In China, it is normal to see people from eighty years by jumping rope. They do it with friends, with family, or with the grandchildren. In large squares or in tiny alleys. As if they finished out of class and only had a few minutes to enjoy the playground. Although still has not given Cao Ming by jumping rope, this musician’s 63 years also maintains in the form. He says that his secret is playing drums for four hours a day, eat well and enjoy their grandchildren.

When he commented that it looks great and it looks much younger, I respond as if I had suddenly become his disciple: in China we say that one becomes old when you cannot move your hands or feet. Look at how I play the drums and guitar. I move them. I’m young. I not only play by music, also for life.

So never you become old. In Beijing, other older people prefer to enjoy their youth with Tai Chi, meditation and other types of exercises. When is the majority of young people still between the sheets, many already they take several hours practicing Tai Chi in parks. A show is getting up at 6 in the morning and go to the parks to contemplate their movements paused but insightful, as small turtles that are moving slowly but in the direction required. Fascinated by the vitality of older persons and their role in Chinese society, I went once more with all my questions to the Lao Wang old bicycle shop. On this occasion caught you waiting for customers and recalling phrases of Confucius: in society the importance of respect for elders and traditional Chinese filial piety was something almost sacred. The greatest duty of a son was to care for their parents. Now things are changing. Young people increasingly are less concerned by their elders. Lao Wang explained to me how in traditional Chinese culture the children were obliged to follow the advice of his parents, preparing their funeral and take care of them until the last day. Today, and in big cities, things have changed a lot. Some children even attend legal contracts to arrange relations family: children undertake to pay their studies while they are young to change that older people don’t bother them when their old age. Social relationships change in China by leaps. Although increasingly less, older people enjoy still enviable a prestige and vitality. Currently, spaces in parks are designed so that the young people run, but also so that older persons can make their Tai Chi exercises. And the elderly still compete with children to see who jumps better to camber. Daniel Mendez original Autor and source of the article.