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Took this photo earlier today from my seat on the bus. Not content with just opening the doors, this shopkeeper has gone one stage further by moving his bed and arm chair (see far left) out onto the pavement.
Might consider doing this myself if it wasn’t that I lived on the 6th floor!
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As I sit on my bed typing this I feel really uncomfortably hot and sticky. My apartment is disgustingly hot; the air is stale and humid.
The temperature during the summer in Changchun is consistently hot, it’s easy to predict, and even when it rains it still remains hot. I think many people would consider the summer weather here perfect holiday weather- It doesn’t drop much below 25°at night and seldom breaks 35°during the day, with nearly always blue skies.
I have found out what it’s really like to live in a hot climate (Yes I know it isn’t that hot compared to the rest of China, but it’s still like living on the Mediterranean). It sounds great on paper; holidaying in the sunshine enjoying the warmth, but the reality of living with this everyday is actually rather miserable. I find it difficult to cope with the hot weather - not least because there is no air-con here (I find myself walking around the expensive department stores that do have AC) but it makes me really tired and lethargic and all I want to do is fall asleep. But on the plus side it’s easy to know what to wear; I have been wearing shorts and sandals since mid-May and will continue to do so until mid-September, then like flicking a switch, the weather turns.
Changchun is geared up to cope with the cold winters, and many of the apartments are not designed to facilitate air flow or draughts flowing through. Newer apartments are starting to deal with this problem and have larger windows that are designed with this in mind, but the older places (most of Changchun) are not. And so I am baking.
So having lived in both extremes, I actually believe it’s easier to travel and do things during the freezing winter than it is now, and that is despite wearing 6 layers of clothes, gloves, hat, scarf etc…
