded trees at the Summer Palace and I knew that winter had truly arrived. I wish I could say as much for the heat in my apartment. But due to a bizarre government decree, the radiators in my apartment remain cold and icy to the touch, as they are in every building and office in Beijing. The heat does not get turned on in northern China until November 15th, come what may -- blizzard or Siberian frost. It's as simple as that, the result of some lofty bureaucratic plan. All very fine on paper, I'm sure.
By the time you read this column, gentle reader, our heat (I pray) will be on. But at this moment, you might imagine me at my laptop dressed in a thick sweater and overcoat, feeling like some 19th century poet in a freezing garret. Several days ago, my wife bought a cheap electric space heater -- the cheapest she could find since this is, in theory, a brief interlude. Alas, one of the elements broke immediately and the device does not make much change in the arctic temperature of our apartment. An American girl who lives upstairs bought a more expensive heater, but she nearly burned down our building the other night when the extension cord she used caught fire. We are passing the time dreaming of hot things. We have put a poster of a tropical beach above our bed: white sand, blue waters, palm trees swaying in a warm breeze. Every conversation begins and ends with the temperature. The other day a Chinese friend came to our apartment and gazed at the radiator in our bedroom with envy. "Your radiator has fifteen segments!" she said with admiration. "Mine only has nine!" She has assured us we will be warm indeed on that magic day when the segments begin to clank and hiss with steam. Meanwhile we are surviving as best we can this annual cycle, the time of limbo between the end of autumn and the coming of heat. Certainly if you stay at an expensive hotel this time of year you will have heat. But for those of you who are budget travelers, such as my wife and myself -- if you plan to be in China during the first two weeks of November, bring warm clothes! From the Editor in Chief: If you have some travel or work experience in China to share with us, we will be very excited to hear from you! Send your feedback by e-mail or regular mail to ASM Overseas Corporation. Thank you! And if you liked this column, please check Expats In China (International Community in China) for more interesting and useful information on life in China as a foreigner, including calendar of events, entertainment, housing, employment, classifieds, personal, etc. |
