living without electricity

[Jace]

Here in China, most people still buy their food fresh, on a daily basis. Many people also only turn the fridge on for a few months over summer, leaving the left-overs either in a cabinet or out on the table for the rest of the year (probably why so many people get sick at the start of summer, as they've forgotten to check if the food has gone bad overnight).

This of course is the anti-thesis to a prepper, as it means you are left with nothing to eat if the local grocers' supplies are stopped for some reason (eg. localized flooding or snow). It also means that I can't really get any canned food for my stores, as the supermarkets only stock a very limited range due to the low demand. In fact, the only stuff I have been able to find is some disgusting tasting canned meat, a very small range of imported canned veg and some bottled fruit.

On the other hand, many people over the age of say 45 do still know how to butcher and preserve their meat, as the preferred method buying is to get the fish or poultry live and butcher at home. Meanwhile, practically every home will have at least some fish, duck or a ham salted and air drying on the balcony over the winter...we are still eating the salted pork we did last winter.

Therefore, I think at least in our region, the main problem with not having electricity is more that we are in an urban area, mainly all in apartment blocks. While food preservation won't be such a problem for people not accustomed to refrigerating everything, the constant trudge up and down steps, lack of water (all pumped upstairs) and entertainment would be the killer. We were actually told we were having our power cut off last week for one day of maintenance, and the only thing my neighbours were worried about was that they couldn't charge their laptops. When I pointed out that they couldn't have a shower or flush the toilet after the initial bit in the tank ran out, they couldn't understand what I was going on about until I explained that the water didn't mysteriously pump itself up.