Today I’m taking you for a visit to our city park.
A spinning roller coaster
Chinese parks are really different from the American concept. There’s always a lot more concrete and a lot more water than I envision a park to be. In other words, there’s a lot less grass, especially grass that you can actually walk on, lie on, play on, or picnic on. In fact, I’ve never seen a picnic table at a park in China. People do bring snacks and eat as they walk. But bringing a basket with fried chicken or sandwiches is not common. Nature trails are very few, and often parks are a terrible place to take a nature walk — too crowded, too landscaped, too noisy.
Of course, that’s not to say that they are not fun in their own way. Sprite, never really knowing anything different, adores the park!
boats
a water ride
the final splash
the pirate ship ride
What can I call these? Giant inflatable hamster wheels? Sprite tells me they are great fun!
hamster wheels
In the seasons when the pool is not in use, you can rent one of these balloons which is tethered to the side with a rope. The children can spin around, bump into other balloons, and then get pulled in when their time is up. Amazingly, they do not leak water. The children stay dry inside.
floating in a pool
Pretty clever, I think. Have any of you seen these types of things? It was my first.
Someone asked in a comment if Sprite has local friends. Yes, of course. We’ve only been living in this city for about four months, so we’re still in the making friends stage, but she does have some friends that we invite over or that invite us to have fun together.
The main problem with friends for her is that children here have long school hours and several hours of homework on top of that. So their free time is very limited. But we do all we can to adjust to their schedules when they are free.
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