Be Thankful for Your Furnace!

With all the talk there is about China's rapid economic development, there are some things in this country that continue to just plain baffle me. For instance, many stores you go here do no accept credit cards. It's cash only, and usually no checks are allowed either. This gets particularly awkward if, say, you're a student having to pay your tuition for the year and to do so you must almost carry a briefcase full of cash (unmarked bills, just like in the movies). The surprising thing is that this "cash-only" phenomenon is still highly prevalent even in urban areas like Beijing. For a city with less than a year before the 2008 Summer Olympics, this can't be good news. I anticipate many a foreigner, particularly westerners, are going to have to get used to toting around mucho moolah, unless Beijing has some quick trick up its sleeve to make credit card machines available at most places. It is true that the malls here are Visa/Mastercard-friendly, but still it's not much.

What really prompted me to write this post, though, is how the heating of most apartments in China works. My homestay family lives in a danwei ("work unit"), meaning that everyone in the apartment has at least one family member who works in the office building adjacent to the apartment. While incredibly convenient for commutes to work, there are downsides to the danwei layout. Some of you may be thinking, "wow, how awkward it would be to have to live next to your boss", and you definitely have a point there.

On a greater level though, people in danwei-style apartments don't enjoy the freedom to decide when to turn on their heaters! Right now it is a chilly 37 degrees out, and none of the apartments have on their heat. Why? It is Beijing policy that no heat is to be used in homes prior to November 15 each year. I still don't know if this is official or informal policy, but regardless it makes my toes cold. I learned of this bizarre fact yesterday when talking to my home stay parents. It helped me put into context their daily question of "aren't you cold?" when seeing me strut around the apartment in shorts and a t-shirt. To help adjust to the frosty fall weather that has recently descended upon Beijing, my parents bundle up every day in multiple layers (yesterday my dad wore 3 pairs of pants), so I could understand their disbelief in seeing me donned in only one layer.

Honestly though, this small experience made me realize on a larger scale how much we as Americans still take for granted. I never think twice about turning up the heat in our house in Minnesota if it gets too cold (though my real dad has a killer instinct about when that dial changes and I usually consider this point). I jokingly told my family that come November 15 we should have a "we now have heat" party, and we had a good laugh in imagining such a festivity. Seriously though, in the end this lack of heat is no joke, especially once the cold sets in and one can't do anything about it save throw on another blanket.