For the past 20 or so days, Ning Yuzhen, 69, has spent three hours
every day playing ball games in front of a residential apartment
building at Zhichun Dongli Community in Haidian District.
"It is because of SARS that I learnt playing these new games. It is
because of such games that I make new friends," she said.
Ning says she once thought it was a pity that she could not go to
the Summer Palace after the condition of SARS in Beijing became
severe. "My daughter is a doctor and she needs to work overtime
every day. So I have to stay at home looking after my
granddaughter." She says her husband spent nearly 200 yuan to buy
two badminton racquets and a pair of Taiji balls.
She says there are several other people from her community who
regularly join her. "How funny that we all live in the same
building but we did not know each other before."
Dong Ruiqiao, 61, recalls she refused Ning's first invitation to
play Taiji ball, for she did not know how to play. "Ning then
brought the badminton. I told her that I could not play well but
she told me that she did not know how to play at all." Now Dong
plays ball games for two hours a day, sometimes even missing the
evening news program on TV.
"I
have long been thinking what I can do for the society to fight
SARS. I can do nothing directly, but I can encourage more people to
like sports and do more exercises frequently. So fewer people will
so easily succumb to SARS."
(Xinhua News Agency May 14, 2003)
