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Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

Beijing: Public exercise spaces

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小关奧林匹克文化广场

Megan Hall, Spacing Toronto’s correspondent in Beijing this summer, wrote a very interesting post on public exercise equipment in Beijing’s parks and playgrounds. Back in April, I stayed in Beijing for two weeks, and also had the opportunity to discover how Beijingers invested the public spaces to keep in shape. Megan’s post inspired me to do a quick search of my own through my photo collection.

Kicking shuttlecocks outdoor in Beijing

For instance, one common activity (seen in the previous picture), often played just at a street corner or a public square with a large-enough flat surface, would be the kicking of shuttlecocks (just like how people play footbag here). It looked like the people that I encountered playing on most instances were office or shop workers taking a break.

Outdoor ping-pong

Since ping-pong is such a popular sport in China, maybe it is not surprising to find tables to play the game outside, as seen on this picture, taken at a public square near a residential complex.

Beijing

In this other park, just a few hundred meters from the main Olympic site, senior citizens were playing croquet amongst themselves. By the look of it, this playground may have been built or revamped recently.

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One comment

  1. That is wonderful to have such spaces – often not very large ones – so people of all ages can keep fit in a huge, densely-populated city. I do hope the Olympics will be a spur to improving Beijing air quality!

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