The government said the city is facing a shortage of about 1 million cu m of natural gas. The surge in demand is mainly due to increasingly popular gas-powered home water heaters. Homes in areas south of the Yangtze River have traditionally been unheated, but many now have air conditioners and home water heaters.

We have a gas-powered water heater in our apartment as well, and I’m very thankful that it’s still working. (The foreign students dorm at Wuda has apparently only had electicity intermittently these past few days).

Still, the economic impact of this must be huge. There’s certainly something to be said for the returns on basic infrastructure investment. At times I have my doubts, at least in terms of the scale of investment in roads and real estate (and railway lines) — sometimes it can seem like money is being spent on “roads to nowhere” simply as as a way to pump money into the economy and powerful pockets. But energy definitely seems to fall in the category of desperately needing further investment (even though infrastructure is just one aspect of addressing China’s energy problem) — demand for staying warm in the winter is just going to increase, not to speak of the industrial demand for natural gas, and the cost of having to cut off supplies of gas to industry on weeks like this must be huge.

Fresh snow on the street below our building

A balcony across from our apartment, with some very courageous potted plants

The drawback is that it’s very cold, and most buildings (including our apartment and my classrooms) aren’t heated. Insulation is also virtually non-existent, so when it’s cold outside, it’s at best a few degrees warmer inside. A lot of people have an air conditioner that blows cold air in the summer and hot air in the winter, which helps a little bit against the cold — in my apartment, we have these in the bedrooms, but not in the rest of the apartment. But even with those on at full speed all day, when it’s only a few degrees above zero, they’re barely able to pump out warm air faster than the cold air seeps in through the cracks around the windows. Still, if we keep the bedroom door closed, we can keep at least one room in the apartment at a decent temperature, which is better than nothing.

Students who live in university dorms don’t even have air conditioners / heaters — my students have told me that they just bundle up, and use a small electric heating pouch that they put between the blankets to keep warm. They think it’s strange that I take my jacket off when I come into the classroom — most people keep their full winter gear on at all times. Not to speak of the people who run the noodle stalls and small printing shops on the side streets nearby, who often live above their shops — I shudder to imagine what winter nights must be like for them.

I’ve been told that the reason there’s no heating in Wuhan is that Mao once decided that north of the Yangtze River, buildings should have heating in the winter, while south of the Yangtze River, heating was unnecessary. Wuhan is right on the Yangtze River — half of the city is actually north of the river, and half is south. So we’re far enough north to have pretty cold winters, but we’re considered to be south of the river for heating purposes, and thus no heated houses. (To be fair to Wuhan, the heating situation isn’t that different from some places in southern Europe, which also have very hot summers and cold but not freezing winters — it seems like in these kinds of places, buildings are designed mainly to keep out the heat in the summer, since that’s the biggest concern, and buildings designed to stay cool in the summer often also stay cool in the winter. Still, it’s cold.)

My conclusion: if I had money to invest, I would build some apartment blocks with good climate control. People here love to complain about the weather (and there are lots of people in Wuhan from all over the country, who aren’t used to the extremely hot summers and cold winters), so there must be a market for apartments that stay comfortable all through the year. If I just imported some double pane windows, or sealed up the cracks around the windows and doors, I could keep the temperature under control and make a fortune. Or maybe most people are so used to just adding layers when it’s cold that they don’t think unheated buildings are a problem (they’re certainly more environmentally friendly). Either way, if the weather this week is any indication of the winter to come, my heater will be working overtime for the next few months.