Love it or loathe it, winter has well and truly arrived in Shanghai
Winter is here, but we're far from the coldest part.
It’s probably the least popular time of year for most people, winter, but it’s a season I look forward to most of the time, especially during Shanghai’s hot and sweaty summer.
Unlike most people, I love the cold and loathe being hot — wo pa re (I’m scared of heat), as the locals would say, although I don’t know if it’s really a fear or just total and utter disdain.
But since it’s China, things are always a little more complicated, right? Even when it comes to weather and seasons.
While in the West we split the year up into four distinct seasons, China has 24 — okay, maybe I shouldn’t call them seasons, per se, but it’s probably the easiest way to understand the phenomenon in English.
The solar terms were created back in ancient times and describe where the sun is in the zodiac, helping farmers manage their crops and normal people plan their lives.
As an example, from March 5 this year’s jingzhe (insects awaken) period began, which very specifically is the time thunder begins and hibernating insects wake up. On April 19, the period called guyu (grain rain) commenced, which is when early crops begin to show their shoots.
We’re currently in the daxue (heavy snow) period which lasts until December 21.
Unfortunately, Shanghai seldom sees snow — it happens once every few years, usually — and the weather is still sitting somewhere in the teens. But it is getting decidedly colder, and I guarantee you’ve pulled out your thick pajamas from their summer hibernation spot and started turning on your heaters at night.
Steam pouring from roadside restaurants is one of Andy's favorite winter sights.
One of my favorite sights ever is steam pouring out of small roadside restaurants as men and women boil pulled noodles and wonton and steam a myriad of treats for cold passers-by who need to escape the breeze and warm their bellies.
The effect is almost like the steam you can often spot shooting from New York’s vast underground, but here it’s even more dramatic.
I’m not sure why or how it started, but winter really sums up China in my imagination. White snow, steam, hot soup — that’s the romantic image I have in the back of my mind.
Don’t let the current “heavy snow” solar term fool you, though, because we’re definitely not in the coldest part of the winter. Not by a long shot.
That will begin on January 20 as we welcome in dahan (great cold), when temperatures will reach their lowest across this vast land. In Shanghai that’s not usually below zero, but don’t quote me on that.
No doubt I’ll spend a lot of my free time cuddled up with my cats in bed, oil heater on and electric blanket blaring as I read book after book. After all, it’s much easier to turn down social invitations when you’ve got a good excuse that most people will agree with you on. “This is no weather to be going out,” I’ll say without a hint of guilt.
But all good things must come to an end, at least that’s what my mom always says. Early February welcomes in the prematurely named lichun (spring begins) solar term, where it’s not actually the beginning of spring for most of the country.
From then the weather will slowly but steadily change for the warmer, and before I know it the air con will be on and those pajamas will have gone back into hibernation.
Lixia is known as “summer begins” in English, and it’s when I begin dreaming of the cold once again.
