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!” :-)
Bike Rentals
Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, September 29 – There are bike rental businesses everywhere you go around us. This is a new one that just opened outside of a restaurant (not sure if it’s actually a part of the same business?). There’s already another one at the end of the row of shops, and a convenience store in between them. People from neighboring towns come to Songshan Lake to relax and have fun, and renting bikes to ride seems to be the top choice of what to do here! For a regular bicycle, rental is 10rmb (about $1.50usd) per day. A mountain bike or bicycle built for two are 20rmb per day. At other places, you can also rent bikes for 3 and 4 people. There are also baby, toddler and child type seats to choose from. There are nice brick bike paths that go all around the lake, much of them shaded, unfortunately, many people insist on riding in the street which causes traffic problems, especially when it’s crowded.
Swimming Pools
Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, September 18 – I thought that before the summer is over here I’d explain swimming pools in China. First of all, these pictures are NOT what your average swimming pool in China looks like…..why? because there are NO people other than us! This is the swimming pool where we live, but it’s only the third time we’ve gone! When we’ve been before, there were other people, but tonight is a school night and work night and I guess that makes a difference, although there were some other people who came as we were leaving. Swimming pools in China often have unusual hours, ours is open from 3PM-6PM, then again from 7PM to 10PM. The Chinese don’t like to be out in the sun, so there are not usually morning and early afternoon hours. You don’t have to live in a housing ‘garden’ to use the pool, you may pay a little more than the residents, but anyone willing to pay the price is allowed to swim from what I’ve been told. You can usually buy a pass for discounted rates. Where we live, it is 20rmb/$3usd per time, but if you buy a pass with 30 visits, it is then only 15rmb per swim. I’ve never yet seen a diving board at any of the pools I’ve been to in China, there seem to always be special kiddie pools though. You see that we’re wearing swim caps, required at our pool, but it’s the first time for us, we never needed them in Shenzhen. Another different thing is the lack of lounge chairs, remember, the Chinese don’t like to be in the sun, so you don’t see anyone (other than foreigners!) laying around in the sun, they don’t spend the day at the pool, they go for a swim and go home. If you haven’t seen a picture of a crowded swimming pool in China, check this out: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1789565/fancy-a-swim-chinese-swimming-pool-is-so-packed-you-cant-even-see-the-water/
Badminton
China is said to be the best country in the world at badminton. In Chinese, it is called “yu mao qiu,” basically meaning “feather ball.” The reason why they’re the best? I don’t think there is a definite answer, but, I’m sure the government backing those who have talent is a very likely possibility. You do see people playing badminton much more though than in the USA; I remember playing badminton as a kid or at picnics. Here, I often see parents playing with their children or people playing in parks. This picture was taken at about 8:30 in the morning at a park near the hotel we stayed at in Shenzhen. So, how many of you reading this have EVER been up at that time of morning playing badminton with other adults?
Life in China: A Picture A Day, March 28, 2016
It was a beautiful day here today, so Leah and I went for a bike ride this afternoon. We live along the northern end of Songshan Lake, on the east side, but we crossed the bridge and rode about halfway down along the west side of the southern end, which was mostly new to us. We had heard that there is a water-skiing club, and today we saw someone water skiing for the first time. In the background, you can see Taohuayuan or Peach Blossom Park, which I wrote about on my blog on March 9th, this is also where the wishing trees are. You can see the Wind Pavilion with the red-orange roof and the Laughing Buddha on the hill to the left of it. www.myownchinesebrocade.com
Life in China: A Picture A Day, March 27, 2016
Today was the Dongguan International Marathon: It started in Songshan Lake and the runners came right past where we live. We missed the front runners, they were much faster getting this far than I anticipated! But, we watched others go by for an hour! There were 15,000 participants in 4 different length races. The participants included everyone from the professional marathon runners down to babies being pushed in strollers! And a whole group of Anime characters, Batman, the Mario Brothers, the Monkey King, a miniature Pikachu, quite a few Supermen, hula dancers, plus quite a few with bunny ears :-) By the time the back of the group came by, they were mostly walking, and there were a good number of children. I loved the two little girls pictured, they were just walking along, hand in hand, singing away. We watched the finish on TV, both male and female winners of the full marathon were from Kenya.
