It finally happened. I found something that I honestly like about Shanghai, fan dancing. Nearly every morning I've been doing it and I'm so glad that my friends and I were able to jump right in.
Here's how things work. I China there's not such thing as Social Security. Combine this with the fact that retirement age is 50 for women and 55 for men. Some retire earlier because of state owned enterprises shutting down. You're 50 years old and retired now what? Well, the Chinese also pride themselves in physical fitness and having a lot of parks and green spaces in Shanghai. In the park near me, Fuxing (pronounced foo-shing) Park, there is a huge community of people doing ballroom dancing, tai chi, badminton, and kung fu fan just to name a few. I watched the first day and knew immediately that I wanted to do that. Two of the other girls, Amiee and Sara, bought us all fans and we've been going nearly every morning.
We were a bit nervous at first, but have caught on quickly and the other people doing gongfu fan have really enjoyed having us. I've been practically shoved up to the front of the group to learn things, and the teacher Yue Laoshi had been giving us private lessons after the regular class concludes.
