Whew! Is everyone else as glad to be settled at home as I am? I had an amazing time, but I’m glad to have adjusted back to my normal schedule. It’s hard to believe it’s been ten days since we got back.

One of the most common things I’ve been asked, since getting back, is whether the air was very bad where we were staying. I did not end up having a noticeable issue with the air quality myself (I did get a migraine, but those are common for me when my sleep schedule was disrupted), but it isn’t surprising that there is a substantial air quality issue in China itself. As so much of the population resides in densely packed urban areas and technology and industry have been developing rapidly over a short period of time, air pollution is an unfortunate side effect.

China itself is surprisingly health-conscious. In my reading before we left for the trip, I read some about the societal emphasis on caring for elder’s health, but there wasn’t much information on the societal structure towards health and care across all age groups. Being in China, I noticed many habits that the U.S. could pick up from China to help our own health crisis.

One of these habits is the diet based away from sugar-heavy foods. While our meals were huge while we were there, most of them focused on flavor and texture instead of being sweet or greasy, like many American foods. Furthermore, the U.S. can stand to move away from such meat heavy diets—while the foods that were given to us had a significant amount of meats, I noticed that many other people didn’t rely on meats as their primary source of protein. This is ideal for a country with a large population residing away from livestock areas. As the U.S. is looking at a similar urban movement (albeit significantly more slow-paced), we may need to take cues from other countries about our food consumption.

Another one of these habits is exercise as a form of social engagement (this is a topic I journaled about while on our trip). While America has some ‘social’ exercise or movement groups, like Aquacise and Yoga In The Park, the groups are less engaged towards differing age, gender, and economic demographics. In America, these exercise groups are often seen as a ‘necessary evil’ towards healthy behavior. In China, people who exercise socially seem to genuinely enjoy the behavior. The inclusion of exercise equipment and areas to all seniors without payment helps to both encourage healthy behaviors in the aging population, but also to help negate some of the classist issues that plague U.S. health struggles.

Lastly, the engagement of the aging community is so important, and we only got a glimpse of it. Socially engaging the elderly is shown to lessen depression, physically engaging them can delay osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and heart issues, and mentally engaging them can help to delay dementia and other mental issues. In the visits we took to different historical sites, it was common to see aging people playing games, taking walks, and talking with each other. It was incredible to see people of all ages mingling and helping each other and themselves, and creating these spaces is one area where the U.S. can learn from China.