Because if there is anything Shanghai residents need, it's more pampering: "...if passengers are unhappy with a train's temperature, they can speak to the driver through the emergency intercom system. Alternately, they can dial the complaint hotline, 6437000 or advise Metro workers at stations. The air-conditioning temperature setting is based on what is considered comfortable, but passengers may feel cold or hot, depending on how full trains are. Though the temperature has been set when a train leaves the terminal, drivers now can adjust the temperature according to passengers' needs, said Shentong Group. The new system is on all lines except Line 1, where the air-conditioning system is too old to be upgraded." [Shanghai Daily] Wow, Shanghai metro, you are opening an entirely unnecessary can of worms. I can only imagine the abuse those emergency intercoms will be seeing in the coming months. more ›

The Shanghai Municipal Electric Power Company is urging Shanghai's shopping malls to close down when temperatures exceed 37 degrees Celsius this summer in an attempt to save power for use by residents. Power shortages in Shanghai could exceed 1 gigawatt, and this is the latest plan to keep outages under control. The power rationing plan was approved for 3,000 non-industrial users, although it remains "advisory and not compulsory." Unsurprisingly, some malls have already protested the closures and say they will not comply. Residents of the city are encouraged to set air conditioners no lower than 26 degrees Celsius (or in other words, yucky but livable) and large office buildings will be asked to shut off the AC for one hour on days where temperatures surpass 35 degrees. So far this plan sounds like a list of reasonable but toothless suggestions that will probably result in little or no actual compliance. more ›

Jiaotong University will start the installations in a few weeks time and should have its air-conditioning units operational by mid-June according to Yao Renzhong, a university official. It's the first local public university to add air conditioning to dormitories at the cost of about 20 million RMB. Other public universities such as Fudan University will soon follow suit. more ›

For any of you who don't know already, local television currently provides Shanghai residents with something called a "Laundry Index" - a rating system letting you know whether to hang out your laundry (and providing one of the world's only official excuses not to do laundry!) Coming this summer, supplementing that brilliant trend will be the Shanghai Air Conditioner Index, a rating system saving you the trouble of asking yourself this question: "Do I feel physically uncomfortable enough to turn my air conditioner on/off/up/down?" more ›

It's been a scorcher of a week and those little AC units are working on overtime. So much so, that it threatens to plunge us all into darkness. Okay, maybe the situation hasn't gotten that melodramatic, but according to Xinhua News we used a whopping 22.43 million kilowatts yesterday afternoon, or roughly one kilowatt per person (shame on you if you used two). more ›