喝热水

Do you know what Chinese people usually keep inside their bags? A cup. Not a bottle of water bought on the way, but their own cup from home, carried around every single day.

I am Xiao Yue, and I run a tiny dessert shop in Hangzhou. Today I am not going to talk about cake. I want to tell you why Chinese people love drinking hot water so much.

Every day after I get up, the first thing I do is not check my phone. It is drinking a cup of warm water. My mum says it is good for your body, and I have been used to it since I was little.

This is my flask. It is stainless steel and it holds a lot of water. I pour hot water in it in the morning, and when I open it at night, it is still hot. Really, not cold at all.

So before I go out, I boil the water first, let it sit for a while, pour it into the flask, screw the lid on tight, drop it in my bag, and I am ready to go.

When I get to the shop, the first thing I do is switch on the kettle. I boil water several times over the course of a day, not just for me, but for my customers too.

You might find that strange. In weather this hot, does anyone really want hot water? They do. So what I pour for my customers is often not ice water, but warm water.

Let me teach you a few words here. They are very useful. Water that has been boiled is called boiled water. Drunk just like that with nothing added, it is plain boiled water.

Water that is neither hot nor cold is called warm water. Boiled water that has cooled down is called cool boiled water. Careful, cool boiled water is not ice water. It has simply stopped being hot.

So in China, if you only say give me a glass of water, what the server brings you will very likely be hot, or room temperature. Nobody adds ice for you.

If you want it cold, you have to say so clearly. I want it iced, or, please put some ice in for me. That way you will not get the wrong thing.

At noon I go out for lunch. The moment I sit down, the server brings over a pot of hot tea, one cup each. I have not even ordered and the water is already poured.

In some places in the south, people will also use that pot of hot tea to rinse their cups and chopsticks once more. They say it is cleaner, and it just feels better.

Speaking of hot water, there is another funny thing. If you tell a Chinese person that you are not feeling well, a lot of them will reply with three words: drink more hot water.

Those three words really do mean they care about you. But young people have heard it so often that they laugh at it now, because if your boyfriend only replies with those three words, he is going to be in trouble.

Why is everyone so afraid of cold things? Older people believe that if you eat too many cold things, your stomach will hurt and your health will slowly get worse.

We have two more words you may never have heard: having too much inner heat, and bringing that heat back down. Eat too much spicy food and you get that inner heat, and then you drink chrysanthemum tea to bring it down.

My mum takes it even more seriously. All year round her cup has goji berries steeping in it, bright red, floating on the surface once they open up. She says this is called looking after your health.

When it turns cold she drops in a few red dates, and when her stomach hurts she boils a cup of ginger tea with a little brown sugar. Whether it works I honestly cannot tell you, but plenty of people are drinking it.

In the afternoon when the shop is quiet, I sit by the window and read a book while drinking the water in my flask. I can get through two big cups in one afternoon.

You might ask, when you are out, where does the hot water come from? Actually it is everywhere. High speed trains have a hot water room. Stations, malls, offices, they all have water dispensers.

So carrying your own cup is really convenient. You can fill up with hot water anywhere you go, and over a whole day you never have to buy a single bottle.

The most interesting part is summer. It is over thirty degrees outside and I still drink mine hot. You break into a sweat, then a breeze comes along, and you actually feel much cooler.

So whether it is winter or summer, whether I am in my shop or out on the road, what is in my flask is always hot. I suppose that is just a Chinese habit.

If you have just arrived in China, you could give it a try. Do not order everything iced the moment you sit down. Drink warm water for a few days, and you will find your stomach really does feel better.

There is one more upside. In restaurants the hot water and the tea are free, and they keep refilling it. It does not cost you a cent.

When I get home at night, I pour out what is left in my flask, wash it clean, dry it off and set it on the table. Tomorrow morning I will fill it up again and take it out with me.

Xiao Hua jumps up on the counter and sniffs at my flask as if she would like a sip too. All right, that is all for today. However hot it gets, do not forget to drink your water. See you next time.