中国老人爱锻炼 外媒盛赞好榜样

BEIJING -- No treadmills, no iPods, these elderly Chinese people are putting on a showcase of human dexterity at Beijing’s . Perhaps even more surprising is the fact that few of them exercised seriously before retiring. In China, it’s common for people’s athletic lives to begin in old age.

北京，天坛公园。没有跑步机，没有ipod，锻炼中老年人们显得伸手格外矫健。然而出人意料的是，他们中的大多数都是退休之后才开始锻炼的。而这种现象在中国则是非常常见。

Geng Zhi spent his working years on an assembly line at a car parts facility. “Back then I didn’t exercise at all,” said Geng. “Who would have thought of exercising? If you had enough to eat and a place to live that was enough.”

耿智没退休前，是汽车制造厂的流水线上的工人。“上班的时候我根本不锻炼，”他说，“那个时候有的吃有的住就够了，谁会想到锻炼呢。”

80-year-young “Old Liu” prefers to sweat it out on the ping pong table. Old Liu’s relationship with ping pong has tracked with international affairs: He began playing during “Ping Pong Diplomacy” of the 1970s, a series of international friendly matches between the U.S. and China that signaled a thaw in icy relations.

80岁的老刘则喜欢在乒乓球桌上挥洒汗水。他与乒乓的情节要追溯到一件国际事务了： 20世纪70年代的乒乓外交——中美间举办了一系列友谊赛，从而开启了两国的外交破冰之旅。

Back at Temple of Heaven Park, you won’t find Liu or the others using ear buds: Exercise is a fundamentally social phenomenon among China’s elderly. Grandmothers gather in parks at dusk for group line dancing routines, and old men chat as they take turns on the parallel bars. These exercise equipment they need can be found in most Chinese neighborhoods.

天坛公园里，老刘和其他人都不会戴着耳机锻炼：在中国的老年人中，锻炼可以称得上是一种社交行为。老奶奶们黄昏时候聚在一起跳跳广场舞，老爷爷们则在撑双杠时闲聊几句。而这些锻炼必备的器械在中国大部分社区内都是可以找到的。

Your personal trainer might question the science, but it’s hard to argue with the results: Despite rampant cigarette smoking, suffocating pollution and some ghastly food-safety scandals, China compares favorably with other upper middle income countries on life expectancy. What those statistics don't reveal is the organic joy and community vibes that emanate from these temples of public health in China's parks.

你的私教可能会质疑这样锻炼的科学性，但是它所产生的效果是毋庸置疑的：尽管饱受吸烟、污染和骇人听闻的食品安全问题的困然，中国的人均寿命比其他收入处中上等的国家都要长。而且，这些数据没有表现出来的是这样的健身公共场所带给人们的快乐与和谐的氛围。

That’s something to remember: you can do much more with much less -- and right now, some Chinese grandparent probably is.

这给我们的启示是：想锻炼并不需要多复杂的器械。现在，中国的老年人们正是我们最好的榜样。