Park Use in China

My friend Heidi Bissell is in China all summer doing research, and she recently wrote me about how the Chinese enjoy their parks:

"There are beautiful public parks all over (they put Overton to shame - more like Central Park in NYC) with lakes and bridges and trees and such. The biggest difference, though, is that the parks here are FULL of people all day and all night. Every square inch is used by people playing music in small groups, people looking on, people dancing with fans and scarves.

In the mornings there are mostly individual musicians practicing, and tons of people doing their morning Tai Chi or other exercises, but at night all the musicians and dancers perform. It's cacophony sometimes because it is so crowded that the music all overlaps. But it's so much fun to wander around listening to all the music and seeing all the families out listening and enjoying the shows. The performers are rather skewed towards the older folks, but there are always a few young people playing and dancing too, so there's hope for the future."