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[China: World Residence Tour] Ancient wisdom on how to cope with the heat

• Release date: Jun 30, 2021
• Update date: Sep 08, 2025
• 5795 Views

• Usage and altitude
• daily use items
• Consumer Electronics
• Furniture and home furnishings
• China
• Culture/Habit

When summer comes, it gets hotter and hotter. Just like in Japan, Chinese people are taking various measures to cope with the heat in their homes. In this article, I would like to briefly introduce the wisdom of Chinese people on how to cope with the heat, based on the photos of Chinese people registered on Consumer Life Panorama.

Cool mattresses and covers inherited from tradition

Although China has a large land area, most of the country is in the temperate zone, warm temperate zone and subtropical zone, so in the summer, the temperature is high, with many days exceeding 30 degrees Celsius. In addition to the heat, humidity is also high, especially in the south. For this reason, Chinese people have long taken various measures to make their lives more comfortable in summer. Some of these measures have been taken over even today. One of the most distinctive features is the extensive use of Japanese rush mat-like pads made of grass or bamboo. In China, air-conditioning has only become popular in the last few decades. Before this, bed pads and pillowcases made of grass or bamboo were used in combination with fans woven from cattail leaves to make sleeping cooler at night.

A mattress pad and pillowcases woven from grass and bamboo
（Source: Lifestyle database (Consumer Life Panorama)) 

These pads were originally used mainly for beds, but as more and more furniture was added to the house, they began to be used in other places as well. One of the largest uses is to put them on the sofa. This is another change that comes from families spending more time relaxing in the living room as their lives become more affluent.

A mattress pad and cover on the sofa （Source: Lifestyle database (Consumer Life Panorama)） 

Preference for electrical appliance placement and layout

I introduced above that in the past, people used fans woven from cattail leaves and bed pads and pillowcases woven from grass or bamboo as a set, but as life became more affluent, fans were gradually replaced by ceiling fans and stationary fans, and eventually by air conditioners. However, with these changes came some problems. In previously built houses, air conditioning was not considered as a prerequisite. This led to various problems, such as that the outlets were too far away or not enough, or that holes had to be drilled in the wall to run the hoses. As a result, the air conditioner was installed, but the appearance was not good due to the unreasonable placement of wires and hoses.

An example of unreasonable wiring and hoses
（Source: Lifestyle database (Consumer Life Panorama)） 

For the older generation, air-conditioning was not so prevalent, so they had to use fans or other methods to bring in the breeze. Such ingenuity can also be seen in the layout of the rooms. In China, there was and still is a tendency to prefer layouts that have a "chuān táng fēng" (wind blowing through the room). To achieve this, the layout is designed to have windows on both sides facing each other, all the doors of all rooms, when they are opened, allow the natural breeze to blow through easily.

Plan with wind blowing through （Source: Lifestyle database (Consumer Life Panorama)）

In this way, people in China are still borrowing wisdom from the old way of life on how to cope with the heat and make their current life more comfortable.

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  Author profile

  Yang Yan

  A Chinese researcher living in Japan, providing information on the living conditions of overseas consumers, mainly of Chinese consumers. In summer, I prefer to open the windows to let the breeze flow in rather than leaving the air conditioning on.

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  Editor profile

  Yusuke Tatsuda

  Responsible for building the Global Market Surfer website. Four construction projects have started near my house, so I'll be living in air conditioning for a while. I like to live in a corner apartment where the wind can blow through.