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Beijing's parks: Get up and go

www.chinanews.cn 2005-08-09 15:31:26

(Source: Washington Post)

A man showing his Chinese water calligraphy on the Ditan park's stone
walkway. (Photo: YNet.com)

Ditan Park
Just north of the Lama Temple outside Beijing's Second Ring Road, Ditan
Park (Temple of Earth) is a 40-acre square of towering pine and cypress
trees. It was built in 1530 during the Ming dynasty as a place where
emperors of both the Ming and subsequent Qing dynasties could perform
sacrifices to the gods for good harvests, auspicious weather and a stable
nation.
Ditan Park is one of Beijing's most diverse morning venues. Not far from
the southern entrance, Li Xiuping regularly takes a small group of
followers through a series of high kicks and deep lunges. She gave me her
card. "Member of the Chinese Kungfu Academician. First Class of Social
Sports Trainer. Fourth Sect of Chinese Kungfu," it reads in both Chinese
and English. The sixty something Li proceeded to kick a nearby tree
several times to emphasize her point.
In another section of Ditan Park, Mr. Wu, a retired general who preferred
to be identified only by his surname, stood with three of his friends. Wu
said they come to this spot every morning to practice their wushu martial
art moves, sip from thermoses of tea and chat. He demonstrated some
twirling wushu, best practiced with a long sword or baton. "I don't have
the traditional gun used to execute these steps," he acknowledged with a
grin, referring to the traditional Chinese martial arts baton. "Just this
old thing."
The silver rod glinted in the early-morning light as Wu and his friends
took turns whipping and twirling. Closer inspection of the forbidding
weapon revealed it to be a shower curtain rod.
"This thing has many uses, yes," Wu commented. "Here, you have a try." A
morning visit to the park should be undertaken with the understanding
that your own skills may be called upon at any moment.
In Ditan Park's officially designated exercise area, yellow and blue
devices stand ready to be pulled, pushed, hoisted and leaned upon as
people go through their morning routines. Liu Mingli, 67, pulls himself
up and over a 6 1/2 -foot bar "about 30 times" every morning. "It's my
way of waking up," he said, adding that he has been coming to the park
every morning for seven years. 76,440 would be a modest estimate of the
number of times he has swung up and over that bar to date.

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