BEIJING, Might 26 (Reuters) – On a sizzling, sunny day, kids and adults splashed within the cool run-off of the Yongding River in a park on the western outskirts of Beijing, a metropolis below near-lockdown in China’s head-on battle with COVID-19.
Whereas gatherings are discouraged and plenty of parks within the sprawling metropolis of twenty-two million are shut, Beijingers – like others throughout China with restricted journey choices – have taken up outside pursuits akin to tenting and picnicking after greater than two years of strict and sometimes claustrophobic pandemic curbs.
Li Xiaoming, supervisor of Sanfo Outside, the biggest outside tools retailer in west Beijing, informed Reuters gross sales of tenting merchandise had quadrupled from a 12 months earlier for the reason that Tomb Sweeping vacation in early April.
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Prospects, sometimes center class urbanites, snap up camp chairs, canopies and tents, which vary in value from 800 to 2,000 yuan ($120-$300), Li mentioned.
One buyer surnamed Wang tried on tenting hats throughout a latest procuring expedition.
“I am longing to be nearer to nature to get relaxed. Tenting could step by step turn into a lifestyle for me,” she mentioned.
Analysis agency iiMedia Analysis predicts that China’s tenting business will develop 19% this 12 months to 35.46 billion yuan ($5.3 billion). The variety of camping-related companies grew by 22,000 in 2021, a rise of 55%, based on Journey China, a authorities web site.
Close to the banks of the Yongding, highschool pupil Huang Xiaowen performed guitar and sang as she and two associates sat on a plaid picnic fabric earlier than getting as much as play volleyball.
Huang, whose lessons have moved on-line, mentioned she typically visits the park on weekends to calm down along with her classmates to flee hemmed-in metropolis quarters and benefit from the quiet.
“We can not have sports activities lessons so there isn’t a stability between schoolwork and relaxation,” she mentioned.
Close by, households and teams of associates ate lunch below the shade of timber, some with tenting gear together with tents, tables and chairs. Youngsters caught tiny fish in pails as trains rumbled previous on a close-by elevated observe.
Beijing resident Teng Fei was picnicking along with his household.
“Due to the pandemic, each younger and outdated individuals within the metropolis are in a depressed temper,” he mentioned.
“Tenting makes everybody calm down a bit of bit.”
($1 = 6.6670 Chinese language yuan renminbi)
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Reporting by Xiaoyu Yin and Tony Munroe; Modifying by Kenneth Maxwell
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