Insulation

My mom reminded me that most of you won't know that buildings in China are not insulated. Not even a little bit of insulation is in my concrete walls. That's why running the heaters in winter and air-conditioners in summer is expensive and somewhat ineffective. There is nothing to help retain the temperature, so once the machine is turned off, the indoor temperature quickly reverts to the outdoor temperature. On a sunny winter day, it is often warmer outside than inside. Either you can run your heater/air-conditioner non-stop, or in winter you can dress like an Eskimo every day.

Picture an bundled up Eskimo, washing dishes at the kitchen sink, mopping floors, typing on his computer. It doesn't really work well. I have no solutions.

If the Chinese are bothered by the weather extremes, you wouldn't know about it. They don't talk about the weather. (It is so weird, because Americans talk about the weather all the time. How can Chinese NOT talk about the weather? They talk about food instead. It's like when you meet a Chinese you might say, "hey the temperature is nice today!" And they'll look at you like you are a weirdo and ask what you had for breakfast -- or something like that.)

Let's see, where were we? Oh yeah, insulation. Bottom line is, very few if any trees died in the building of China. (Lots of concrete died though, haha.)