Southern Discomfort
Before I came here, I decided to break away from American tradition, and I tried to find the place on a map. Much to my surprise I found that the city (I use the term loosely) of Zhongshan lies only a few miles south of the Tropic of Cancer.
"Fantastic" I thought, "tender warmth all year round." At the time, I was suffering through a classic Chicago winter, and this seemed like bliss to me.
Boy howdy, was I wrong. It is freakin' cold here.
However, it seems that I was not the only one duped into expecting mild weather here all year round. As it seems, the sharp cold that has taken place during my two winters here has even caught the locals off guard.
The buildings here have no insulation and no weather proofing. Every structure is a solid concrete bunker with drafty doors and windows and absolutely no carpeting anywhere to be seen. (God help these people if an earthquake hits. They still live under the illusion that the brute strength of concrete is preferable to the tensile flexibility of wood and plaster.)
This latest cold snap came late in the year, with an extended autumn so mild that one could still be comfortable in a t-shirt and shorts well into December. The overall temperature dropped so far so fast that my girlfriend's family has already reported three deaths over the last month.
But, that of course is no match for the National Pride of the unwashed masses(and trust me, they are unwashed). The local news, while admitting to the intense cold, is stating that it's is only a record cold for the last couple years. Meanwhile, my girlfriend's father can state with clear confidence that it's been at least 20 years (if not longer) since he's seen it this bad.
And, when the New Year celebrations began, I watched from my balcony as thousands of locals huddled together on the soccer field across from me to watch the fireworks go off. I don't know which was funnier, the fact that it was so cold the crowd couldn't even get out a proper "Ooh, aah," or that the fireworks were set off so low to the ground that the concussion set off every car alarm in a 6 block radius.
So, what is the deal? Is it just one of those things where once every couple of decades or so the planet has to do some climate defraging? Or does it have something to do with the fact that the Chinese have been clear cutting forests, leveling mountains, and pumping god knows what into the air from their hundreds of thousands of God Knows What factories for the last ten years straight?
I don't have the answers, all I know is I'm not coming out from under this blanket until I hear birds chirping; and that's final.
"Fantastic" I thought, "tender warmth all year round." At the time, I was suffering through a classic Chicago winter, and this seemed like bliss to me.
Boy howdy, was I wrong. It is freakin' cold here.
However, it seems that I was not the only one duped into expecting mild weather here all year round. As it seems, the sharp cold that has taken place during my two winters here has even caught the locals off guard.
The buildings here have no insulation and no weather proofing. Every structure is a solid concrete bunker with drafty doors and windows and absolutely no carpeting anywhere to be seen. (God help these people if an earthquake hits. They still live under the illusion that the brute strength of concrete is preferable to the tensile flexibility of wood and plaster.)
This latest cold snap came late in the year, with an extended autumn so mild that one could still be comfortable in a t-shirt and shorts well into December. The overall temperature dropped so far so fast that my girlfriend's family has already reported three deaths over the last month.
But, that of course is no match for the National Pride of the unwashed masses(and trust me, they are unwashed). The local news, while admitting to the intense cold, is stating that it's is only a record cold for the last couple years. Meanwhile, my girlfriend's father can state with clear confidence that it's been at least 20 years (if not longer) since he's seen it this bad.
And, when the New Year celebrations began, I watched from my balcony as thousands of locals huddled together on the soccer field across from me to watch the fireworks go off. I don't know which was funnier, the fact that it was so cold the crowd couldn't even get out a proper "Ooh, aah," or that the fireworks were set off so low to the ground that the concussion set off every car alarm in a 6 block radius.
So, what is the deal? Is it just one of those things where once every couple of decades or so the planet has to do some climate defraging? Or does it have something to do with the fact that the Chinese have been clear cutting forests, leveling mountains, and pumping god knows what into the air from their hundreds of thousands of God Knows What factories for the last ten years straight?
I don't have the answers, all I know is I'm not coming out from under this blanket until I hear birds chirping; and that's final.
posted by The Infinite Jester at 5:23 PM
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