Elderly People

The lives of old people in China amazes me. People in China generally seem to be more social than the people in the west but old people appear to have this amazing social life with other old people. When I leave my apartment in the morning and walk towards the gate I pass several groups of elderly people gathered together just having a nice sit down and chat with each other, laughing and smiling. Then at lunch when I walk through the streets looking for somewhere to eat I see groups of them, mixed with younger people, playing an animated game of cards or mahjong. In many apartment blocks and public venues there are small public play parks/gyms for the communities to use and I have mostly seen the aged use them. They can work a cross trainer better than I can! In addition, since coming to Shanghai, out here in the Technology Park there is a large square; a very clean, pretty arena-type place that, by day, is deserted (but where we now like to take our lunch breaks to soak up some Sun) but by night, as we walk home, the square is filled with people, mostly 40+ I’d say, dancing away in unison to various beats (including No No Limit by 2Unlimited, no joke). I know my Nanny goes dancing at her British Legion nights, which I think is wonderful and I would love if so many more elderly people had something like this that they could take part in, actually, not just the elderly but all people from a community! A bit of light exercise would be good for us all. It’s outdoors, it’s free, it’s fun and it’s good for you. Note to self, find square in Belfast and encourage all Clonlee residents to attend. Power to the pensioners. 

Stealthy Pap-ing