Early morning is the only time you can go to Hoan Kiem Lake and not see tourists. At 6am the park is packed with Vietnamese exercising and socializing. Parks are hubs of activity for children, teens, and adults alike. However, if you want to exercise, before work and before the day gets hot is the best time to get moving.
I was struck by the diversity of movement and the creativity of using whatever the park to assist their workout.
The most common exercises were
- Fan dancing
- Running
- Walking
- Meditating
- Group aerobics/dance
- Badminton
- Stretching
- Fishing
- Tai chi
- Ballroom
- Biking
- Calisthenics
Here is a slideshow of some of the pictures that I took. They are not the greatest because I was trying to be sneaky. You can also CLICK HERE for a map of where around the lake different activities were happening!
This is not the working out you would see in the US. Sweating and getting the heart racing was not the goal and no one looked to be in peak physical condition. Most of the activities were very low impact because most participants were older. The few younger people I saw were running, biking, or playing badminton. Unlike the older people, they didn’t treat it as a social activity. Unless a person was meditating, they were usually talking, or interacting in a different way. Everyone seems to be part of a social group and there was a strong sense of community. Some activities were divided by gender. For example, men didn’t participate in fan dancing or other group dancing, except for ballroom dancing. Women usually were not doing any of the most extreme stretching/exercising or fighting. Many people were simply sitting on a bench talking although it was clear they had also come with the intention of working out and had either finished or were going to start. From the casual nature of the exercise, I think the morning exercise time is much more a social activity that builds community than to get into shape.
There was no dress code but most people were dressed very similarly. Lots of men had their shirts partially off or all the way of. Almost no one had what I would consider exercise shoes on. Most women were wearing clothes they would wear during the day around the house. The park feels more like a backyard or a living room than a public space. This space is extremely important for residents and it truly belongs to them during the early hours. I can understand why any threat to the parks and park life would be a point of contention for residents.
When plans came out to develop Reunification Park into a Disneyland like park in 2007 and a hotel in 2008 people spoke out and organized protests to show their opposition. In a country where there are not many opportunities to voice opposition to the party, the protests against the Disneyland park and later the hotel were very successful and striking campaigns. The development of Reunification Park would have been against the interests of most Hanoi residents except the very elite who would be able to afford the luxury of the theme park/hotel. This of course is against the principals that the country was founded on. The article we read by Andrew Wells-Dang uses the word rice-roots democracy to describe the kind of political activity in Vietnam because it is very bottom-up, completely participatory, local, and for decentralisation. A good portion of the opposition for the hotel took place through online media by members of the Vietnam Urban Planning and Development Association, which is a relatively new platform for voicing political and social concerns. Earlier opposition against the development of the park came in the form of protests organized and attended by local residents. A problem we have talked a lot about in Vietnam, both in the city and countryside, is the government taking land from people for development in the name of modernization and becoming a civilized country. In all cases, even if they got compensated, the people who owned or used the land/space ended up getting shortchanged. The government must find a way to reconcile their want for a modern, “civilized” city and supporting the working class by preserving urban green space.
Questions
Where do these people work during the day?
Were any of them involved in the protest in Reunification Park?
BONUS! Strange things we saw
- Two men facing each other touching wrists and twirling their arms in a strange dance/martial arts manner
- Lots of hitting and rubbing body parts
- Rolling feet on a board with large beads
- A man hitting a tree with his elbows, presumably as training for boxing or something.
- Men flipping over benches to stretch
[…] View my post about morning exercise in Hoan Kiem park here! […]