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Published: August 10th 2010
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Over 15 million kilowatts (quote from newspaper China Daily)
Beijing's power consumption on Friday, July 23 - the highest in the city’s history. Around a third was used by air conditioners
You get the picture it’s been hot, hot, hot, but thank goodness the weather has finally broken and we have had some blue skies and proper sunshine and some cooler days, what a relief. (And for those of you who appreciate the perils of the hair straighteners needless to say my hair is not liking this humidity - as you may have noticed on some of my photos!)
It’s the kind of weather when you can't decide if it’s cooler outdoors in the shade trying to find a bit of breeze or just staying in with the air-con for company. But many Beijingers, who may well not have any air conditioning, live life in the park and evenings are even busier than in the day. I am fascinated by this ‘park life’ which is completely unknown to us in UK. I’m not talking the odd picnic or football game on a sunny Sunday here, I’m talking way of life …………
Loads of dancing for a
start, this goes on in the ordinary parks with the ordinary people, who need no encouragement from community dance practitioners (I would be out of a job) to get up and dance in public. Morning and evening a strangely sedate and old fashioned version of ballroom dancing takes place in the open air, accompanied by crackly taped music from Chairman Mao’s era, whatever the temperature, only ‘rain stops play’.
In Temple of Heaven park, one of my favourites, there must be 10 alternative music and dance styles going on at the same time. The noise and the energy and the hubbub of activity is amazing in itself. You can take your pick from tai ji, ballroom, Taiwanese dance, soulful saxophone, community choir, karaoke, Peking opera, folk music, ribbon twirling, solo pop music, fan dancing, kung fu ……….. you name it. All these activities seem to be self generated and everyone else gathers around to watch. A product of surviving in this overcrowded city is that no one seems to be in the slightest bit self conscious about living their life on show.
Other popular park pastimes are having you blood pressure checked and getting your hair cut -
mah jong
I don't think the wife is too pleased and why not you ask!! Although I have also seen dogs getting their ‘hair cut’ by the same barber………
And of course there are always the old guys playing cards and mahjong and drawing a crowd; there will be three times as many people watching and advising and discussing the game as there are people actually playing it. The older generations spend their whole day there sometimes minding the grandchildren or more likely just gossiping. Unfortunately in the heat it seems to be completely acceptable for men of any age to roll up their T shirt and bare their torso - not always a pretty sight, especially when accompanied by shorts, dark socks and ordinary leather shoes.
NB this vision is not included in my photos this week to save your sensitivities.
Sport is also very popular and you see people, even before they go to work in the mornings, playing badminton or table tennis or a local game which involves a large version of a feathered shuttlecock and a technique of kicking and flicking it with your heels to keep it off the ground. I took one on holiday to Greece but it didn’t catch on with
our gang - too hot and too lazy! And the outdoor gym equipment actually gets used, just can’t see us Brits doing this somehow.
My recent wanderings took me to a different kind of park, the National Cultural Park of Ethnic Minorities. China’s 1.3billion are 90% Han but the other 10% is made up of 55(like Heinz) other ethnic minority groups, who each have their own costume, dialect, music, folklore etc. Built out near the Olympic Park, the cultural centre is a bit of a theme park, recreating and celebrating the homes and lifestyles of the different races (for my Welsh friends its like a Chinese St Fagans) But to be honest it has seen better days and was rather sad and tired and also strangely empty, unlike most tourist attractions in the city. But I still managed to find 4 different cultural shows going on and I admit I even joined in ………… now there’s a surprise!
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