Early birds flock to city for park life

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By Zhao Huanxin (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-11 08:00

All Chinese cities have their own individual characters, but they have one thing in common: Their parks teem with health-conscious urbanites.

As an early bird, I see scenes in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region that are the same as those in Tiantan Park, Beijing, or Zhongshan Park in Wuhan. At the People's Park in downtown Yulin, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, local residents start to trickle in at 5:30, as dawn breaks.

They arrive with tennis rackets and jump ropes; some in sportswear, some in bare feet. Soon, the park is transformed into choruses of singers, there is soft music for dancing, and the patter of feet walking well-worn stone paths.

Strolling through the park, which extends at least 8 acres, I feel obliged to do some physical exercise - like everyone else.

China's densely populated cities mean their dwellers do not have the luxury of playgrounds around their apartment buildings. Most family homes are not equipped with exercise rooms. Therefore urbanites opt to go to nearby parks for relaxing and exercising.

And so it is with Yulin, a city of 6.25 million, which borders Guangdong province. Beneath the banyan trees that divide the park into several sections, some tie their tennis nets between two trees and start a match. A taichi devotee in his 70s pokes and circles in silent concentration, seemingly immune to the chirping of dozens of thrushes nearby.

A retiree, who gave his surname as Zhong, said he goes to the park with two cages of thrushes most mornings to join a group of other bird lovers, who put their cages on the boulders, and stretch their legs on stone stools, or perform chin-ups on tree branches.

"I enjoy meeting other bird keepers. We usually walk and stay in the park for one or two hours," he said. "This is part of our life."

For many park goers, morning exercise is a ritual. A band of senior citizens, most of them women, dance to the instructions coming from a loudspeaker: "Pat your knees 15 times," it says, "to strengthen your legs." "Twist the waist," the instructions continue, "it will enhance kidney function."

Another middle-aged man walks back and forth along a gravel pathway. The cobbled footpath is said to be able to "stimulate acupuncture points and the main and collateral channels". Chinese traditional medicine practitioners believe such stimulation is good for the health.

This early morning park is also a haven for children, and many of them arrive with their parents. They jog together or play table tennis. Near the exit of the park, a young mother in a black form-fitting jacket is counting how many times her daughter can jump rope.

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