Old People's Park in Shanghai

 

Last year, when I went to China, there was a nice lady in Shanghai who taught me some tai chi. My mom took this picture of us. Guess what happened a year later?

Two days after we got to Shanghai, we got up really early in the morning (which made me frustrated because I’m always tired in the early hours). We went back to the same park, and there she was!

We brought her two copies of the picture Mom took last year. Everybody loved them.

Every morning, when it gets light and before it gets hot and sticky, old people all over China get up and do tai chi. This park is not that far from our hotel. We discovered it on one of our walks last year.

The park also has workout tools. It’s like a playground for old people. This is an arm exercise machine designed to make your arms stronger.

There’s leg exercise too. You grab onto the bars and you twist your legs. You can bend your knees to go down and up. People also do exercises without machines. Sometimes they rub their backs or hands on the trees.

And there are more leg exercises. It’s kind of hard. You grab the bar, and put your feet on the little stands. Then you swing them back and forth, like you’re running. If you’re really good at it, you can do it with no hands.

I like to take pictures while running.

          

Here are some portraits of the people at the park.

After I take a picture, I like to show people my work. And they’re usually impressed.

A lot of people like to talk to me, even though they only speak Chinese.

They laugh and smile a lot. A lot of them give me the thumbs up.

After I took some pictures, I thought I would learn a little more tai chi.

So I found my friend again, and did some more. It was really, really fun. I think it was worth getting up so early after all.