Odds against public heating in South

For people in North and South China, mid-November generates different feelings. Northerners heave a sigh of relief as they welcome central heating that will guarantee cozy indoors for four months even if the temperature outside dips well below freezing point, while southerners brace themselves for the long and unbearable winter ahead.

The decision to provide public heating in North China was taken in the 1950s when the "North-South Central Heating Supply Line" was drawn. Given the traditional, geographical and meteorological characteristics, as well as financial and energy shortage at the time, the central government divided China into northern and southern parts along Qinling Mountain and the Huaihe River, and decided to provide public heating in the North because it has a much colder and longer winter than the South.

For decades, people in the southern region, even those who live close to Qinling Mountain and the Huaihe River and thus have to endure as severe a winter as in the North, have had to find ways to keep themselves warm in winter. But over the past years, climate change and the country's rapid economic growth and personal wealth accumulation have prompted southern residents to demand public heating.