Chaoyang Park

What do you do when the stars align and the "powers that be" create a Beijing where the air pollution is low, the sun is shining and there is a gentle, pleasant breeze that allows you to bask in beautifully comfortable surroundings? Where do you go on those rare occasions when the gloriously golden sunlight beams down lovingly on you and the fresh air merrily caresses your lungs and encourages you to venture outside into a fantastic albeit rare, clean environment that yearns to be explored and enjoyed? 

- You visit one of Beijing's many parks of course! If you are feeling extra adventurous, you can go to Chaoyang Park which (to my knowledge) is Beijing's largest public park. It has its own small amusement park (with fairground/carnival rides), football and basketball courts, water park and lakes. You can watch people perform tai chi, flying kites and playing jianzi (in which the players must keep a weighted shuttlecock-type object in the air without using their hands).

I got lost inside this mammoth beast of a park a mere few weeks after moving to China. It's still too painful to go into too many details. Let's just say that after several hours of trying to locate friends, I soon began to panic. If only I had bothered to watch some Bear Grylls episodes. But I didn't want to resort to drinking my urine in the park. Instead I turned on my survival mode and used all the resources I had brought with me - a bag of Tsing Tao beer cans and a packet of chewing gum. I was alarmed to notice that a gaggle of stray cats had decided to stalk me around the park. They could sense my vulnerability but thankfully I struck upon an excellent idea. After a couple of cans and a quick brainstorming session, I happened to think about the Hansel and Gretel story in which they ventured into the woods but left a trail of breadcrumbs to follow in order to get back home. I had not left anything that would direct me out of the park, but in a twisted version of the fairytale, I decided to follow the trail of phlegm globules that had been hacked up by other visitors and placed sporadically around the pathway. They would have to eventually lead me to one of the exits. It was dark when I stumbled out of my temporary prison. I had not managed to meet my friends, but I did visit many, many areas of the park.

Anyway, my first experience of Chaoyang Park was not enough to scare me off from return visits. In fact, on the 16th August I decided to go the Chaoyang Park with Liz and joined in with an organised water fight. The "Water Wars" was run by a group called Imagine. People were organised into teams and Liz decided that our team should be called Team Pug. A Filipino girl called Ella and her friends also joined our team. Most of the people there decided to throw water at anyone - even their own team mates so there was definitely friendly fire involved and the water supplies quickly ran out.

Ready with war paint on!

There is something extremely liberating about throwing water balloons, firing water pistols and launching a large plastic container of water over complete strangers. I spent the majority of the battle guffawing heartily at how funny it was to watch everyone getting totally drenched (including myself).

After a couple of hours, the organisers decided the water fight was over (perhaps they were tired of refilling the tubs of water that would need replenishing every ten minutes) or maybe a water fight just meets its natural end after two hours - the water balloons were all gone, the water guns had broken and people had taken to filling their drink bottles with any dregs of liquid they could find (I am almost ashamed to say that at one point I decided to wring out my T-shirt into a plastic bottle in the vain attempt that I could get more ammunition).

It was such a fun afternoon! After the water fight, Liz and I fancied going to the newly opened Pizza Express in Solana. On our way, Ella invited us to play laser tag with her and the rest of Team Pug. How could we refuse? We got changed into camouflage T-shirts and ran around the woods of Chaoyang Park while trying to shoot each other with laser guns. 

After an hour, we were exhausted and decided it was definitely time to gorge on pizza - we had certainly earned it. We took a photograph so that we wouldn't forget Team Pug and the battles that we had fought together.

Days where you can enjoy outdoor activities really make you appreciate low pollution levels and also remind you how amazing Beijing is. Let's hope there are more opportunities like this day!

Bonus photo: Mum and Dad in Chaoyang Park (June 28th 2014)