JANUARY 31, 2008
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, my next posting most definitely must be written about the weather. You may recall that I have described Shanghai as somewhat "tropical." Typically, the weather here emulates southern Georgia and northern Florida in terms of climate but with much higher humidity (and that seems to be the case year 'round ... the high humidity, I mean). Well, I am having indigestion lately from having to eat my words!! Tropical, indeed!
As is normally the case, the weather here was fairly palatable right through the Christmas and New Year holiday .... a little cloudy at times, and even a spitting of rain here and there, but the temperature was still into the upper 40's and even 50's most of the time. Pretty comfortable for a couple of Michiganians who are used to seeing 10's and 20's that time of year. But by the middle of this month, the temperatures had crept into the lower 40's and started descending into the 30's. Now that may not sound all that cold to you folks who are reading this from our home state, but for some reason, 30 in Shanghai FEELS like below zero in Michigan!! I do not have a scientific explanation for this phenomenon, but trust me ... it's true! I have spoken to other midwestern American expats enough to know that my complaint is indeed true. It does seem to be fairly windy here at times but I believe that the chief culprit is the humidity. As everything is simply more damp here, the cold is really felt much more acutely. I believe the correct term is "bone chilling!!!"
Another dimension of the chillier Shanghai cold, I believe, is the fact that in this neck of the woods, one only heats the space in which one is immediately occupying. Or to put it simply, if you happen to be inhabiting the living room, only the living room is heated. I am certain that it helps in terms of energy savings (I'm all for that). And this notion is further supported by the fact that each room in our apartment has it's own unit which serves for both heating and cooling (except the bathrooms and kitchen .... the bathrooms have heated floors and the kitchen has no means of heating or cooling). Each room is equipped with a door which seals off the room so as to make each area insulated from the next. As such, we typically only heat the living and dining areas (essentially all one room) as that is the area we occupy the most.
Having said that, I find that I am constantly walking in and out of rooms with little or no heat all day long. I'm not much of a cook anyway, but with the kitchen feeling like a meat locker, I avoid it at all costs (so why am I not losing a ton of weight ... puzzling?). The other issue is that the washer and dryer are located outside on the kitchen patio. That along with the fact that we are 24 stories aloft, the wind chill feels to me like about 25 below! I have to put on my coat and gloves to do the laundry!! The hallways, stairwells, elevators, and lobbies of all buildings are unheated (again, the meat locker syndrome), and it's even a bit of a trial to fill a bathtub with hot water some days due to the hot water heater being on the kitchen patio (keeping the washer and dryer company) and running hottish water into a freezing bathtub which cools far too quickly for my taste.
OK, I'm whining. But it does seem to be an effort to chase the chill and feel comfortable for any given period of time these days. Randy wears long johns (top and bottom) to work every day with a couple of layers over those. The only place I'm truly warm enough lately is in bed and that's probably a result of a once nightly hot flash!! Too bad I can't seem to conjur up one of those during the day!! Oh, I guess I need to back track just a little bit. There ARE places that one can ALWAYS count on being warm enough .... Shanghai restaurants! Apparently there is a law on the books here that reads something to the effect that all restaurants after December 1 and throughout the winter must heat to a temperature of no less than 90 degrees. Makes dressing for eating out a real challenge!! I usually put on four layers for the outdoor elements, and when we arrive at a restaurant, I typically remove three ("Table for six please!! No, there are only two of us, but I need four chairs on which to heap my clothes!! Thanks!").
A little more than a week ago, we got a very pretty (albeit somewhat unexpected) evening snowfall. This was somewhat quaint, and we expats all had a little chuckle when the Chinese were all snapping photos of the snow and the kids were running around trying to catch flakes on their tongues. "Isn't it funny? The Shanghaiese have never seen snow!! Yes, it's cold, but it will no doubt melt away by morning."
A day or so later, a more serious snowfall blew into the city with a bit more serious consequence. We watched out the window in wonder as the air grew heavier and thicker with fat, juicy flakes sometimes profuse enough as to prevent us from seeing the next building. What was it we were told? Ah yes. There is NEVER an accumlation of snow in Shanghai. OK, this was an event for the record books. Some locals professed to having not seen a significant snowfall in 30 years. Again, we were somewhat amused by the half-hearted attempts at snowball fights and snowman building .... yes, cute!!
With raised eyebrows, the next morning Randy pointed out that our grill on the kitchen patio had a two to three inch covering of serious snow over the surface of it. And a truly nasty freezing rain had started to pelt our windows. OK, not funny anymore! Sometime over last weekend, Mother Nature deigned to take a serious crap on us!!! It grew colder and snowed on and off over the course of three days. The temperature dropped and dropped. As of yesterday we'd had several days in a row below the freezing point. The slurpee slush mixture was freezing on every exposed surface creating virtual havoc in an area completely unequipped to deal with such precipitation.
Schools closed, businesses shut their doors, roads were blocked, children delighted in building snow men, snow forts, snow CITIES!! Dogs couldn't find a place to perform their daily eliminations! Walking to the subway station became an adventure on ice, and the already crazy traffic of Shanghai became a gigantic bumper car ride!!! And you haven't lived until you've seen four inches of snow on palm trees .... lovely!! We even received a notice from the American Embassy that we were experiencing a SEVERE WEATHER EVENT and as such, travel and procurement of supplies could be difficult if not impossible. Nice to know they are looking after us over here, and we have someone we can notify if we run out of peanut butter.
It was about this time (Monday and Tuesday of this week) that the locals who were all preparing for the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday started to get worried about their holiday travels most of which would occur this coming weekend. There was a rush for the train and bus stations as many folks simply decided that they would go as quickly as possible while the going was good (which, by then, it wasn't). The problem was that even if a train or bus could make it out of Shanghai, the destination was more than likely not attainable as roads, tracks, stations and such were shut down for what was becoming a serious weather event.
Add to that the fact that many locals were starting to utilize the bus and train stations as a "warming house," and the realization of those becoming agitated about not being able to get home for the upcoming holiday, and true chaos was beginning to set in. On Tuesday, the Prime Minister issued an offical apology for the effects of the severe weather. We stifled a laugh about that one. This being a country in which the government controls literally everything, I suppose they feel compelled to apologize when they can't control the weather!! This apology was issued to the multitudes waiting for the trains to commence traveling again and becoming more and more irate by the minute. Soon after that, the government issued a statement requesting that the general populace consider disbanding their travel plans as it was becoming clear that the mess was only growing more dismal. We're told that the storm (which has lasted better part of a week) is the worst in over 50 years!!
Yesterday, I heard that hundreds of thousands were stranded at airports (that being inland airports for domestic flights .... I believe international travel was still near normal in and out of Shanghai), and millions were stranded at train stations. The message "Look, you can't go home," isn't going over very well. That's akin to saying to the western world, "Hey, we're calling off Christmas this year!" For many who work in Shanghai and live apart from their families who are residing a great distance inland, this is the only time of year they get to see their families. Also, the "inlanders" count on the extra money being brought to them by the folks working in the cities. Many locals receive a holiday bonus which is traditionally given to their families "back home."
I must say that I am truly relieved that we didn't plan any travel for the holiday (as is the case for many expats who work for a business that closes for the week of the holiday February 6 through 13). However our dear friends, Judy and Neal, from Michigan are due to fly in tomorrow to have a two week vacation here with us in Shanghai. We have been not only looking forward to their visit, but also to experiencing the Chinese New Year holiday in China. You may recall that last Chinese New Year, we traveled to Scotland where Randy worked over the holiday so we weren't able to be here for the biggest holiday of the Chinese year. We are hoping that Judy and Neal don't run into any weather related snags in their travels (or non-weather related either).
We monitor CNN and BBC here which continue to report on the chaos that is the storm of '08 in China. The forecast seems to suggest that we are not out of the woods by any means. Currently, the sun is shining and we're due to hit a high of 34 degrees today (Woo hoo!) so we may get the beginnings of a thaw here, but there are more storms brewing to our west which may have nearly as bad or worse results than this week's. And me without my snowmobile suit ..... SHOOT!!
Will someone please put another log on the fire? Thanks.
As is normally the case, the weather here was fairly palatable right through the Christmas and New Year holiday .... a little cloudy at times, and even a spitting of rain here and there, but the temperature was still into the upper 40's and even 50's most of the time. Pretty comfortable for a couple of Michiganians who are used to seeing 10's and 20's that time of year. But by the middle of this month, the temperatures had crept into the lower 40's and started descending into the 30's. Now that may not sound all that cold to you folks who are reading this from our home state, but for some reason, 30 in Shanghai FEELS like below zero in Michigan!! I do not have a scientific explanation for this phenomenon, but trust me ... it's true! I have spoken to other midwestern American expats enough to know that my complaint is indeed true. It does seem to be fairly windy here at times but I believe that the chief culprit is the humidity. As everything is simply more damp here, the cold is really felt much more acutely. I believe the correct term is "bone chilling!!!"
Another dimension of the chillier Shanghai cold, I believe, is the fact that in this neck of the woods, one only heats the space in which one is immediately occupying. Or to put it simply, if you happen to be inhabiting the living room, only the living room is heated. I am certain that it helps in terms of energy savings (I'm all for that). And this notion is further supported by the fact that each room in our apartment has it's own unit which serves for both heating and cooling (except the bathrooms and kitchen .... the bathrooms have heated floors and the kitchen has no means of heating or cooling). Each room is equipped with a door which seals off the room so as to make each area insulated from the next. As such, we typically only heat the living and dining areas (essentially all one room) as that is the area we occupy the most.
Having said that, I find that I am constantly walking in and out of rooms with little or no heat all day long. I'm not much of a cook anyway, but with the kitchen feeling like a meat locker, I avoid it at all costs (so why am I not losing a ton of weight ... puzzling?). The other issue is that the washer and dryer are located outside on the kitchen patio. That along with the fact that we are 24 stories aloft, the wind chill feels to me like about 25 below! I have to put on my coat and gloves to do the laundry!! The hallways, stairwells, elevators, and lobbies of all buildings are unheated (again, the meat locker syndrome), and it's even a bit of a trial to fill a bathtub with hot water some days due to the hot water heater being on the kitchen patio (keeping the washer and dryer company) and running hottish water into a freezing bathtub which cools far too quickly for my taste.
OK, I'm whining. But it does seem to be an effort to chase the chill and feel comfortable for any given period of time these days. Randy wears long johns (top and bottom) to work every day with a couple of layers over those. The only place I'm truly warm enough lately is in bed and that's probably a result of a once nightly hot flash!! Too bad I can't seem to conjur up one of those during the day!! Oh, I guess I need to back track just a little bit. There ARE places that one can ALWAYS count on being warm enough .... Shanghai restaurants! Apparently there is a law on the books here that reads something to the effect that all restaurants after December 1 and throughout the winter must heat to a temperature of no less than 90 degrees. Makes dressing for eating out a real challenge!! I usually put on four layers for the outdoor elements, and when we arrive at a restaurant, I typically remove three ("Table for six please!! No, there are only two of us, but I need four chairs on which to heap my clothes!! Thanks!").
A little more than a week ago, we got a very pretty (albeit somewhat unexpected) evening snowfall. This was somewhat quaint, and we expats all had a little chuckle when the Chinese were all snapping photos of the snow and the kids were running around trying to catch flakes on their tongues. "Isn't it funny? The Shanghaiese have never seen snow!! Yes, it's cold, but it will no doubt melt away by morning."
A day or so later, a more serious snowfall blew into the city with a bit more serious consequence. We watched out the window in wonder as the air grew heavier and thicker with fat, juicy flakes sometimes profuse enough as to prevent us from seeing the next building. What was it we were told? Ah yes. There is NEVER an accumlation of snow in Shanghai. OK, this was an event for the record books. Some locals professed to having not seen a significant snowfall in 30 years. Again, we were somewhat amused by the half-hearted attempts at snowball fights and snowman building .... yes, cute!!
With raised eyebrows, the next morning Randy pointed out that our grill on the kitchen patio had a two to three inch covering of serious snow over the surface of it. And a truly nasty freezing rain had started to pelt our windows. OK, not funny anymore! Sometime over last weekend, Mother Nature deigned to take a serious crap on us!!! It grew colder and snowed on and off over the course of three days. The temperature dropped and dropped. As of yesterday we'd had several days in a row below the freezing point. The slurpee slush mixture was freezing on every exposed surface creating virtual havoc in an area completely unequipped to deal with such precipitation.
Schools closed, businesses shut their doors, roads were blocked, children delighted in building snow men, snow forts, snow CITIES!! Dogs couldn't find a place to perform their daily eliminations! Walking to the subway station became an adventure on ice, and the already crazy traffic of Shanghai became a gigantic bumper car ride!!! And you haven't lived until you've seen four inches of snow on palm trees .... lovely!! We even received a notice from the American Embassy that we were experiencing a SEVERE WEATHER EVENT and as such, travel and procurement of supplies could be difficult if not impossible. Nice to know they are looking after us over here, and we have someone we can notify if we run out of peanut butter.
It was about this time (Monday and Tuesday of this week) that the locals who were all preparing for the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday started to get worried about their holiday travels most of which would occur this coming weekend. There was a rush for the train and bus stations as many folks simply decided that they would go as quickly as possible while the going was good (which, by then, it wasn't). The problem was that even if a train or bus could make it out of Shanghai, the destination was more than likely not attainable as roads, tracks, stations and such were shut down for what was becoming a serious weather event.
Add to that the fact that many locals were starting to utilize the bus and train stations as a "warming house," and the realization of those becoming agitated about not being able to get home for the upcoming holiday, and true chaos was beginning to set in. On Tuesday, the Prime Minister issued an offical apology for the effects of the severe weather. We stifled a laugh about that one. This being a country in which the government controls literally everything, I suppose they feel compelled to apologize when they can't control the weather!! This apology was issued to the multitudes waiting for the trains to commence traveling again and becoming more and more irate by the minute. Soon after that, the government issued a statement requesting that the general populace consider disbanding their travel plans as it was becoming clear that the mess was only growing more dismal. We're told that the storm (which has lasted better part of a week) is the worst in over 50 years!!
Yesterday, I heard that hundreds of thousands were stranded at airports (that being inland airports for domestic flights .... I believe international travel was still near normal in and out of Shanghai), and millions were stranded at train stations. The message "Look, you can't go home," isn't going over very well. That's akin to saying to the western world, "Hey, we're calling off Christmas this year!" For many who work in Shanghai and live apart from their families who are residing a great distance inland, this is the only time of year they get to see their families. Also, the "inlanders" count on the extra money being brought to them by the folks working in the cities. Many locals receive a holiday bonus which is traditionally given to their families "back home."
I must say that I am truly relieved that we didn't plan any travel for the holiday (as is the case for many expats who work for a business that closes for the week of the holiday February 6 through 13). However our dear friends, Judy and Neal, from Michigan are due to fly in tomorrow to have a two week vacation here with us in Shanghai. We have been not only looking forward to their visit, but also to experiencing the Chinese New Year holiday in China. You may recall that last Chinese New Year, we traveled to Scotland where Randy worked over the holiday so we weren't able to be here for the biggest holiday of the Chinese year. We are hoping that Judy and Neal don't run into any weather related snags in their travels (or non-weather related either).
We monitor CNN and BBC here which continue to report on the chaos that is the storm of '08 in China. The forecast seems to suggest that we are not out of the woods by any means. Currently, the sun is shining and we're due to hit a high of 34 degrees today (Woo hoo!) so we may get the beginnings of a thaw here, but there are more storms brewing to our west which may have nearly as bad or worse results than this week's. And me without my snowmobile suit ..... SHOOT!!
Will someone please put another log on the fire? Thanks.
posted by Roxanne Gillett at
8:08 PM
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