But district heating seems too monumental a task to accomplish even for the can-do Shanghai municipal government. Even if the government is willing to foot the multi-billion dollar bill of laying a network of insulated pipes throughout the city, it would be a huge disruption to daily life.

Proponents of district heating should bear in mind that not all cities in developed countries provide such facilities. Most homes in Tokyo, for instance, are unheated. A recent study of European countries showed that in 2000, the percentage of residential units supplied by district heat was more than 90 percent in Iceland, but only one percent in the United Kingdom and 12 percent in Germany.

Some countries provide subsidies for the installation of space heating appliances in individual homes. Others require developers to build central heating units to pipe heat into apartments in newly constructed large housing estates.

Shanghai city planning experts agree that district heating is not feasible. Instead, they recommend that the simplest and least expensive way to keep warm in the winter is to install buildings better-insulated windows in buildings. Other than that, just keep wearing a lot of clothes.

But that's not what the increasingly prosperous Shanghai people want to hear. Of course, the debate may die down when warmer weather returns in the spring. But the growing desire for heated homes is not going to go away. The government, which takes great pride in its people-oriented policies, will have to produce a plan to satisfy the yearning of more and more people of all classes to warm their homes in the winter time.

(China Daily 01/21/2013 page8)