Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Shanghai, where it was still a very nice 26 degrees when we landed. When we arrived home an hour later it was very hot inside, similar to temperatures during summer when you don’t put the airco on. We wondered what happened, but figured it out quickly: someone had put our floor heating on while we were away. The thermostat was set at 30.5 degrees Celcius, which explained why the whole apartment felt like a sauna. The stone floor in the bathroom was so hot that you could not even walk barefoot on it!

We asked our maid this morning, but she said she had no idea why it was turned on, nor did she know when it was turned on. Actually, she did not even know that we have heating in our apartment (most apartments in Shanghai do not have this ‘luxurious’ feature, even though it can get down to zero degrees in winter), so I suppose she turned it on by mistake. But I hope the heating was not on for too much time. We will find out next month when the gas bill arrives…