9 Things About Chinese Homes That Make Them Different From Homes Around the World

China is an enormous country where people can speak different dialects and not understand each other. This is why the features of homes on one end of the country can be totally different from those on the other end. However, there are typical features that can be found in all of the homes of the Celestial Empire.

At Bright Side, we enjoyed reading and watching blogs from people who’ve moved to China. As a bonus, you’ll find out about a feature of local hotels that puzzles foreigners.

1. The stove usually only has 2 burners.

Stoves in China are usually very small due to the small area of the kitchen. Chinese people don’t cook many dishes at the same time, so they don’t need more burners. There is no oven or microwave either. Of course, you could buy an oven, but you will hardly find a place to install it.

2. A dishwasher is rare in a Chinese home, but you’ll definitely find a dish disinfector here.

This device looks like a dishwasher, and it perplexes many foreigners. After washing dishes by hand, locals load them into a disinfector and sterilize them with ultraviolet light.

3. You will find a narrow multi-shelf unit in a Chinese kitchen.

This unit, which is only about a bottle wide, is designed for the storage of condiments. The fact is there are many specific food additives in China, like soy sauces, different essential oils, vinegar, culinary wines, etc. This narrow unit is a perfect place to store these condiments.

4. A fridge might be found in the living room.

The reason for this is very simple. Kitchens are so small sometimes, that a fridge doesn’t fit in there. If this is the case, a fridge can be placed in the living room or in any other room.

5. There is only cold water in the kitchen.

You have to install a water heater to have hot water in the kitchen. But first, not everyone can afford this. Second, if it’s a rented apartment, the owner may not allow you to install it. So, locals not only wash dishes by hand, but they also have to do it with cold water.

6. Washing machines are different here.

Local apartments are equipped with washing machines, but they look and work differently. They wash laundry with cold water because there is no heater inside. However, you can add hot water by hand. The laundry is loaded into the machine vertically, and the drum rotates in a certain way, turning everything into one big entangled mess as a result.

7. A toilet and a shower are usually placed in the same space.

This feature doesn’t sound like something special because many of us have a combined bathroom. But you should know that water pours right on the floor next to the toilet from the showerhead. The toilet ends up getting wet and this usually flabbergasts foreigners. Sometimes, a toilet and a shower are placed in one room, while a sink and a mirror are placed in another.

You can try to separate the shower area with a curtain, but it won’t help with the splashing of water. By the way, the water pressure in a Chinese shower is quite low but the locals don’t seem to mind.

Sometimes, a Chinese bathroom is equipped with a squat toilet. Chinese people don’t think it’s strange or scary. In their opinion, it’s actually healthier than a sitting toilet.

Luckily, nowadays these toilets are installed mainly in schools, hospitals, cafes, and restaurants. It’s interesting that if you find a toilet like this, you will also see a picture describing how to use it.

8. The Chinese use balconies in a different way.

In China, you will hardly ever spend time on the balcony, drinking a cup of tea or coffee. For locals, a balcony is a place where they store different things and dry their laundry. Sometimes, they might also place a couple of plants there or a bird cage. But the idea of a balcony as a recreation area is not common there.

9. There are no carpets in Chinese apartments.

Rugs and carpeting are rare in China. There is a simple explanation for this. Tiled and wooden floors can be washed easily while carpets require special attention. The Chinese clean their homes every day, and they don’t just vacuum their floors but they also wash them.

Foreigners, on the contrary, believe that it’s OK to do a wet cleaning once a week. However, if you move to China, you’ll understand the reasons for the frequent cleaning. There are serious environmental problems in China, that is why the floor becomes dirty the following day after cleaning. And if you try to wash the floor again, you’ll see that the water turns black.

By the way, this is the reason why everyone in China wears slippers at home.

Bonus: Many hotels in China use glass walls for their bathrooms.

Not every Chinese apartment has glass walls, but it’s also not something that is really rare. Most often you can see a bathroom like this in a hotel that is not intended for foreign tourists.

This kind of design is believed to be modern. Besides, it saves space (a glass wall is much thinner than a brick one) and it’s much cheaper.

Would you want to visit an average Chinese apartment? Tell us in the comments below.