Part 4: The bathroom

In the previous remote visit, we talked about the living room and balcony, the kitchen and dining room, as well as the bedroom and children’s room in Chinese homes.

Now we have reached the last room of our remote home visit tour: the bathroom. Here we will focus on the different needs of Chinese people considering this room.

 

Heating

China’s central heating system was built with the help of the Soviet Union. Due to the financial shortage back then, only areas with a very low outdoor temperature in winter (-30 to 4 degrees) received a central heating system – which was Northern China. The indoor temperature with the heating system in winter stays around 18 degrees and individual adjustments are not possible.  

For very new buildings in South China, they might have a separate heating system, but the majority of homes have no heating. The indoor temperature in winter is about 7 to 15 degrees. A lot of families turn on the air conditioner for heating.

But no matter where people live, the bathroom remains one of the coldest rooms at home.

 

Thus, two things are welcomed by Chinese families:

  • The shower heater which is mounted to the ceiling and works like a huge light radiating heater. Newly developed products also offer features such as ventilation, defogging, etc.  

Check out this link to see examples. The first picture shows a traditional heater, and the other pictures show a new product: https://twgreatdaily.com/fOpo93QBURTf-Dn5UMW2.html

  • Smart toilet which offers a heating function as well.

 

Hygiene

The more people there are in a less developed public environment, the dirtier it gets. This can also be observed in the train stations in Europe or some poor city districts.

Chinese people believe clothes carry all the dirt and bacteria from outside back home, thus it is very important to separate those clothes which have contact with the outside world – such as pants and jackets –  from those that have direct contact with the body – such as underwear. Baby’s and children’s clothes will be washed separately as well.

For this purpose, one either has a bigger and deeper sink to wash the clothes by hand or installs an additional mini (wall-mounted) washing machine.

 

This is the end of our remote visit tour of Chinese homes. If you are interested in getting more insights about this topic, feel free to contact us.

 

 

Spiegel Institut conducts international consumer research studies, offering insights into the cultural and social background information for a better understanding of the consumer mindset. Feel free to contact us for cooperation: info@spiegel-institut.de

 

Author: Yue Liu, Spiegel Institut Mannheim

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