When spring rolls around in Beijing, it means more than just the appearance of green\u00a0 after months of grey and early darkness, more than singing birds and flowers and the occasional rain shower.\u00a0 To old school Beijinger\u2019s, springtime means the beginning of park time, and Beijing\u2019s many parks begin to show signs of life after barely stirring during the winter months.
\nThere are a million reasons to go to Beijing\u2019s parks for the average city resident, myself included.\u00a0 Chief among those reasons is the desire to see the color green and to escape the seemingly inescapable hum of the city, blaring of cars, and squash of teeming people so omnipresent throughout the city.\u00a0\u00a0 Whether they are free or it\u2019s necessary to pay a few jiao for a ticket, once inside a city park, the atmosphere outside just melts away. It\u2019s no wonder that parks are such a popular place for the elderly, who seem to show up in them at the crack of dawn and don\u2019t leave until past dark.\u00a0 On a day where it just makes sense to get out of the city \u2013 without actually getting out of the city \u2013 a retreat to Ritan, Beihai, or Xiangshan seems to make perfect sense.\u00a0 And seeing the types of activities that go on in the parks in the spring and summer months makes them all the more interesting to visit.
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\nOn a typical afternoon\u2019s stroll through Ritan Park in Beijing\u2019s Sanlitun Embassy district, for example, the shade of cypress trees lets sunlight filter through the leaves but seems to clean the air of the traffic and noise that somehow seems to permeate through everything else.\u00a0 Old men and women shuffle along with their hands behind their backs down the tree-lined pathways, and gardeners cut the grass with sickles on their hands and knees.\u00a0 People will be drinking tea from their thermoses while sitting in some of the many benches, and it\u2019s actually possible to hear birds flitting about and singing.\u00a0 They aren\u2019t the only ones, though, as high school and college students will walk along intently reading out-loud from English language readers, working on their spoken English skills.\u00a0 I\u2019ve found myself on more than one occasion averting my eyes from eye-contact, old curmudgeon that I am, as an ambling foreigner becomes a fantastic opportunity for them to start up a conversation, inevitably in bad English.\u00a0 It is, however, the cost of entry and for the first timer in Beijing, can be fun way to meet interesting people.<\/p>\n
Continuing the walk, you may come across people passing the time fishing for incredibly tiny fish out of one of the ponds.\u00a0 Almost all the parks in Beijing have lakes or ponds, and people pay by the hour to fish with long bamboo poles in hopes of making a catch (the fish are released, and are pretty much inedible).\u00a0 Old people will be practicing tai chi chuan in an open area, slow, deliberate movements which can\u2019t help but add years to life.\u00a0 Tai chi, in China, seems to be the province of the elderly, with very few younger practitioners, although it is one of the most formidable of martial arts with thousands of years of history. Further along, an exercise yard in the Chinese style will have people working elliptical machines that operate only on hinges, wheels that serve no other purpose but to be turned, and see-saws made for adults, not children.\u00a0 I could think of no other reasons for these machines but to improve circulation.<\/p>\n
In the end, a day in the park is best enjoyed with an ice cold green tea ice cream, or half hour in one of the tea gardens sipping one of the many varieties of tea available there.\u00a0 For the city dweller, the parks of Beijing are one of the best places of relaxation around.<\/p>\n
Vocabulary<\/strong><\/p>\n Park \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u516c\u56ed\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 g\u014dng yu\u00e1n <\/strong> Beihai Park\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u5317\u6d77\u516c\u56ed\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 b\u011bi h\u01cei\u00a0 g\u014dng yu\u00e1n <\/strong> When spring rolls around in Beijing, it means more than just the appearance of green\u00a0 after months of grey and early darkness, more than singing birds and flowers and the occasional rain shower.\u00a0 To old school Beijinger\u2019s, springtime means the beginning of park time, and Beijing\u2019s many parks begin to show signs of life after…<\/p>\n
\nGrass\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u8349\u5730\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 c\u01ceo d\u00ec <\/strong>
\nTree\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u6811\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 sh\u00f9 <\/strong>
\nTaichi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u592a\u6781\u62f3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 t\u00e1ij\u00ecqu\u00e1n <\/strong>
\nFlower\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u82b1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 hu\u0101 <\/strong>
\nIsland\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u5c9b\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 d\u01ceo <\/strong>
\nLake\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u6e56\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 h\u00fa<\/strong>
\nHill \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u5c71\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 sh\u0101n <\/strong>
\nPlay area \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u6e38\u4e50\u533a\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 y\u00f3u l\u00e8\u00a0 q\u016b <\/strong><\/p>\n
\nRitan Park\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u65e5\u575b\u516c\u56ed\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 r\u00ec t\u00e1n\u00a0 g\u014dng yu\u00e1n <\/strong>
\nFragrant Hills Park\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u9999\u5c71\u516c\u56ed\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 xi\u0101ng sh\u0101n\u00a0 g\u014dng yu\u00e1n <\/strong>
\nTemple of Heaven \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u5929\u575b\u516c\u56ed\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ti\u0101n t\u00e1n\u00a0\u00a0 g\u014dng yu\u00e1n <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"