Something refreshing in your own backyard

Jeanet went to Taiwan in December for two weeks, and I was alone in Campbell being single again, doing laundry and cleaning up the items in the refrigerator.

I have been swimming at the Campbell Community Center's outdoor pool for seven years. I have seen people running or walking on the all-weather track, but I have never been
there myself until this past Saturday.
It was a beautiful California day in December. I took my walk around the track, walked to the athletic field, and checked out what else was there that I have been missing for all these years.

Campbell Community Center has a variety of outdoor facilities including a football stadium, an all-weather track, an athletic field, an exercise park, tennis and handball courts, an outdoor swimming pool, and indoor Gyms and basketball courts. With the exception of swimming pool, all outdoor facilities are free of charge, subject to rules of reservation in certain popular time slots. I see my tax dollars at work in Campbell :-)

It was not too crowded on the Saturday afternoon. I checked out the outdoor facilities. The track was quite nice, and the grass was soft and bouncy. There were some people running, jogging, and walking on the track. The exercise park was interesting to me with all the equipment dedicated to exercising and building up certain muscles. This sort of park has become popular in many modern cities now. A few people practiced catching a football on the field.

Tennis courts were mostly occupied; the conditions of the court were quite nice. Some families played for fun in the courts and were not too intimidating to watch. The four courts used an honor system to set up your own clock and waiting queue. The rules and the "clocks" were in the center of tennis court compound, as shown to the right.



I strolled into the skate park. The young supervisor asked me if I needed any help. He left me alone after I told him that I would like to take a few pictures. This sport is obviously very thrilling and challenging, but is really dangerous.

A week later on a Sunday afternoon, I went again. This time I was stunned with the crowd, and I had to circle a couple of times to get a spot in the parking lot. The athletic field was filled with children practicing and playing flag football, along with coaches, parents and grand parents.
The field was neatly divided with dark green grass lines into 12 sub-fields in a 4x3 arrangement. When I was there, 11 of them were in use. I remember that my son Joseph in his junior high school years went to Dr. Lum's office to have a few stitches on his tongue after biting himself playing flag football. He used a mouth guard, but the accident still happened.














It felt so good to stroll, and I enjoyed my time there. What a shame to have been in a hustle and bustle mood all those many years. Take some time to pause and wander without an agenda and without a deadline. Life can be very simple and enjoyable. There is no need to go far. You'll find pleasure and peace in your own backyard if you look for them.

Swimming Etiquettes in Beijing

I enjoy swimming very much. This is one of the few sports that won't hurt your joints and muscles. I am not a good swimmer and I swim about 500-700 meters each time for about 30 minutes. I picked up lap swimming in the Scotch Plains YMCA 20 years ago. I have never truly completed my swimming lessons, as I just could not manage the 'breathing' technique. So I had been using a snorkeling tube until a year ago. Years ago during my college days, I yelled help after only two sessions when the coach took us beginners to the deep end to practice. I think that subconscious fear of deep water was the culprit in preventing any further progress.

[My Swimming Epiphany]
A snorkeling tube is a rare sight even in the U.S. I used it to breathe so that I can move all my limbs. I was simply too tense and too nervous. I could not sustain a regular breathing pattern without going into a vicious cycle of sinking in deeper and deeper.
A young child at Huaqing Garden swimming pool once asked me what sort of special technique I was learning with my snorkeling tube. I was embarrassed and told him that I needed it because I had not mastered the breathing technique yet and that he should be quite proud that he didn't use this apparatus.

I learned to breathe finally with encouragement from the lifeguard Mr. Chen. He showed me that a true beginner friend could start to do breast stroke in a few months on a once-a-week schedule. All I needed was to relax and not get in a panic when I did not breathe in enough or got some water into my mouth. Being able to stay calm and recover to normal breathing pattern was key to my epiphany ;-) I was so pleased with this breakthrough, because I never thought it would be possible in my lifetime. Here is a picture of me without the tube in Sanya, Hainan at the end of last year.









I have listed below my observations in and around Beijing swimming pools. Since my samples are limited, I would be cautious in generalizing these observations too much.

[Locker Rooms and Shower Stalls]
When you are done with swimming, drying off right after the shower is common in the U.S. since the locker room area is usually carpeted. Locker rooms are rarely carpeted in China. You are lucky if they do not use ceramic tiles for the floor. The pool I had frequented in the last two years finally changed to a material similar to artificial turf, and I don't have to be extra careful and apprehensive of slipping and falling.

Some facilities have a sauna installed. In one place, the management finally gave up on repairing the sauna unit. Too often I have witnessed abusive users pouring water directly over the hot rocks. It is dangerous and also likely to destroy the sauna unit. I understand why management just gave up on this endless repairing, and it is a shame not having that sauna to use after a good swim.

Shower stalls have good water, hot and cold. But normally that drainage system is not designed to match the usage volume. Standing water here and there is quite common. It is often quite slippery in the shower area. Here is a sign I like. Instead of "Slippery, please be careful," it says "Slip Carefully." I am not sure what the Korean translation says.






[Swimming Pool Access]
There is always a wading pool to wash off your feet between the locker rooms and the pool. They could easily install shower heads to cover the access pathway so that people can really clean themselves before entering the pool. Although "shower before swimming" signs are posted in clear view, there are still some people not observing them.

[Swimming Etiquettes]
It is a common practice to put fast swimmers in the middle lanes and slower pokes on the outside lanes. This is usually clearly marked in the U.S. It is natural to let good (and faster) swimmers avoid the slower folks by staying in the middle lanes, since slower ones like to hang on and be close to the side walls of the pool. When sharing a lane, it is common in the U.S. to see a sign reminding swimmers to "split lane with two and circle with three or more." Here, people just swim in all directions, which is similar to Beijing traffic. Parents and instructors do not teach their children common sense like "see and avoid" and "pool courtesy."

It would be a while before you feel a higher level of civility in the swimming pool. There is no incentive to formulate common-sense rules as far as I can tell. Everything is from the top down, possibly all the way from State General Administration of Sports. A centralized system naturally limits its innovations and improvements to the selected few elites. Scaling is a big challenge to China in many of its policies and regulations.

Although there are signs showing "no jumping/diving" in shallow water, many children are ignoring the rules. Safety consciousness is not big on the teaching agenda.

[Pool Usage Convention]
I am not aware of any ideas along the lines of family swim versus lap swim. All pool areas are either all divided into lanes or completely open. Poor lap swimmers usually have to avoid the beginners and those who are simply playing around for fun.

Swimming is still considered fun and entertainment for families and individuals. Pool schedules are tailored to this type of usage. No pools are open to meet the needs of work-out times such as early morning (before work), lunch time and early evening (after work). Most, if not all, pools operate at management's convenience, not at users' convenience. This reminds of my friend SX's one-liner: There are no rights, only obligations for the individuals in China. It is so true.

[Others]
No photos are allowed in most swimming pools. I don't know why.
Men and women all wear caps, a policy that is mandated by pool management.
A deep water certificate allows swimmers to be in deep water areas. To get a certificate, you must pay 10RMB to apply and must be able to swim 200 meters and tread water for 30 seconds.
There are often swimming lessons for children, especially in the summer time. There are many more bystanders (parents/friends) than students. A typical scene in China.

Reflections on the 2008 Beijing Olympics

The Beijing Olympic Games were "truly exceptional Games," said International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge at the Games' closing ceremony staged in the National Stadium in northern Beijing on Sunday night, August 24, 2008.

This is a fair overall assessment of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. A few reflections are in order since I was in the city for the last two years and attended three events, men's gymnastic, women's skeet shooting, and men's boxing.

[China's Favorite Sporting Son]

China's favorite sporting son, Liu Xiang, had to pull out of his defense of his 110 meter hurdles title due to an Achilles tendon injury, leaving his legions of fans heartbroken. He is a man who could be more influential than the PRC President in what he says and does. He is now depicted as a cartoon character in one TV show I happened to glance at recently; every child in China will probably recognize him. I hope that a hero like him can do more for China beyond the 110 meter hurdles event.

[Nationally Organized Sport Promulgation]

China has a national-level office, the State General Administration of Sport, to promulgate sporting events and training and to win medals in many venues. This is another good example of Chinese efficiency in execution when action is needed. A news report last week mentioned that 800 million RMB was spent for the 2008 Olympics in athletes training; and with 51 gold medals, each cost about 15 million RMB (about 2.2 million US dollars).

As far as I know, there is no counterpart in the US. Almost all sports organization are grass-roots organizations. Rules and regulations are defined and run by these non-profit organizations. I am familiar with high school level wrestling and swimming, as these are the sports my children participated in. I think that reaching the grass-roots level should be the aim for China to be sustainable in medal counts. A healthy and fit population should be the eventual goal of any government-sanctioned effort.

[Handing Over the Olympic Flag to New Host City London]

London Mayor Boris Johnson received the Olympic flag from Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong during the closing ceremony on Sunday, because London is hosting the next summer games in 2012. To the Chinese, it might seem odd to see the Beijing Mayor having such an honor. Mr. Guo is not even listed in the CCP page, which lists 30 or so names as members of the Politburo of the CCP Central committee. If you want to count "status or standing" in Chinese politics, that is where you should look first.

The tradition of having a city, rather than a country, bid to host the Olympic Games is something novel to the very centralized Chinese system in the first place. Mr. Guo, as the mayor of the host city, was the one to do the job, and not anyone else, which was refreshing and food for thought for the Chinese during the closing ceremony. Incidentally, it was the first time I saw him on TV in the two years I have spent in Beijing.

[Extinguishing the Olympic Flame]

I was quite sentimental about the extinguishing of the flame. It signaled an end and put a period at the time horizon. Chinese are not used to, and often are reluctant and sometimes even superstitious in, talking about and facing end games in many social and personal circumstances. Facing it in front of a billion of viewers in China was a good experience and a good mental exercise. No rationale, no explanation, no thing required for this. An event to accept and to reflect upon is a simple and beautiful thing.

[Collateral Damages in the Last Stretch of the 2008 Beijing Olympics]

There were so many accomplishments in completing projects and construction on time for the Olympics. The pleasant surprise of fast clean-ups on streets and subways in the early summer was a clear indication of the can-do spirit around the city and probably in the country as well. The question, then, is when and where the government is going to take action.

In the preparations for the Games, there was much collateral damage. The "undesirables," including migrant workers, were moved out, and visas for foreign students were not extended for the summer. For the sake of not getting embarrassed or having to be bailed out, I acquired a "temporary residence permit" and always carried it along with my passport in my backpack.

Torch relay crowd control tactics were all very raw and rudimentary in the Chinese style. This is often offensive to non-Chinese and is in bad taste in general. Speaking of the torch relay, there were about 8 hours of torch relay with 800 runners in Beijing. This equates to 36 seconds per runner, which is pathetic to me. It was a "who's who in Beijing" event to me, an attempt to balance out demands from all corners of the society and government.

My barber shop owner complained about slow business and many restaurants were not packed at all for the summer. All these temporary alienations hopefully can be well compensated by the great success of the Games and will be forgotten hopefully after a few years.

Obviously, what I have just said is all officially false information from the government's point of view. For me, I am a stubborn donkey and I like to think and observe myself without being told and fed of any truth.