Freezing cold weather
My sister Kate emailed me a few weeks ago to ask me about the cold and disastrous Chinese weather. I wasn't able to blog on it as mush or as well as I wanted to, nor was I great about even emailing her back. Oops, sorry.
I understand it was in the news in other parts of the world,though from some of what I read on expat-in-China blogs, the coverage was not that extensive outside of China.
Of course, why would anyone else in the world be interested in the minutiae of the weather troubles here, like every single highway number that was closed, or airport shut down, or whatever. While the snow in Shanghai was precious and curious, it was downright dangerous just about everywhere north and west of where I am.
The coincidence of this weather with Chun Jie made everything that much worse. At one point there were nearly 1 million people stranded at the Guangzhou train station. Even before the trains were canceled, train tickets were scarce. Right before the New Year, Randy's assistant tried to get tickets home to Hubei. She couldn't and instead bought a one-way plane ticket. While that was much more than she had planned to spend, she was not one of the 1 million people living at the Guangzhou train station.
Randy's company was scheduled to work the Saturday and Sunday before Spring Festival and then shut down for the week. However, as almost none of the employees ( a majority of them migrant workers that live in the dormitory) could travel home, the company kept the dormitories and cafeteria open and ran on a limited schedule. So many other area factory workers were stuck, between not being able to take a bus or train to anywhere and their dormitories shutting down.
After the first week of Spring Festival, Randy's assistant tried to return to Shenzhen. She stood in lines at the train station in her hometown in Hubei until 1 am every day and was not able to buy a ticket to return south. She finally got back to Shenzhen a week later than planned.
Many people I know were not able to get to their hometowns. I know the worldwide news explained that people were trying to get to see their family for the an annual visit.. I don't know hum much further the international news explained that, but for many migrant workers getting home to see their family once a year frequently means getting home to see their spouse and child or even children. So many children are left with relatives as their parents move to the larger cities like Shenzhen for work. Many children cannot accompany their parents to the cities because they cannot enroll in school anywhere other than the hometown.
Many apartments and dormitories are not equipped with heat in Shenzhen. Our old apartment wasn't but our new one is. It does not get that cold for that long here. However, this year the cold snap was longer and more severe, such that many people were going to dangerous measures for a even little bit of warmth. For instance, in the last two weeks of January, eight people died of asphyxiation in the showers. Some others were hospitalized for carbon monoxide poisoning as well. They ran the hot water in their showers to try to keep warm and they died or almost died. How does this happen?
This is a typical hot water heater. In our old apartment we actually had a tank suspended from the ceiling above our tub. I used to refer to it as the Tank of Damocles. Anyway, this heater in our new apartment (pictured) does not have a giant reservoir of hot water but rather heats the water as it circulates through this system. Believe it or not, this system is adequate for supplying enough hot water for an average shower. With a short break in between, another person can shower, too.
There are three hoses connected to the heater, the water intake, the water outflow, and the yellow one for the propane gas. The carbon monoxide exhaust can kill a person if the room is not properly ventilated. While the hot water heater I have pictured is outside of our bathroom, in our laundry porch, for many Chinese homes and dormitories, it is inside the bathroom, in the shower. With no exhaust fan or cracked window, the bathroom can pretty quickly fill up with CO gas when the hot water is running. When I read the article I immediately showed it to Randy because I thought maybe his employees might be trying the same thing. He assured me that their water heaters were all electric, so no danger of CO.
In addition to the types of situations you would have anywhere in the US due to bad winter weather, like closed roads and cancelled flights, people in China are affected in ways I never even imagined were possible.
I understand it was in the news in other parts of the world,though from some of what I read on expat-in-China blogs, the coverage was not that extensive outside of China.
Of course, why would anyone else in the world be interested in the minutiae of the weather troubles here, like every single highway number that was closed, or airport shut down, or whatever. While the snow in Shanghai was precious and curious, it was downright dangerous just about everywhere north and west of where I am.
The coincidence of this weather with Chun Jie made everything that much worse. At one point there were nearly 1 million people stranded at the Guangzhou train station. Even before the trains were canceled, train tickets were scarce. Right before the New Year, Randy's assistant tried to get tickets home to Hubei. She couldn't and instead bought a one-way plane ticket. While that was much more than she had planned to spend, she was not one of the 1 million people living at the Guangzhou train station.
Randy's company was scheduled to work the Saturday and Sunday before Spring Festival and then shut down for the week. However, as almost none of the employees ( a majority of them migrant workers that live in the dormitory) could travel home, the company kept the dormitories and cafeteria open and ran on a limited schedule. So many other area factory workers were stuck, between not being able to take a bus or train to anywhere and their dormitories shutting down.
After the first week of Spring Festival, Randy's assistant tried to return to Shenzhen. She stood in lines at the train station in her hometown in Hubei until 1 am every day and was not able to buy a ticket to return south. She finally got back to Shenzhen a week later than planned.
Many people I know were not able to get to their hometowns. I know the worldwide news explained that people were trying to get to see their family for the an annual visit.. I don't know hum much further the international news explained that, but for many migrant workers getting home to see their family once a year frequently means getting home to see their spouse and child or even children. So many children are left with relatives as their parents move to the larger cities like Shenzhen for work. Many children cannot accompany their parents to the cities because they cannot enroll in school anywhere other than the hometown.
Many apartments and dormitories are not equipped with heat in Shenzhen. Our old apartment wasn't but our new one is. It does not get that cold for that long here. However, this year the cold snap was longer and more severe, such that many people were going to dangerous measures for a even little bit of warmth. For instance, in the last two weeks of January, eight people died of asphyxiation in the showers. Some others were hospitalized for carbon monoxide poisoning as well. They ran the hot water in their showers to try to keep warm and they died or almost died. How does this happen?
This is a typical hot water heater. In our old apartment we actually had a tank suspended from the ceiling above our tub. I used to refer to it as the Tank of Damocles. Anyway, this heater in our new apartment (pictured) does not have a giant reservoir of hot water but rather heats the water as it circulates through this system. Believe it or not, this system is adequate for supplying enough hot water for an average shower. With a short break in between, another person can shower, too.
There are three hoses connected to the heater, the water intake, the water outflow, and the yellow one for the propane gas. The carbon monoxide exhaust can kill a person if the room is not properly ventilated. While the hot water heater I have pictured is outside of our bathroom, in our laundry porch, for many Chinese homes and dormitories, it is inside the bathroom, in the shower. With no exhaust fan or cracked window, the bathroom can pretty quickly fill up with CO gas when the hot water is running. When I read the article I immediately showed it to Randy because I thought maybe his employees might be trying the same thing. He assured me that their water heaters were all electric, so no danger of CO.
In addition to the types of situations you would have anywhere in the US due to bad winter weather, like closed roads and cancelled flights, people in China are affected in ways I never even imagined were possible.
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