Have I ever told you about beds in China? Well, they’re not what people from the West are used to, this much I can say. They are not actually bad – as Chinese people are really used to them, and some of them wouldn’t even be able to sleep well in our western beds – it’s just that they are really different. And I wish, I could say I have gotten used to them, after living here for so long. But I haven’t, really!

To say it plainly: beds in China are hard.

There are those beds here that have no mattress or padding at all. (Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying this critically, since having no mattress in summer really can help with the heat.) So, there are lots of people here who actually prefer having the simple wooden frame for a bed.

And then there are those beds that have a mattress. Funny thing is: even with the mattress these beds are almost as hard as without. Basically, the mattresses here are nothing more than a hard frame with a thin padding on top. Why they are called mattress, still puzzles me. Well, granted, they do look like what we would call a “normal” mattress, and a lot of them look even pretty!

I used to have a bed with one of those pretty looking mattresses for more than 1 1/2 years, when I first got here. And that was much more than a lot of other people around here, so I appreciated that, though I have to admit I even padded that mattress with some extra layer of foam. Still, I kept getting bruises just trying to sleep. So, you may call me a wimp, but after over a year on that mattress, I decided to allow myself a little luxury: a western style bed with a soft mattress. Now that, I call my bed of roses!