By Karen Larsen

I am sometimes asked if the winters get cold in Sichuan. This is a hard question to answer. At the depth of winter, Sichuan sometimes gets down to freezing, and occasionally gets a very light dusting of snow.

More commonly, the temperature hovers in the single digits Celsius, about 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit.

Yet, only in Sichuan have I truly experienced winter. The reason is simple — homes and buildings in Sichuan are not typically heated, and apartments are not hooked up with warm running water that can be obtained simply for washing hands.

People in Sichuan take this situation as a matter of course and have lots of ways to cope.

First of all, they dress according to the calendar, not according to the weather on any particular day.

By October, it is time to add a vest. By the end of October, it is time to add a sweater and long johns. By November, add a second sweater. By December, add a coat, knitted long johns, a hat and gloves. Then take these layers off in a similar order in the spring.

Young kids are the cutest at the depth of winter, bundled up in so many layers that they look like little round snowmen toddling around.

People don’t take off their layers until it is time to bathe or sleep.  Bathing in winter is done once or twice a week in the middle of the day, after properly preparing enough hot water. It is usually a painful experience that one dreads.

There is also a custom of soaking one’s feet in a basin of hot water before bed. This gets the circulation moving and helps to prevent cold injuries.

In Sichuan, people have thick cotton quilts to cover themselves at night, and sleeping under them is sometimes the only warm part of the day.

Because of the continual chill, at least half the people develop painful chilblains on their hands, feet, ears and cheeks. These become so extreme in some people, that their hands swell to about twice their normal size, and are covered with blisters and bleeding sores.

On some days in the fall or winter, it gets warm at the middle of the day, but even then taking off layers is frowned upon.

I made a big mistake one year when our family had gone back to the states during January. On the return journey, the airports and the planes were very hot, and my son Ethan was appropriately dressed for that environment.

When we were leaving the airport in Chengdu, it was still very warm, and I had not opened up our suitcases to get out more winter clothes for him.

By the time we arrived home three hours later, the nighttime chill had set in.

The first thing my mother-in-law did when she saw him was to lift up his sweatshirt to see that he only was wearing two layers.

She quickly rushed to put more clothes on him, saying that he would surely catch a cold, which indeed he did, becoming so sick the next day that he spent his second birthday huddled on the sofa.

One of the things I like about living back in the States is that, though the outside is cold, the inside is warm.

However, I learned from my time in Sichuan that it is not necessary to keep the inside at a summer temperature, so that the whole household wears t-shirts during the middle of December.

When I start to feel chilled I add another layer, rather than turning up the thermostat.

This is a good way to keep the electrical bill down, as well as to save on natural resources.