So here’s the thing about spring in China. They turn off the heat–whether, as the popular Facebook meme portrays, spring has “fully installed” or not. The heat is government-controlled, and shuts off April 1st. This year, April 1st was 3° Celsius (for you Fahrenheit folks, that’s not quite 38°).
So not exactly toasty.
But what we’ve noticed–this year anyway–is that everyone has decided it’s spring and stubbornly refuses to wear warmer layers. While the rest of the winter, we hardy Canadians are being scolded for not wearing enough layers, now, we’re walking around still sporting our winter attire while our Chinese friends are walking around without jackets–or very thin ones–no gloves, and shoving their hands in their pockets.
Part of the mystery might be solved by looking at the following images:
The first image is from my computer’s weather bug. The second one from the Weather Channel. Someone is lying. And my bet is most people think it’s a lot warmer out there than it really is. Add to that the fully-concrete-no-insulation construction of 99.9% of all China’s buildings, so that when it does warm up, it’s often warmer outside than in. All in all, it’s just not all that warm here. I’m wearing about the same thing inside as out.
And I’m about ready for spring. But wait, there’s hope!
Today, I spotted this right here in our apartment complex:
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Wow, that is hard core – can I send you a space heater? Are those allowed?
Ha ha! Thanks, Rebecca. We have a portable radiator, but we have basically a great room for a living room and a really open concept, so it’s a challenge to heat everything. We’ll be fine. Looking forward to the warmer weather for sure, though.