Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, October 2 – Free outdoor gyms, Open-air gyms or adult playgrounds, can be found in many Chinese housing areas and parks. The following is info I found online, I don’t know if it’s fully accurate, but …. in 1995 a “Physical Health Law" was passed in China to encourage people to participate in a fitness Program. Then, there was supposedly a big campaign before the 2008 summer Olympics where the government installed a large amount of outdoor gym equipment to continue to encourage people to be more active. These gyms are quite well used, mainly in mornings and evenings, you can see people of all ages and abilities exercising. I’ve never counted how many gym areas there are where we live, but I know of 4 fully outdoor areas, and there are at least a couple more that are outdoor, but under roofs on the ground floor of some buildings. One of the fully outdoor ones is right next to some children’s playground equipment in a fenced in area. It seems this idea is also popular in Australia, the UK, and is starting to catch on in the USA and some other countries. The pictures are of the outdoor gym closest to us, we have to walk around it when we go to walk by Songshan Lake, so we often stop and “play!” :-)