‘Everyone’s health has improved’: how tai chi energises these Chinese retirees
Tai chi practitioners at Beijing’s Temple of Heaven talk about learning the ancient Chinese practice and how it benefits health and spirit
With one of their arms raised and the other lowered, hundreds of people move every morning like birds spreading their wings at the heart of Beijing’s Temple of Heaven.
They are performing a movement in tai chi, a physical and philosophical practice developed more than 300 years ago that continues to resonate in China today.
“The environment is great and the air is good too,” Ye Guirong, 64, says. “You can see we’re surrounded by trees.”
Most practitioners are retirees in their 60s and beyond. Some exercise in groups while a speaker plays relaxing music in the background. Others move silently on their own.
Ye first encountered tai chi in 2010. Recently retired, she took walks across the city and one day spotted the group she now leads.
“I thought it looked good, so I started practising,” she says.