Man its cold today, I’m sitting at my computer freezing my hands off. Was a little colder last week, but it feels colder tonight.

The heating isn’t on yet (don’t know why, usually is on all day!!) I can see ice crystals forming on the inside of my window. My thermometer says -23C which isn’t that bad; it’s just the lack of heating that is making things seem really cold!!
I’m very supicious of the state media’s weather reports. As i found out during the summer, they like to massage the statistics. For example according to the government weather reports the hottest it got last summer was 32C (on my thermometer it got up to 38C in theshade!!); I remember watching the TV and the maximum temperature being the same for two weeks!
So when they say it’s between -20 and -15 today, I minus another 5 degrees or so, and then you have the real temperature!

The heating system in Changchun is based on central boiler houses, dotted all around the city. They are easy to spot, just look for the huge plooms of smoke pouring out the high chimneys.
These bulildings look like power stations; they have a large red and white painted chimney and giant slag heaps of coal, for good measure. I assume the water is heated through the burning of the coal and then piped to the apartments. Which is highly inefficient, but it’s simple and primative and keeps lots of people in work!

At home, you have no thermostat or bolier to decide the heating level , it’s either on on off. So if it’s too cold, tough! Put on more clothes! Everyone in my apartment complex, pays a flat fee for the heating over the winter, depending upon the square metreage of their place.
At this moment I am beginning to regret having a top floor apartment, I feel as if the heat just goes straight out of the roof, and I wish i had some control over the level of heat within the apartment, as I touch my bedroom radiator it is slightly warm – and it should be too hot to touch!