Taipei is banning the building of any more 'reflexology paths' in city parks. The paths, usually about 50 metres long, consist of a poured concrete bed with thousands of goose-egg-sized rocks embedded in the surface.
For the uninitiated, walking on this in bare feet can be a painful, even bruising experience. But, for aficionados - usually elderly city residents out on their morning constitutionals - it's a kind of therapy: the rocks can stimulate and heal organs in the body that supposedly correspond to meridians in the feet. Adepts trot rapidly across the rocks several times, claiming that the absence of pain is a clear sign that their hearts, livers and other vital organs are robust and free of disease.
Taiwanese physicians, however, complain that they frequently see patients with serious foot injuries from walking on the paths, and argue that reflexology is a pseudo-science anyway. Faced with possible lawsuits over injuries, Taipei City, which pioneered the popular walkways two decades ago, is now trying to decide what to do with the existing paths.
If they are removed, it will be the end of an era. The paths' popularity coincided with the opening of Taipei parks for actual use by residents. Previously, stern signs warned people off the grass and exhorted citizens to refrain from uncivilised behaviour like napping on benches or taking one's shoes off.
But the reflexology paths symbolised the idea that people could actually use public space for essentially private purposes. Health-conscious senior citizens began streaming to the parks in the early morning hours to practice tai chi, dance to folk music blaring on boom boxes and develop their own idiosyncratic fitness regimes.
In North America, fitness is traditionally the realm of the young, who are desperate to work out correctly - that is, exactly like everyone else. In Taiwan, until recently it was the elderly who worked out while the young sat in their offices and grew plump. And almost everyone has their own unique style, as can be seen on the reflexology paths: there is no one right way of walking over the rocks. Some prance over them on the balls of their feet. Others walk slowly, relishing each moment of healing pain while ecstatically slapping themselves with wet towels. Still others walk backwards, emitting loud yelps.