Ryan Brown’s Photoblog

Sunday morning in Beijing’s Jingshan Park is playtime… for adults.  Ballroom dancing, hackey sack, sing alongs, ribbon dancing, sidewalk water calligraphy, synchronized dancing, badminton, kites and jumprope… I showed up to see all of this going on at this park behind the Forbidden City, and it took me a few minutes to realize…that, at 28 years old, I was probably one of the youngest people there.  Musicians were scattered everywhere with signs that indicated songs and eras of music (mostly from the 1940s-1960s, I think), and people would gather around, basically by age, to sing along to old familiar songs.  Last week’s series of jump rope pictures is from this morning - a couple of guys were swinging a jump rope and all these 40, 50, maybe 60-year old people would smile and laugh and take a couple of running jumps through the rope and move on.  Meanwhile, just off to the side about fifty middle-aged ladies were line dancing to Justin Timberlake.  Cliques of elderly men held impromptu debates next to groups of hackey-sackers and shouted to drown out the big brass band that was belting out old patriotic songs.  It was really wild to see this adult-style recess with its fun and camaraderie.