Battling cold in new house adds 'frost on snow'

For many people around the world, this is a particularly cold winter due to the financial crisis that "adds frost on snow", as a Chinese idiom puts it. Our family is also enduring an unprecedentedly icy winter, but I find the situation inspiring.

We have to wrap ourselves in cotton pajamas, layers of sweaters and gulp down hot water to keep ourselves from turning into icicles. The temperature in Beijing dived below zero last month. Our problem is that our apartment's walls lack insulation, meaning precious heat keeps on leaking outside no matter how we flap our elbows, stamp our feet or sing at the top of our lungs.

A year ago, when we bought the new home, we installed a fashionable electric heating system beneath the floor with the hope of enjoying "green energy".