Damned Cold

You have to love China ... Beijing is a city of remote heating. They pipe the heat in and keep you and your apartment nice and toasty all winter. Granted they start a bit late ... In fact they wait until it's positively freezing outside. Only then do they turn it on. They actually don't wait until it is cold out of malicious intent, but they wait for the government set date: November 15th. That's when it's turned on, regardless of Beijing having 5 meters of snow or 20 degrees outside. That is THE date it is turned on. If it's turned on before, they loose money. If it's accidentally turned on after the 15th, they go to jail.
Once it's on, life in the apartment is beautiful. You can walk around in comfy clothing and enjoy life. You are lulled in to a sense of complacency that lasts till March 15th, when they turn it off again, no matter the outside temperature.
I was caught off guard this year (much like last year), but it didn't stop me from enjoying an evening in front of the TV.