At my girlfriend's family's home in semi-rural, mid-latitude China - not removed in the mountains But Are mountains visible in the distance - There is no heating or air conditioning or hot running water. Dishwashing and laundry and Basically Everything Else Are done by hand. In the kitchen There's a wood-burning stove, as well as a gas burner hooked up to a propane tank on the floor. Are the cast iron pans. There is electricity and indoor plumbing, the pipes and wires But Are on the Outside of the walls, visible. The light switches dangle on the end of the cord That leads up to the light. The walls undecorated Either Themselves Are Exposed brick and cement or mortar. Are the cement floors, and shoes or sandals inside Are worn at all times. (MOST unlikable my impression of Asian homes, you don't take your shoes off at the door.)
My girlfriend's mom is in the habit of cooking three meals a day, including a hot breakfast of rice porridge or noodles or something else. (In China, I've found, people don't skip breakfast as wantonly as we do back home.) There's no microwave or dishwasher or garbage disposal. There is a fridge, but in the winter you can just put leftovers in the cabinet because the temperature in the house is not much above freezing. Eating and drinking are done out of bowls. There are no cups or glasses. No plates. No forks; only chopsticks. No need for knives at the table because everything is already prepared bite-size. I can't remember if I ever saw spoons or not; I think soup might just be drunk out of the bowl.
The family has a dog, but although he's very friendly and happy-go-lucky, he's not a \from them, though, since you're covered with so many layers of blankets and clothes, due to the cold. In the summer you probably don't want to sleep with a blanket or a quilt of any kind because it's just too hot, but the mosquito net hanging around the bed will do a better job of protecting you from the real nuisances anyway. The beds themselves, though, might give you some problems, since many of them are nothing more than a bamboo mat maybe half a centimeter thick, on top of a wooden board.
Given that there's no water heater of any kinds, cold showers in the summer can help keep you cool. Wear your sandals in the shower, because of the floor. There is no shower stall or bathtub or anything; the nozzle just sprays onto the ground. In the summer, at least, the water that eat out of the tap is Not unbearably cold. In the winter, it is. And heating up enough water on the stove for a full-body shower Would Be a lot of trouble, so feet and face Can Be washed frequently in this way, while full showers Are Less Than taken on a daily basis by making a trip down to a public shower facility, Where You Can Pay to strip of your million layers of clothes on for That You've Had A Few Days, take a hot shower in Their Woodfire-heated water (at times scalding Nearly frozen to your skin) And Then layer yourself up with clean clothes.
Back at home, speaking of plumbing, the house does Have a sit-down toilet, But you can not flush the TP, So There's a wastepaper bin next to the comode for That purpose. There's a well outside, and the outdoor tap (as well assome, But Not all, of the indoor plumbing) draws from That. (None of the water from the indoor faucets and Stock of drinking is, of course, so water is always boiled first Before drinking.) One trick when you're washing your clothes by hand Outside in the winter is to use the bucket to get well water off the surface, Rather Than using the faucet s, which pumps it up from Deeper down, on top Because the water is warmer Slightly. In the summer, this situation is reversed, and the water coming out of the faucet over the big makeshift cement laundry sink in the yard is Actually warmer Than What You pull up in the bucket. After you wash your clothes, of course There is no dryer, so you hang Them up in the yard on the bamboo rods set-up expressly for That purpose.
Some of These characteRistics Are Fairly typical in my experience THROUGHOUT THROUGHOUT China or Asia, or Throughout the World, and Some Are not. Most places in Haikou, it seems, You Can flush the toilet paper. (But most, maybe all, public facilities Do not Have sit-down johns, only squatters.) In Peru, on the Other Hand, I only ever saw one hole-in-the-ground squatter, pero Almost nowhere in the country TP Could Be flushed (and Did not Have That public toilets seats and / or You Would not want to sit down on anyway Were pretty much the norm). In Both Countries, Their own people carry paper at all times, Because it's very rare to find it When You Need it. (Here in Hainan, people always carry Tissues, and use only as TP Them Not When the Need Arise, But as napkins in restaurants - most restaurants don't Provide napkins for free - and (especially for girls) to blot off the sweat that you accumulate just walking around in this climate. In both Lima and Hainan, heating and air conditioning are pretty rare, and the buildings tend to be fairly open to the outside. One problem with that approach is the influx of bugs and (especially here in Haikou) rodents. The tap water not being potable is common everywhere I've been in China as well as South America. The beds in China are all very firm, and I think this is true of Asia generally. (In the US I always thought of myself as a person who prefers firm mattresses, but in the US I don't think we even have mattresses like they have here, and that's when mattresses are used at all; everybody seems to think it's no big deal - even if not an everyday thing - to sleep on the hard floor with nothing more than a thin bamboo mat.) There not being a shower stall, but just showering onto the bathroom floor, seems to be the norm everywhere that I've been in Asia (except the one place I stayed in Hong Kong). Also, I've never seen a bathtub anywhere that I've been here. People that I've occasionally asked about it have never taken a bath, only showers. Laundry seems to be done by hand by most people in China, and hanging up to dry is ubiquitous, even among those who use a washing machine. A lot of these things I've gotten used to, and living in Peru helped me to have less things that feel really strange or shocking or foreign here -- which is good, because the culture here feels a lot more strange and foreign than it did in Peru, so it frees up brain space for Adapting To That, Rather Than HAVING first to adapts to (the Lack of) the more Immediate physical comforts.
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