[Beijing] Just For Kicks... Feathery Ones

Having arrived only the day before, and consequently feeling relatively fresh (which did not last long comparatively to the rest of the trip), we woke up early and went on a grand little adventure to explore the nearby streets and neighborhoods around our hotel. We were also taking advantage of the early time to beat most of the swarming morning rush. The rush, that is, that swarms continuously (relentlessly, mercilessly) all day long and doesn't stop until much in the evening.

Just a block or two down, we passed an old man playing with a Chinese hackey sack, known as the Jianzi (JYEN dzeh). Rather, he was doing it for exercise, as he told us he did every morning as part of his daily routine. My mother had explained them to me when I was much younger, but they are very hard to explain if you've never seen one... (hence the link above). I was instantly fascinated with it, especially since at first glance if there's one sitting there, it usually doesn't look... "hackey-sack-able"... at all.

Here's the breakdown of a Chinese hackey-sack. To put it in a nutshell, it's basically just:

1) A weighted base (though merely a few ounces)
2) Feathers attached to stabilize aforementioned base

The base is made of a piece of rubber that's flat on the bottom and has another small, hollow tube of rubber sticking out of its middle. To get an idea of that shape, think of a quarter with a cut-off cigarette butt glued on its end to the center of the coin. So far so good? Great. Around this hollow tube part are several washers made of metal -- for weight. (Personally, I like them best because they cause the hackey-sack to make a nice "chink" noise every time you kick it, like barely tossing up a small stack of coins and catching it again). The rest after that is just sticking and fastening feathers of whatever size, shape, or color are preferred into the tube part.

So now you get to see some photos of this guy in action. And note, if you will... this man is at least in his 60's.








We found some of these big ones in a market in Beijing. I got three of them and precariously carried them by hand in a bag so the feathers wouldn't get crushed. They're sturdy, but the feathers are brittle enough to be bent or snapped at the shafts. I brought them ever so carefully all the way to Shanghai!... only to lose them in the taxi from the airport when we left. Unfortunate. But then again, we made up for it when we bought 11 ones of the smaller variety in the Shanghai markets. (As a side note, the big 4-feathered ones could only be found in Beijing. In Shanghai they only make the smaller tufted ones, which is why I had been disappointed when I lost the big ones).