The Chinese do this thing they call "morning exercises." Mostly it's middle-aged-to-elderly folk, who all gather somewhere in public. In the suburbs, they meet on these things that look like neighborhood playgrounds, which are actually just brightly-painted outdoor gyms with general exercise equipment and weights. They do it in a very organized aerobics-type way which, to me, seems like a holdover from the old communist days.

Here, within the perimeter of Forbidden City, there were dozens and dozens of people who had convened (around 7AM) in a huge park area. They were scattered around the perimeter, in little garden areas, and all over, all listening to the same music and instruction on some kind of speaker system. I found it really amusing and bizarre, and Missy and her aunt thought it was silly to find it such.