CHAOYANG - Living Abroad in Beijing - page 439

ten shares its grounds on weekends or weeknights for sports group training activities.
Beijing Ultimate Frisbee ( www.beijingultimate.com ) is one, as is Handball in China
( www.handballinchina.org ) . For those who prefer to put movement to music, just a short
stroll away is 22 International Art Plaza, home to Beijing Salsa ( www.bjsalsa.com ) . Classes
are available on a daily basis and include salsa as well as ballet, belly dancing, and many
other dance styles. A little farther east along Baiziwan Lu, past the Fourth Ring Road, O'le
sports center ( http://ole-sports.org ) has outdoor and indoor football fields, as well as climb-
ing and bouldering walls. They organize other activities, including ski trips in winter and
outdoor climbing in summer. Hokay Skating Rink (tel. [phone]) is also out in this dir-
ection, located inside Xinglong Park by Gaobeidian subway station (Batong Line, exit C).
Come for a skate with the kids or join an ice hockey team.
If you're closer to Wangjing or northeast Chaoyang, 26 Degrees (26° 运动公社, 望京
北侧崔各庄乡奶东村顺白路 , tel. [phone], www.26csportscenter.com ) is a fantastic
option. It has six full-sized football fields, as well as indoor facilities for five-aside games.
It's about two kilometers (1.2 miles) north of Wangjing on Shunbai Lu on the west side of
the Jingcheng Expressway. To get there take the Jingcheng Expressway and get off at exit
5B (not 5A). Take the first right after the exit, travel west for approximately 300 meters be-
fore turning left onto Shunbai Lu. It's about 500 meters down on the left. The website has
directions in Chinese for taxi drivers.
Almost wherever you are in Chaoyang you can find yoga and Pilates, and there's per-
haps no other district in the city in which it's easier to find bilingual or English-led classes.
Most gyms offer yoga or Pilates classes, and there are also many dedicated studios. Just
a few worth investigating around Chaoyang include Yogiyoga ( www.yogiyogacenter.com ) ,
the

Yoga Yard ( www.yogayard.com ) , Yihe 42° Yoga ( www.yh42.com ), Fine Yoga

( www.fine-yoga.com ) , Alona Pilates ( http://alonapilates.com ) , and Isofit Beijing

( www.pilates.cn ) .
If it is a gym you're after, these too can be found all over the district. Many of the four-
or five-star hotels have public memberships, but these don't always come cheaply. Kerry
Sports at the Kerry Hotel in the CBD is perhaps the best known of the hotel gyms, and has
some of the best facilities in town, with basketball and tennis courts as well as a stylish
swimming pool and gym. Prices were being reviewed at the time of writing, but you can
expect to pay in excess of RMB20,000 per year. Other international-quality gyms may cost
somewhere between RMB5,000 and RMB15,000 per year. At the cheaper end of the scale
Heyrobics ( www.heyrobics.com ) takes it outdoors, and for anything from free to RMB30
per class you can work up a sweat.