In the cold and long winters of the Northeast, indoor heating is a big problem. People who have been working hard for a day outdoors can return to the warmth of their homes to soothe their frozen bodies and melt away their fatigue. The Northeast Kang perfectly meets this need.
The Northeast Kang is not a patent for rural areas in the Northeast. Many provinces in northern China, Hebei, Henan (northern Henan), Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Xinjiang, etc., all burn ondols.
The fire kang looks like it is about the same as the bed, but the area is large, generally about 60 centimeters high, more than two meters wide, some run through the north side of the room, some run through the south side of the room, and even more, the south, north and west of the room run through, which is equivalent to having three large kangs, called the 10,000-character kang.
The kang was made of adobe, which looked like an earthen platform on the outside and was empty on the inside, leading to the stove and chimney of the kitchen. When the fire is burned in the stove, the hot air is discharged from the chimney through the kang and the kang is hot.
Before the 20th century, the country's economic conditions were generally poor, and there was a lack of existing heating facilities. The method of burning the kang is a common heating method. A large fire kang can warm the whole house. In the other room (equivalent to our current kitchen) to make a fire for cooking, the waste heat of the firewood energy consumed heats the big kang, and the smoke is discharged from the chimney along the passage in the kang, which is similar to the geothermal effect of home heating in northern cities.
After dinner, the family sits on the hot kang and chatters, and the children play on the kang or write their homework on the kang, and they are happy. It's a pleasure to sleep on a hot kang at night!
The disadvantage is that when sleeping, the half of the body of the kang is very hot, and it can't cover the quilt, so kick it off, the room temperature is low, and it's cold; The air is a little dry, and getting up in the middle of the night to drink cold water is another challenge; Indoor air quality is poor and dusty.
Now, the standard of living has been significantly improved, the rooms have improved a lot of lighting and cold-proof conditions than before, and many families have other heating facilities, such as simple earth heating, electric heating, etc. The need for ondol is diminishing. With the passage of time, many things will naturally disappear, and the ondol has evolved into a winter leisure travel experience, and some restaurants attract customers in winter.