Nearly 5 years I've been here: my fifth Spring, and every year Spring has arrived, dramatically, definitively on the last weekend of March.
We often get a few misleading 'early onsets': many times the weather will start getting very mild early in the month - even in February on occasions - and then suddenly, brutally revert to Winter for a few days. The central heating gets turned off on March 15th - by official decree (although the government will sometimes grant an extension of a week or two if the March weather has started out particularly icy; and I think individual apartment buildings are starting to exercise a lot more discretion - or contemptuous disregard of 'the law'? - in implementing this); and we usually get punished by a few icy blasts immediately after that.
This year, March started out pretty nice. In fact, the day before my party a couple of weeks back, the midday temperature was briefly nudging 70°F. The next day was misty, drizzly, and chilly...... and then it snowed! Then it perked up again, and a few foolhardy trees were starting to put forth their buds. The following weekend a vicious wind came down out of the North-West, and it was pretty bloody cold. Most of last week was sunny, and the temperatures were getting into the upper 50s, low 60s: blossoms thought about coming out again, but were more cautious this time; on Sunday night, rather oddly, it actually got warmer in the evening - I went out with just a jacket rather than a fleece or a sweater.... and took it off. Shirtsleeves in the middle of March, at night? Inconceivable!
Today has been miserable again: cold, foggy, the sky opaque, white-as-clay.
I should have known better by now. Two more weeks. Two more weeks until Spring arrives....
2 comments:
Wait, it's against the law to have the heating on? Is this still the case? Why on Earth? That's rich coming from the worst polluting country on the planet (and I doubt Chinese homes are particularly energy efficient neither.)
Well, not as such, no. But until recently, all heating was provided centrally (for a fixed, compulsory annual fee) by the building management of each apartment complex. And there are government decrees as to what dates they have to provide this (normally November 15th to March 15th, although it can be extended by a week or so either side by supplementary decree).
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