One of the things that I had heard about China is that some apartment buildings turn off the heat in the winter. It's so cold, they figure, it costs too much to heat the place, so why bother? When we first moved into our apartments, that was one of the first questions: where are the heaters!?!? Beijing gets cold, and I really didn't want to spend the winter without even the hope of heat.
No worries, I was told, the heat is in the floor. Hmm. OK. I'll believe it when I have heat.
Then I learned about the centrally-controlled heat. Oh yes, the government says when the heat comes on (and goes off). So although it got really cold three weeks ago, the head doesn't come on until November 15th (or the 10th, depending on who you talk to).
My apartment complex turns things on in order, it seems. People in buildings 1 and 5 got their heat a week ago. I'm in building 6, so I didn't get heat until last Thursday. My friend in building 9 got heat yesterday.
And let me tell you, when the heat comes on, it comes ON.
The thermostat is centrally controlled, as well, so I can't do anything about it. Today, I left two windows open all day: one in the living room and one in the bedroom. Currently, my thermostat reads 25.1 degrees Celsius. Let me remind you that room temperature is 20 degrees Celsius. 25 degrees Celsius is about 77 degrees Fahrenheit. That's with the windows open. In winter. In Beijing.
So while it's winter outside, it's still summer in my apartment.
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