the art of living in China.

As developed as a lot of China, especially most of Beijing, has become, there are still small quirks here and there that are just... different from North America, and I have been surprised to learn.
or maybe these are just common sense things about living on your own that I am just now learning. (i.e. I can't drive my laundry 3 hours back to Toronto anymore. lol.)

1. Heating.
Luckily, Beijing is north of the Chang Jiang, so there is heating [ yes... there is no heating south of Chang Jiang. I have vague memories of wearing 3 layers of clothing underneath a winter jacket at all times the entire winter back in Chongqing ]
However, heating in most buildings consists of hot water running through water pipes. This is a centrally controlled event (i.e. in Beijing, there was no heating until November 15). This... is all fine. The ghetto-ness of bare water pipes to semi-attempt to warm up my room, this is all fine. The difficult part was... there's a process called "fang qi"... no, not give up, lol, but "letting the air out". As there is no water running through the pipes in the other three seasons, air gets in the pipes, and until you let the air out, the hot water can't push its way through, and you have no heating. Usually the piping circulates throughout the entire building. Like lightbulbs on a circuit, if one apartment didn't let the air out, then the entire portion of the building after them cannot get heating. However, if you happen to be three half-foreign girls living on the top floor without any knowledge of this... it doesn't effect anyone else... so it wasn't until 17 days after everyone else got heating that we suddenly figured out why.
Lesson learned: MUST let the air out of your pipes to get heating.

2. Laundry.
So liquid laundry detergent appears to not exist/extremely difficult to find in China. Everyone still uses soap and wash clothes by hand, or powder. Powder seemed like the best alternative.... except... everytime we take clothes out of our washing machine (which must be an antique too), there is still white powder all over the clothes......... >.<. My solution, wash everything 3 times... but there'd STILL be powder undissolved. -_-" So the other day I finally decided to vent my frustrations to some locals. Apparently.... the water in Beijing is "hard", and therefore makes it very difficult to dissolve anything. The only way around it is to get hot water, dump it in the washing machine (there's no hot water connected to it), and then put the laundry detergent it, swirl it around until it dissolves, then add clothes, let sit, then 15 min later, twirl it some more, then allow washing machine to do normal cycle. This... is a very long process (esp adding hot water part) but the amount of powder seems to have decreased significantly =]. and OH! as soon as laundry is done? hang it up ASAP ... or live with a million creases forever =P ... yes... they don't have dryers.... I actually haven't seen one since coming back.. everyone seems to hang
Lesson learned: Use hot water, minimal powder, let sit, and ... pray for the best. LOL.

3. Dust.
Omg. Beijing must be the dustiest city in the world. No not like... I walk out and I'm covered in dust -_-". but like... go one day without wiping your desk or lamp or w/e, and a thin film of dust would've accumulated... So I have become cleaner than some of you would've ever imagined me to be capable of =D. and my solution to the dust problem? Baby wipes! =D. <3 wipes =")." after ="]." style="font-style: italic;">
Lesson Learned: Use baby wipes (preferably Pampers =P shameless plug) to combat dust accumulation!


This is all I can think of // can afford to procrastinate.
May be updated/completed at later date =)

Disclaimer: these are not complaints. it's finding the humour of living like this. LOL. for those that know me.... how much love... must there be for this city.... for me to be fine with going thru all this and still loving it all? lol. it's all part of beijing. therefore i heart =).