Markets and Media in 21st Century China

Hot water, almost too hot, has been abundant in China. All hot things, for that matter, have been accessible. Very cold drinks are hard to come by. This is opposite of what I am used to. Americans like a very cold drink on a hot day. Chinese, however, like warm things. Many believe that cold drinks are bad for you. Instead, on a hot day, some hot tea would make you sweat even more releasing toxins and any evil spirits. This probably corresponds to how hot the Chinese can get their water.

In Henglu, the water given to us to drink and for brushing our teeth was too hot to use for the first hour. It was placed in a very well insulated bottle that kept the water hot for hours. If you used it to brush your teeth straight from the bottle, you would burn yourself. We would let it sit in the insulated bottle until the morning and the water would still be warm! I don't know how they got the water so hot.

The shower water also displays this characteristic. In the States, I turn the nozzle for the shower water almost to the hottest temperature. In China, I can't even turn it halfway. It is on the cold side and the water is hot. A couple times I would get out of the shower and turn the water fully to hot. It would steam immediately and form a sauna in the bathroom. I never realized the reason why or how the water was able to get that hot.

-Bryce Foster