(This is what I do. Work out and write stuff)
I have been a gym enthusiast since my sophomore year in college when a night of drinking and dancing couldn’t abate the pressures of collegiate course load. That was 5 years ago. I still find the aerobic workout to be one of the best ways to deal with the accumulating stress of the real world. So after I moved to China in August it wasn’t long before I hunted down a gym nearby. I looked into a couple of places and settled on one that I believe offered the best price for their services. Surmount Fitness Club, 10th floor of the Parkson Plaza on Jin Hua Nan Lu, -AKA the East Side Wal-Mart shopping Center.
The space encompasses 2 levels of classrooms and fitness machines. On the top floor is the standard weight room with a variety of equipment from free weights to muscle isolation machines and two pool tables for your entertainment. The lower level cardio floor has a plethora of ellipticals and treadmills as well as a half-court indoor basketball cage and a ping pong table. Also your choice of exercise classes are varied, as they offer the basics like yoga, step and cycling but for the adventurous sportier they also have ballet, belly dancing and hip hop. I imagine there may be a bit of trouble with the language barrier but joining in could be an hour of great fun!
For the first time in my life I have taken the next step in fitness and hired a personal trainer. The services are pretty pricy, a 100 yuan a lesson, but the one on one work out routines have become a source of fun and my primary hobby. Plus it has given me a chance to expand my knowledge of the language and a great method to practice my listening and speaking skills. I urge you to remember that like any other business these are sales people as well as trainers so don’t let them talk you into buying services you don’t need.
The main difference I noticed about working out in Xian as compared to somewhere in the US is modesty in the locker room, or lack there of. When you walk into the locker rooms you will notice that there are naked people everywhere, the showers have no doors and towels are used as a method to dry and not a method to conceal nakedness. It was a bit off-putting at first but I have adjusted to it and have perfected the downward gaze so as to keep my eyes from taking in more than I think my year-long contract paid for.
Overall when I work out at Surmount I am able to zone out and let my mind wander to the beat of my ipod, a nice escape from the day. So if you are looking for a way to get your sweat on I would suggest Surmount Fitness Club, either on Jin Hua Lu or out in Gao Xin. They offer a range of contracts, but at less than 900 yuan the 12 month contract seems the most reasonable and realistic. Feel free to stop by and have a tour, they have English speaking representatives to help you out.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Eye on China
(Written for the May issue of China Grooves)
As the sun rose on Wednesday April 14 the people in China started their day as if any other day, but tragically it was a day that would not end as simply as it began. An earthquake, rating a brutal 7.1 on the rector scale, tore its way through China’s largest areal province, Qinghai. Tales of death and destruction quickly spread throughout the nation and across the world. In the second major earthquake in as many years China’s rescue services were mobilized within hours and more than 10,000 uniformed troops had deployed. Their primary objective in the delicate hours that followed was to use every measure to locate and liberate quake survivors.
Even as workers plowed through rubble and debris, many using their bare hands, the death toll climbed higher, reaching over 2000 lives lost. Since that first day an upwards of 15,000 workers were on scene and more than 17,000 victims had been pulled from the wreckage. By the following Monday attention was turned from rescue to restore. In a speech designed to console and uplift, President Hu Jintao vowed to rebuild and reconstruct the devastated area; making the need to rebuild schools a primary focus. In a freshly constructed tent classroom for orphaned primary and middle school students President Hu stood at a chalk board and wrote his defining message “There will be new schools, there will be new homes!”
The lives of those who survived have been changed forever, and they must now begin the painstaking process of moving forward. But as these villagers look toward what their lives will be like in the aftermath of destruction, medical workers are grounded in the moment keeping a close eye a potentially fatal situation. The area surrounding the quake has become a breading ground for the pneumonic plague. The plague is passed to humans from marmots, a type of ground squirrel common in the area. Once the infection reaches humans it can become devastatingly viral as it is an airborne disease. With the widespread destruction it would be easy to come in contact with the animal, so rescue workers have been urgently warned and the condition is under the careful watch by the assembled health professionals.
Even with the supplies, rescue workers and volunteers the regions climate is working against all efforts. With temperatures near or below freezing the victims must battle frostbite as well as fight off potential infections. Millions of yuan has been donated to help relief efforts and the teams of uniformed support as well as civilian volunteers will add the defining touches that keep the devastation from spiraling even further out of control.
While the medical teams and government officials work to help restore health and safety to the region, another type of uniformed support has made its way into the reconnaissance mission. Throngs of Tibetan monks have migrated from the surrounding areas not only to pray and present salvage to those living but to help shoulder the burden that has befallen the area. 1200 monks from a nearby Sichuan school have no income but paid 500 yuan each out of their pockets to volunteer. They are performing traditional burial rites twice a day in order to help the families of the victims find solace in their suffering. In a striking scene the maroon robed monks sat on the remnants of a playground, singing sutra prayers for earthquake victims. Their mournful voices mixed with the sounds of the children reciting their first lessons in their makeshift classrooms are a chorus that echoes the struggle of a region. It is the soundtrack of sadness and initial destruction but the ultimate hope of renaissance and rebirth as this prosperous country once again must mend a bruised and broken community.
As the sun rose on Wednesday April 14 the people in China started their day as if any other day, but tragically it was a day that would not end as simply as it began. An earthquake, rating a brutal 7.1 on the rector scale, tore its way through China’s largest areal province, Qinghai. Tales of death and destruction quickly spread throughout the nation and across the world. In the second major earthquake in as many years China’s rescue services were mobilized within hours and more than 10,000 uniformed troops had deployed. Their primary objective in the delicate hours that followed was to use every measure to locate and liberate quake survivors.
Even as workers plowed through rubble and debris, many using their bare hands, the death toll climbed higher, reaching over 2000 lives lost. Since that first day an upwards of 15,000 workers were on scene and more than 17,000 victims had been pulled from the wreckage. By the following Monday attention was turned from rescue to restore. In a speech designed to console and uplift, President Hu Jintao vowed to rebuild and reconstruct the devastated area; making the need to rebuild schools a primary focus. In a freshly constructed tent classroom for orphaned primary and middle school students President Hu stood at a chalk board and wrote his defining message “There will be new schools, there will be new homes!”
The lives of those who survived have been changed forever, and they must now begin the painstaking process of moving forward. But as these villagers look toward what their lives will be like in the aftermath of destruction, medical workers are grounded in the moment keeping a close eye a potentially fatal situation. The area surrounding the quake has become a breading ground for the pneumonic plague. The plague is passed to humans from marmots, a type of ground squirrel common in the area. Once the infection reaches humans it can become devastatingly viral as it is an airborne disease. With the widespread destruction it would be easy to come in contact with the animal, so rescue workers have been urgently warned and the condition is under the careful watch by the assembled health professionals.
Even with the supplies, rescue workers and volunteers the regions climate is working against all efforts. With temperatures near or below freezing the victims must battle frostbite as well as fight off potential infections. Millions of yuan has been donated to help relief efforts and the teams of uniformed support as well as civilian volunteers will add the defining touches that keep the devastation from spiraling even further out of control.
While the medical teams and government officials work to help restore health and safety to the region, another type of uniformed support has made its way into the reconnaissance mission. Throngs of Tibetan monks have migrated from the surrounding areas not only to pray and present salvage to those living but to help shoulder the burden that has befallen the area. 1200 monks from a nearby Sichuan school have no income but paid 500 yuan each out of their pockets to volunteer. They are performing traditional burial rites twice a day in order to help the families of the victims find solace in their suffering. In a striking scene the maroon robed monks sat on the remnants of a playground, singing sutra prayers for earthquake victims. Their mournful voices mixed with the sounds of the children reciting their first lessons in their makeshift classrooms are a chorus that echoes the struggle of a region. It is the soundtrack of sadness and initial destruction but the ultimate hope of renaissance and rebirth as this prosperous country once again must mend a bruised and broken community.
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