The Importance of the Bed in Northern China

The bed is said to symbolise the strength and steadfastness of Penelope and Odysseus' union. In medieval and renaissance Europe, the bed was considered the most important and valuable item in the home. From the 1400s on, wealthy Europeans preferred to sleep in four poster beds hung with thick canopies that formed a curtain around the sleeper. Traditional bed design in northern China was influenced by the frigid weather in the region. Here, people used to sleep on kangs which were ingeniously heated by a flu system connected to a house's central fire.

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