Every morning in Changsha so far, Melissa and I have practiced yoga as a wake up workout. However, this morning we decided to check out Martyr's Park, which is right across the street from our hotel, the Jinjiang Inn. The day before, a number of people told us about their interesting experiences in the park, and we had to check it out for ourselves.
The first photo is of us right outside of the side entrance, which opens up to a grand walkway that leads to a large tower, which is quite a sight to see [Editor's note: I look too tired in that picture, so I've replaced it with another picture]. The second photo is of the opposite view, which shows the more interesting aspect to the park. The park is literally alive with morning activities, which includes dancing of numerous types. We saw a Bollywood-style dance instructor lead his students to Indian techno music, managed to squeak past hundreds of ballroom dancers who were torn between focusing on their dance steps and staring at us Westerners and even managed to see a Latin dance group shuffle around to the sounds of Marc Antony.
In addition to the various types of dance groups, Tai Chi groups crowded the park .We must have spotted at least ten of these groups, but the thing is that a good percentage of the pedestrians were silently practicing Tai Chi or some other form of breathing exercise. Runners, joggers and badminton players (playing without nets) added to the activity of the park. Fellow strollers actually were the minority, which provided a sharp contrast to how Americans treat their parks. Perhaps this focus on group activity has something to do with the communistic upbringing of the Chinese? One can only speculate...
Guess what? There is also an amusement park in Martyr's Park, decked out with the pictured roller coaster and ferris wheel. I don't know if we'll work up the courage to ride these deathtraps, but you will be the first Westerners to know if we do.
And wouldn't you know it? Martyr's Park is also decked out with a zoo. Now, the only animals that I saw signs for were crocodiles, cobras and sea otters. Strange, I know. We'll update you when we decide to check this out.
These four photos show the water elements that we ran into, which were all very lovely.
This last photo is of me in front of a set of stairs leading to the big tower at the center of the park. At this point Melissa had strongly stated her preference of not being photographed that morning, so Melissa is not in this photo. In all, we really enjoyed our trip to the park, even though it was brief.
More posts to come...
~ Cullen
The first photo is of us right outside of the side entrance, which opens up to a grand walkway that leads to a large tower, which is quite a sight to see [Editor's note: I look too tired in that picture, so I've replaced it with another picture]. The second photo is of the opposite view, which shows the more interesting aspect to the park. The park is literally alive with morning activities, which includes dancing of numerous types. We saw a Bollywood-style dance instructor lead his students to Indian techno music, managed to squeak past hundreds of ballroom dancers who were torn between focusing on their dance steps and staring at us Westerners and even managed to see a Latin dance group shuffle around to the sounds of Marc Antony.
In addition to the various types of dance groups, Tai Chi groups crowded the park .We must have spotted at least ten of these groups, but the thing is that a good percentage of the pedestrians were silently practicing Tai Chi or some other form of breathing exercise. Runners, joggers and badminton players (playing without nets) added to the activity of the park. Fellow strollers actually were the minority, which provided a sharp contrast to how Americans treat their parks. Perhaps this focus on group activity has something to do with the communistic upbringing of the Chinese? One can only speculate...
Guess what? There is also an amusement park in Martyr's Park, decked out with the pictured roller coaster and ferris wheel. I don't know if we'll work up the courage to ride these deathtraps, but you will be the first Westerners to know if we do.
And wouldn't you know it? Martyr's Park is also decked out with a zoo. Now, the only animals that I saw signs for were crocodiles, cobras and sea otters. Strange, I know. We'll update you when we decide to check this out.
These four photos show the water elements that we ran into, which were all very lovely.
This last photo is of me in front of a set of stairs leading to the big tower at the center of the park. At this point Melissa had strongly stated her preference of not being photographed that morning, so Melissa is not in this photo. In all, we really enjoyed our trip to the park, even though it was brief.More posts to come...
~ Cullen
1 comments:
First! Lovely pictures and commentary. So interesting that there are wide open areas for gatherings and activities in this park as opposed to U.S. parks. Look forward to reading more from you.
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