To Běijīng

Tuesday, 23.10.2018,

Our first day in the capital. Peking is actually called Běijīng 北京, which means capital, 'North capital' to be precise. There's also Nánjīng 南京, 'South capital'. Both cities were the capitals of the ancient empire.

Our hotel was centrally located, just one subway station east of the 'Tiananmen Square' (天安门广场, Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng)

In the morning, we decided to take a walk to the 'Heavenly Temple Park', which is just 1.5km away.

People were enjoying the beautiful late summer weather and the gentle rhythms similar to discofox. The level of flexibility ranged from 'I only hit every third or fourth beat' to the golden dance school badge.

Then we continued and came across a group of retirees playing 'Chinese feather football' (that's what we called it).

Katrin and I were somewhat surprised to see this here as we would have associated it more with South America. The ball looks like a big shuttlecock and nowadays is made of plastic.

Our Chinese teacher told us that they used to make the balls themselves when they were children. To add weight, they used old coins with a hole in the middle that their grandmother still had from the times of the empire. The game is played in teams similar to volleyball or simply with two people or in a circle. Cool pastime!

It's also very impressive how many Chinese people can still do gymnastics in the 'late summer of their lives'. There are public sports and gymnastics areas everywhere. What some retirees can do on one or another piece of equipment, I couldn't even do in my younger years!

We didn't manage to visit the temple in the middle of the square because the children were slowly getting tired and ready for a nap. Next time then...