This is my latest tbj article, with edits, featured here:
Adult Playgrounds
At the park inside my apartment complex, there is a playground filled with multi-colored tubular contraptions. Every time I walk past these rather bizarre constructions, I can't help but notice elderly men and women scratching their legs and their backs against them. At almost any hour of the day, there seems to always be a crowd milling about them. Not wanting to miss out, one uncomfortably warm evening, my roommate and I decided to escape the sticky apartment and see what all the fuss was about.
Outside we found not only senior citizens but people of all ages soberly making use of this "outdoor fitness centers," which are essentially adult playgrounds. A pregnant woman slowly paced from one side of the park to the other. A group of boys flexed their muscles with the pull-down machine. Two teenage girls perched on another machine, not actually using it, but typing messages on their cell phones. A five-year-old girl tinkered with the biceps curler, and after much difficulty, hopped off and ran back to her mom. A group of women, toddlers in tow, gossiped away on the bench.
These playgrounds and impromptu gathering spaces, ubiquitous in Beijing, have become both an essential piece of the country’s recent fitness craze and a fixture of the Chinese urban landscape. Their popularity began about twelve years ago, when the Chinese government created "The Nationwide Physical Fitness Program" to promote the health and well being of the general population. Proceeds from the state's sports lottery helped with funding this project, and as a result, fitness machines have been installed everywhere—in public parks, within residential complexes, and even along narrow alleyways.
"They might not be so effective, but at least you're moving," my roommate yells while gliding away on the air walker, legs swinging back and forth. "Even if you're an old lady, you can still use this." These machines would certainly not satisfy the needs of, say, the Chinese Olympic weight-lifting team, but are designed rather for those of us who normally don't exercise. I attempted the row machine, which lifts me up against my own body weight, and realized that it does (to a certain extent) work out my biceps and back muscles. I imagine that if I came here every day to use each of the machines, I just might get something approximating a workout.
One manufacturer puts it quite matter-of-factly on their website: "Even when factors like pollution and accidental injury are taken into account, the outdoors has more to offer than the gym…The vitamin D gained from natural sunlight, plus the fresh air and freedom of movement, beat the strip lights [and] air conditioning of the gym any day." Or of the office, for that matter.
While it’s hard not to question the science behind these machines, they seem to be catching international attention. Just recently, Berlin added a series of public adult playgrounds of its own, with dimensions adjusted to fit a taller European demographic. And instead of the gorgeous color scheme of bright red, yellow, and blue found here in China, the Germans preferred a more subtle brushed steel finish.
Whatever the color, in the context of the rest of the world’s cities, the potential for these play spaces looks big. Could this be the modest, urbanist answer to reclaiming the great outdoors? A solution to childhood obesity? The key to bringing back neighborhood life? For now, they remain a quaint but useful part of the Beijing cityscape—and give some weight to the argument that spending time outside can be good for your health.
