One of the truer stereotypes of the Chinese is that they take their cuisine seriously. While rapid development and modern demands of society are deteriorating their allegiance to good food, it is still generally expected that people know how to — and do — cook. Even though more and more Chinese are eating out, they still mostly cook at home.

At least, I think this is true. Now I’m having doubts.

Why, oh why, is it so hard to find an apartment with a decent kitchen in Beijing? Even the one I have now, in my rather nice apartment, comes with barely two square feet of counter space. At least it has three gas burners and a divided sink with a vegetable washer. Of the six apartments we saw yesterday, one had two electric burners, two had two REALLY old gas burners, two had two new ones, and one had one gas burner. And none had an oven.

Apartment search did not get off to a very promising start.