Having never been there, China is a land of mystery. We are constantly hearing things about China. They are taking our jobs. They are fabulously poor. They are fabulously rich. And on and on.

This is one of those articles that points out how poor China is in comparison to the USA. Half the country does not have heat! Bringing China to the standard of living we enjoyed in the 1950's is a Herculean task (and a huge market opportunity). Last I heard China was building over 100 new power plants, this year!

China's Winter of Discontent

Mao-Era Policy Provides Heat Up North but None in South; Shivering Citizens Are Fed Up

14 March 2006

The Wall Street Journal

Wuhan, China -- AS A WINTER WIND howled through this central Chinese city, university lecturer Li Qiao settled down in his two-bedroom apartment for what should have been a cozy evening of reading. Around his apartment were signs of China's new prosperity: a color television, refrigerator, washing machine and air conditioner. The only thing missing: heating.

Even though winter temperatures in Wuhan dip into the 30s with occasional snow, virtually none of the city's homes are heated. "The cold is cutting into my bones," lamented Mr. Li, who was bundled up in a down coat and a quilt, with an electric heater blowing warm air toward him. "Why doesn't Wuhan have heating?"

Mr. Li isn't the only one asking. Heating systems are one of the last areas that remain under China's former centrally planned economy, with government regulators still setting the thermostat for homes, classrooms and offices across the country. Under the policy, which dates back to Mao Zedong in the 1950s, the government provides heat in the northern half of China, and, to save money, it provides no heat in the southern half. As a result, northerners often wilt in steaming apartments, while those in southern provinces shiver through the winter.

With no heat, even residents of modern cities like Shanghai spend much of the winter trying to get warm. Many Shanghai stores prominently display racks of long wool underwear instead of trendy clothes. Developers who are now permitted to privately provide heat to new apartments and homes -- by using gas boilers that pipe hot water to radiators installed in the new units -- use it as a major selling point. (Still, many new units only have what amounts to large space heaters.)

...

Last year, two-thirds of China's 31 provinces experienced brownouts due to electricity shortages. Efforts by southern provinces to construct their own heating systems would likely further strain China's energy supply, experts say. Indeed, these experts say China currently doesn't even have enough energy supplies to heat the whole country.