The current defining feeling of my experience of China is cold. Just to state, it is not really cold yet. Although the winds sweeping in from Siberia are not precisely warm, it is still around 10 degrees at midday and the temperature has some way to fall yet, although given it was 20 degrees last Friday, that means it should be about minus 5 this time next week at the current rate of progress....
No, the problem is the Chinese government who control the heating of all buildings they own (ie more or less all of them. Most Chinese people to my knowledge lease their houses off the government, on 70 yr leases. No-one knows what happens when the 70 year lease expires - the PRC isn't old enough for that to have happened to anyone yet). As a result, winter is officially declared in mid-November. And until then, come snow, hail, or Siberian winds, we freeze.
I am cold. So, so cold.
PS My ayi has already declared that it is going to be the harshest winter in many years, and is threatening to buy me an electric blanket and thermals. I'm nearly cold enough to accept.
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