Spring in Kunming is usually sunny and warm. Every now and then a \nsudden cold spell interferes. The temperature drops ten, fifteen degrees\n to ten, twelve centigrade. Recently it went down to four. That is rare \neven in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Mild climate\u2019, people say. But there is no heating here. During the \nfirst day higher temperatures don\u2019t give way yet in homes and offices. \nAfter that you are numbed by cold sitting behind your desk. Twelve \ndegrees? Nobody born in the West after WW II, used to heating, can \nimagine anymore what it is like to experience that continuously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When communist reconstruction started in China after world war and \ncivil war it was decided, forced by shortages, not to install heating in\n apartment blocks, schools, offices, factories, hospitals south of the \nYangtse River \u2013 though in winter it can easily get below zero in many \nplaces there. That policy is still intact. They may have invented \nlaughable ways of wasting energy in China (what about, in places where \ncentral heating does exist, radiators without regulators that can\u2019t be \nswitched off even if outside everybody is just wearing a T-shirt), \nleaving several hundred million out in the cold has to be commended as \nan efficient conservation measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course people improvised all kinds of heating devices, and today \nmost can afford an electric heater. But the majority stoically accepts \nthe cold. \u2018Ah, just wear several layers of clothing\u2019. People don\u2019t whine\n in this country where hardship has been part of life for millennia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the first day the cold doesn\u2019t give way yet in homes and \noffices, but outside it is driven away as abruptly as it came. Usually \nwithin a few days. This time it took two weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spring in Kunming is usually sunny and warm. Every now and then a sudden cold spell interferes. The temperature drops ten, fifteen degrees to ten, twelve centigrade. Recently it went down to four. That is rare even in January. \u2018Mild climate\u2019, people say. But there is no heating here. During the first day higher temperatures … Continue reading “Cold spell”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chin-eng"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions\/152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}