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Published: June 17th 2010
Outdoor Gym
Not as big as the one at Chris' university, but it still looks like a lot of fun.6/9/10
This was my favorite day so far.
All right, so first we had to meet in the hotel lobby at 7:30am to go to Dongfeng Square to see the massive Tai Ji exercise groups. There were at least four groups of twenty or so people readily visible in the square. Not all were practicing Tai Ji, but all of them were doing some form of exercise. There were people doing traditional weaponless Tai Ji forms and others doing Tai Ji with swords. I never thought I would see the day when a large group of old men and women would wield swords. Not all of the people practicing Tai Ji were old, but most were middle-aged or older. Honestly, China has the most active elderly age group that I have ever seen. Nearly none of them are in retirement and almost all of them are doing some sort of outdoor exercise conducive to their health. TCM highly recommends Tai Ji as exercise for anybody, especially for the elderly, since it is slow, relieves stress, and is a form of exercise that can be done practically anywhere.
Most of us tried to join in the
Dongfeng Square
It was a ten-minute bus ride to get there, with enough turns to ensure that none of us knew how to walk back. Tai Ji groups while others went to go play badminton with some of the other old people. Some of the old people laughed at how badly we were messing up, but we still had fun. For the most part they do not care if we join in and make fools of ourselves trying to mimic their movements. There were also two couples dancing groups which were fun to watch. There was another group consisting only people who I guessed were at least 60 years old and they were arranged in a dancing circle with props. All of the groups were fun to watch.
At around 8:30am, we began the assignment for our drop-off. Basically we were far enough in the city to not know where we were and we had to find our way to the destination given to us. We were provided with 300元 and the destination which was written on a slip of paper in Chinese characters, along with a list of the members in each group. There were four groups in all. It just so happened that I was chosen to be group leader, which made me panic; however, I had a feeling I was
strategically chosen because I was the most fluent in Chinese out of my group members. Likewise Louis, who is from Taiwan and speaks Chinese fluently, was the leader of his group. My group consisted of Noor, Sammy, and Erin. With Shika’s help, we were able to figure out that the name of our destination, 大观楼, was pronounced “Da Guan Lou.”
We began the assignment by hailing a passing old woman because we figured that old people would know the most about the city. She pointed us in a direction and told us that the place we were going to was very far, so we set out in that direction on foot. After about ten minutes of walking, our program director passed us on the bus. She gave us some kind of gesture that made us think we were going in the wrong direction, so we stopped to ask a policeman to reconfirm our directions. He surprised us by speaking English and told us to take the number 4 bus to get to where we were going.
We headed down the street just as the number 4 bus passed and ran to catch it. Once we got
Tai Ji, Yo
Lots of old people doing Tai Ji. A LOT. on, we figured out that it cost 1 元 for each of us to ride. While on the bus, we asked a young lady where we had to get off to go to 大观楼, and after asking the bus driver for us she said it was the last stop. Fortunately every time the bus made a stop, it announced the popular places nearby in Chinese and in English, so it was fairly easy to figure out which stop we had to get off at. It was about a twenty-minute bus ride, during which we amused some old people with our foreign-ness. We also met the cutest little girl who we ended up seeing again at our destination.
When we got off the bus, we could see the place we had to go to, so we stopped at a steamed bun shop across the street to get some breakfast. Noor wanted red bean buns, but none of us knew how to say that, so he asked the waitresses for something sweet. As luck would have it, they gave him two red bean buns for 2元. The rest of us ordered red bean buns and Sammy also got a ground
Tai Ji, Wut?
Us trying to do Tai Ji with them. A couple of the old people snickered at us. When old people snicker at you, you know you're lame. pork bun by asking for something with meat.
When we got to大观楼, we thought it was a theme park because it had a huge gated entrance and a ticket booth nearby. We used the money that the director had given us to buy tickets which were 20元 each. When we entered through the gate, we found that it was actually a historical pavilion built by Emperor Kangxi centuries ago. The pavilion since then had been expanded and rebuilt into a gorgeous, must-see sightseeing place. The pavilions, four in total, were surrounded by a shimmering lake that sparkled with sunlight. The water was clean with a natural, greenish hue. We were all absolutely blown away by how beautiful the entire area was. We took about a dozen pictures in the first two minutes and bought cute cat cell phone charms as souvenirs.
We slowly headed toward the central pavilion with our camera shutters flying. Sammy stopped by a souvenir shop selling parasols and bought an expensive but beautiful parasol for 100元. We then stopped by a shop selling items made with insects and flowers placed in resin. Noor bought a cell phone charm with a rose and
Old People with SWORDS
Can't see it very well in this picture, but those old people are doing Tai Ji with swords. Don't mess with the old people in Kunming, okay? pink flowers in resin because he and the other guys in the group were having a “cute cell phone charm” contest. I figured Noor was winning since he also bought a cat cell phone charm with the word 爱written on its tummy. I bought two necklaces with flower resin pendants and Sammy bought like four or five for her family. They were about 15元 each, which was not bad considering how pretty they were.
After that we headed to the nearby main attraction, 大观楼Tower. It was basically a three-story pagoda built by the emperor. It contained a famous couplet which was carved into the entrance. The tower provided a magnificent view of the lake and surrounding pavilions. Inside the tower were countless paintings on its ceiling and rafters and many wall hangings. Out in the pavilion were a group of older women dancing with red fans, also as exercise. We came across a bird in a cage nearby, and one woman came over to show us that it could say 你好. I don’t know what kind of bird it was, but it was really cute and I recorded it saying你好.
We strolled around the perimeter of
Couples Dancing
The old couples dancing were cute. the area and came to the pavilion called Western Gardens. We did not really see any gardens, but the view was still spectacular with the lake and gorgeous buildings. In one section of the lake we spotted these strange, large pink cylinders floating by the lake shore. It turned out that one could enter the cylinders and play in them for five minutes for 20元. Sammy and I decided to get into one cylinder and it was ridiculously fun. The cylinder was inflatable and hollow on the inside, and since it was floating in water it was nearly impossible to keep your balance if you stood up on the inside. We tumbled around and around in the cylinder and it felt like were in a clothes dryer. A huge crowd gathered to watch us scream and fall around in the cylinder while Noor took pictures of us. A crowd of ten or so Chinese people also individually took pictures with Noor and Erin while Sammy and I were still in the cylinder. We ended up being allowed to play in the cylinder for nearly twenty minutes despite the sign saying that we would be limited to five minutes. It was
a lot of fun but really tiring.
All the walking and tumbling made us hungry, so we left and ate at a dumpling restaurant. We had 40 dumplings between the four of us but we were only charged for 30. There was also a small stand outside 大观楼where Noor, Erin, and I got our names painted in dragons, birds, and fish on a small scroll of paper. Afterward we took a cab back to the hotel where our whole group and the program staff got together to discuss where we went. Some of the other groups went to Buddhist Temples and parks, but apparently all the places we went to were fun and beautiful. We all made plans to make day trips the each others’ drop-off destinations. Oh, and Noor won the cute cell phone charm contest.
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No Knee Mcgee
Christopher Lange
Great Story
Sounds like a lot of fun. I love the having no idea where you are and then finding a cool place idea. I really like your writing too. Keep enjoying yourself!