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Q: Where are all the swimming pools?
So, I fly into LA, San Diego or Miami or Sydney or Barcelona, Malaga or Rio (all coastal cities) and I look out the window of the plane. What do I see? Lots and lots of homes with kidney-shaped swimming pools in the backyard. I mean LOTS.
I fly into BJ (not coastal), Shanghai or Qingdao and, yes, there are lots of upscale private homes with yardage, but no swimming pools. I don't get it.
You'd think with all the status symbols that make the Chinese nouveau riche champ at the bit that swimming pools in the garden would rank highly. But I have yet to spot one from my window seat on any airplane I've flown in China.
What's up with that? Any reasonable explanation? (Don't rich Chinese folk like to swim in their own backyard?)
Happy National Day, btw...
I think you'd be surprised how many Chinese can't swim. My wife can't, her mother and sister can't, only her dad knows how. A swimming pool might build status but wearing arm bands and doing the doggy paddle round in circles is just gonna get you laughed at by the neighbours.
Scandinavian:
doggy style in circles will build massive respect in da hood. none of the neighbors can do that. ! It's like killing yourself trying to reverse your Audi is better than falling of a bike and getting bruise that somewhat smarts. It's not a matter of how or what you do. It's a matter of showing you got tall stacks while you do it.
Down here in the south, all communities have swimming pools. Whenever I've seen so-called houses, there has never been any pools. And the yardage would make even stamp collection a challenge.
In the warm sunny south, the community I live in only open the pools from may to about this time of year. It's too cold the rest of the year. Beijingers probably have an even smaller window for swimming due to the misbelief that you will most certainly croak if yo touch water that is colder than 30C.
mikael84:
With the twist that the community pools I have seen here costs money to use. In other countries I lived or been to, the community pools were free of charge.
Where I live now in Shenzhen the price is 20 RMB pr. person and where my wife's family lives in Guangzhou the price is 25 RMB.
Scandinavian:
Where we live it is free for residents and 10 per day per guest. As a resident you need to wear an armband showing you are a resident. They have no idea how many people actually live in each apartment, so it is not a problem for us to have any guests wear a residents armband.
Many community pools in the Southeast, and some water parks. I don't know actual percentages, but it is more common for Chinese to be unable to swim, than to swim. Go to the crummy Nansha beach in Guangzhou, and you'll see most people don't go any further past where the water touches your knees, and nearly all of them wear life preserver jackets. It's sad swimming isn't a common thing, especially in a hot climate like Guangzhou, but a lot of it I think has much to do with the old superstitions of hot and cold, and water being dangerous to the touch. Also, they don't know how to make the beaches exciting for young people. They are a bit depressing. Once you go far south, it gets better, bikini girls, volleyball, and beach bums, and surfing are very prevalent in far south Guangdong and Hainan.
Scandinavian:
remember the water is toxic in most places like rivers, lakes and beaches
The only time I tried a swimming pool in China was at a nice 5 star hotel in Beijing. The place was great, really posh. At the pool there was one Chinese guy and all he did was swim a lap and then hork in the pool over and over. I went downstairs to the pool attendant and tore a strip off him because we could still hear the guy horking in the pool. I told him that is discusting and I wouldn't swim in the pool. The attendant went upstairs, presumably to speak to the Chinese guy, but I didn't go back. Swimming with snot, no thanks.
dandmcd:
Sorry to tell you this fact, Rin, but every pool in the world is pretty much the same way.
Scandinavian:
obviously kids leak everywhere. but have you ever seen a mother struggle to lift her 5 year old fat kid almost enough out of the water so he can pee almost out of the pool, the parent literally standing in her offsprings wee, while there 20 steps away from the pool is a fully functional (and for China) very clean restroom.
TedDBayer:
I'd rather swim with dolphins, yeah I know they pee in the water too. But I don't drink water because fish f**k in it. That's another reason to drink beer.
even given the size of some of the private homes, i suspect one of the main reasons for there not being any, is the cost of filling a swimming pool. Water costs, and given the rate of evaporation here - just see how fast the roads dry after a down-pour - to keep you pool full could be prohibitive. Although there are many status symbols around, you can't flash your swimming-pool ownership to all and sundry unlike a flash car or a bling watch.
Most Chinese people live in an apartment so they don't have a garden far less a swimming pool. In some of the condominiums there are swimming pools which are shared and you often need to pay an entrance fee to use the pool.
On Hainan Island there are a some villas with their own swimming pool. The climate there is tropical and ideally suited to having a pool.
Houses in China are not freehold. They are granted on a 60 year lease basis. The Chinese government owns the land. This is different from most other countries.
If you do use a Chinese swimming pool then I would advise taking medicine to stop you catching trachoma which is endemic in China. This is an eye infection and its pretty painful. I can tell you because I have had it. Your eyelids will swell up and you won't be able to sleep because of the pain in your eyes. It takes a few weeks to go away and you can catch it again and again. Be careful.Look up trachoma on Wikipedia.
