Got Sick

Today's weather: High = 13 Low = 5
Sunny

My driver told me ages ago when I used to live in Dalian that the cold weather itself is not a problem -- but rather the change to cold weather.

In other words, during the transition to winter, people get sick big time -- myself included. It happens every year to me around this time and we were fortunate to enjoy a beautiful November. But reality had to happen sooner or later. Anyways I'm taking the day off and resting in bed.

One of the peculiar things about Shanghai, or any city south of the Yangtze River for that matter, is how the winters work around here. A long while back, Mao Zedong decreed that anywhere south of the Yangzte was "warm", and anywhere north was "cold". The end result is that central heating is not installed in any buildings south of the river, and the buildings themselves are not designed for winter.

But residents also figure that winter is so short around here, there is no point in equipping the buildings for only 2-3 months worth of cold. The thinking goes it's better just to survive it, and then spring is here around the corner.

This goes hand-in-hand with how Shanghai is on the fringes of the subtropical zone, and increasingly so with global warming, the winters are becoming shorter and shorter. So in a way we're being teased with 9-10 months of relatively warm weather during the year. But it's not warm enough to be a distinct substropical climate like Guangzhou is. Winter is still a reality to be dealt with in Shanghai, and locals will talk about this incessantly about how they prepare for it.

For example, you go out on the street today and everyone is dressed in toques, scarves, gloves, etc. when it's sunny and well over 10 degrees in the afternoon.

The doctors also warn incessantly about preparing for winter and how everyone gets sick this time of year. Part of the reason for that is the constant use of heaters indoors, now that more and more people can afford the electricity bills. The new heaters are also so powerful that they can double as a central heating device that Mao Zedong ruled out decades ago because we're south of the river.

So it would be a perfectly normal situation to walk into an office with the heater blazing. Meanwhile, the air inside is crisp dry, people are still wearing their jackets, and it is a breeding ground for germs. But since people realize that, they also open the windows in a bid to try and create a "healthier" environment. The end result is a constant change in temperatures from hot to cold, and the body can't make heads or tails out of what is going on.

The body, like mine does, eventually gets sick of all this.