I'm sorry, can you say that again?

Almost everyone I've spoken to in the past two weeks has heard me complain about having no heat. Bad news on that front. I had assumed that, like many schools/apartment buildings do, the school was waiting to turn on the heat in order to save money. When I asked my students about this, they said the heat usually comes on in early November. No problem, I thought. I can wait another week or so. But that's not the whole story.

Today we had a visit from Cliff, who works in the head office. A new teacher is arriving soon to replace our temporary teacher, and Cliff came to discuss the transition with the academic dean. Before the meeting, we sat down with him in the kitchen to discuss how classes are going and someone (probably me) mentioned being cold. Then Cliff dropped this little bomb on us: No one in Beijing has central heating until the relevant government office says so. This year he thinks the designated day is November 23. It's like this in every city in northern China, while cities below the Yellow River just don't get heat at all because it's (usually) warmer there.

Cliff actually had to explain it twice because I wasn't sure I heard him right the first time. "Wait," I said. "Am I understanding this correctly? There is no heat for anyone in Beijing until someone in some central office flips a switch?" I've lived here for two months, and I think this is the first time I've come across a concept so foreign to my experience and worldview that it actually blew me away. I still can't wrap my head around it.

So where does this leave me when I'm getting up for class at 6:30 in the morning? Well, I'll check to see if my electric air conditioner has a heating function. Some rooms around campus have space heaters, and I can see why.

China Fun Fact: China has more than 300 million smokers.