Fitness in Beijing

At 5:00 a.m. the campus is already busy with people walking, running, stretching, and performing martial arts. Adjacent to the running track, there is a medieval-looking exercise yard that, while not exactly Venice Beach circa 1979, allows weightlifters to wake the rest of campus by smashing out reps. My favourite activity is the ballroom dancing that takes place in the Pavilion across the pond from my hotel and in many parks across the city. The music starts after breakfast and elderly Beijingers, many in their eighties, dance well into the evening when the facility is lit with lanterns.

There are some quirks in how people go about their exercise. For example, in a place where running shoes can be found for less than $10 Canadian, I routinely see businessmen jogging in dresspants and wingtip shoes. The oddest activity I've seen so far was a man in a shirt and tie throwing a heavy white rock several feet in the air with one hand and catching it with the other. When the rock hit the ground, he contorted his body in any possible way to reach it without moving his feet and then resumed his game of catch.

I expect to lose quite a bit of weight during my stay, but that has more to do with the absence of French fries and Big Bacon Classics than it has to do with my participation in any of these activities.