I'm not a fanatic swimmer by any means but have recently taken up swimming as a way of keeping moderately fit. When travelling I nowadays look for a public swimming pool both as a means to maintain my fitness levels and also because it provides a window on the life of the locals.
While the rules at Chinese swimming pools vary most Australians would find the initiation somewhat tortuous. My most extreme example of this Chinese water torture was at a pool in Urumqi, western China where I ultimately left having swum a total of one length.
It’s true that the torture of the initiation is aggravated by my lack of language skills but mostly the problem is the prior one of not expecting the rules to be as they are.
Admission. Well that was relatively straightforward. One desk, two attendants, one giving out tickets and one dealing with the issue and return of locker locks and keys. The trick was to stand in front of the first of these [though which was the first took some time to get right], ignore the pushing and shoving of others who seemed to lurch from attendant to attendant, and motion a breaststroke swimming motion [overarm style is known but not common in China].
OK. After that desk I had one admission ticket, one lock and key [numbered] and a wave in the direction of what I assumed was the changing room. Off I went but didn't get very far as I was pointed to a room where a person in nurse-like gear was inspecting people. It was hard to work out what parts of people she was inspecting because some people more or less rushed in, raised their shirt and off they went, while others sort of hung about for a bit and then seemed to disappear.
So in I went and raised my shirt as she seemed to be asking and yes, she looked at my back. But then I had to take off one sandal, raise my trouser leg and wave that leg in the air. She looked on from some distance searching for what I have no idea. I proffered the other sandal and leg but they were waved away leaving me absolutely none the wiser as to what might count this inspection was actually about.
She issued me a slip of paper – presumably a good heath certificate – and then off again I went in the direction of the change room.
There was an attendant just prior to the change room entrance who checked the health certificate, took my admission ticket and allowed me in. Well I thought I was in but just as I walked off the carpet looking for my locker number I was called back, my feet were pointed to and I was waved back in the direction I had come. I looked helpless – a cultivated look which works fairly well in China – and someone took me back down the corridor, past the nurse and to a little counter where I was issued with plastic slippers.
So down the corridor again, past the admission-ticket lady, onto a bench where I changed into my slippers and then to find my locker. But actually I found, when looking helpless again, that any locker without a lock on it would do. The numbers on the lock don't have to match the locker. That's not what they are for at all. That is simply the number of the lock and when you return it that number is checked off. So the lockers have a number and you can choose any one that is free. But it means of course that you have to remember your locker number and its location in the midst of several hundred of these.
In my case the choice was made for me. The attendant noticed a locker right near the door and suggested I take that. This seemed pretty sensible to me as I'd remember that easily – and – as it turned out – I did.
Now the next thing. There are showers, people soaping, some with bathers on and some without. So do you shower before swimming [I'd just showered in my hotel]? And if so do you also wash with soap? And do you do it with bathers on or off? And does all this mean that you go from your locker, shower and then back to the locker again [to drop off the soap for example]? And what happens to the slippers?
Judging by the showering activity I decided that the answers were:
a) yes
b) yes
c) optional but normally off
d) yes
e) you wear them from now to the pool deck and back
For those who have been reading carefully. I knew about the soap because I had already been to a Chinese pool. I've formed the impression that many Chinese use this as a bathing opportunity and for some it probably is. It is almost a communal ritual in that they wash – even scrub - each others’ backs and spend what seems like hours chatting and soaping away.
The other thing I noticed at this pool though it had been apparent to a lesser degree in others is a rather quaint little custom. A lot of swimmers carry a little bucket in which they put their soap, shampoo, goggles and bathing cap. This avoids the problem of having a shower and then going back to the locker to store your soap and other small items prior to entering the pool. And of course you have it when you've finished your swim and are returning via the shower.
Now for the pool. Slippers on, bathers on and in my hand my goggles and bathing cap. These last I always use. The first for ease of swimming and the second to lessen the effects of chlorine.
Through the foot bath which for some reason was empty and out onto the pool deck where I put on my bathing cap .Only just as a pulled it on it started to tear and was pretty soon useless. No matter I thought for just one swim and having survived all those hurdles I'll go in without it. Which I did.
Now this was a pool with no lanes but the general direction was clear and I chose a path with few in it. In this way I would minimise the number of Chinese swimmers I'd run into. Most Chinese swim breaststroke so are pretty slow down the lane and rather easy to run down unexpectedly.
I didn't account for the people swimming across the pool but on my way I ran into only one of those.
One lap. I felt good. I hadn't swum for a week or more so I looked forward to doing several more laps but as I rested up a little and contemplated my path back through the swimmers I was called out. The attendant pointed to my head and then to a fellow swimmer's head. The difference? Mine had no bathing cap. The decision? I couldn't swim until I had one.
Blast. I didn't know where to get one and if they sold them here it would mean going back to my locker to get money. And presumably I'd have to get dressed as the nearest likely place for purchasing anything was out near the admissions area.
I decided to give up. So I showered, dressed and set off to return the slippers and then the lock and key. This was all pretty simple – other than the disdainful look I received from the slipper lady when I handed them to her. The requirement was that I drop them into a tub of something rather than give them to the attendant. Which is quite sensible of course but you need somehow to know about this tub because it is discreetly hidden behind the attendant and to reach it you have to go into what appears to be her work area.
On my rather disconsolate way home the taxi passed another pool adjacent to the first. This was open air and had marked lanes. Its bright blueness looked inviting enough for me to return the next day.
Different entrance, slightly different procedure but helped at each step by someone. With one of these I thought to check whether I had all I needed.
Goggles? Yes. Bathing cap? Yes. Towel? Yes. Do I need slippers? No.
So of course what happened is that having had the pre-swim shower, I wandered out toward the pool deck asking on the way the direction to the WC [for some reason a commonly understood term for toilet in China]. The person I asked half pointed to my feet but then sort of shrugged his shoulders. The state of the WC – when I saw it – was the reason enough I thought for his shrugging. But I was committed and with bare feet rather unwisely perhaps made use of the conveniences.
Then out to the pool to be greeted by someone pointing at my feet. Slippers? Yes. Where do I get them? First office. But I've got my bathers on? That's OK and I'll show you where to get them.
Which he very kindly did. Here I had to buy rather than hire the slippers but I had the choice of plastic or disposable. I chose the latter and was handed a pair. I think the idea is that one size fits all but that doesn't work for me with my slightly larger-than-the-standard-Chinese feet. Nevertheless off I went and put on my ill-fitting slippers, wore them to the edge of the pool -as everybody did at this pool - and in I went.
Blue and inviting it may have been. And quite warm was the day but the water was not only unheated it felt like it just came off the nearest snowy peak. Freezing.
It did get warmer the more I swam but I had to stop after every two laps. Lack of fitness I thought and to some extent it probably was. But when I got back to my hotel I was so cold that I had to get under a big eiderdown for an hour or so. I couldn't stop shaking. I think I had nearly got hypothermia.
But I know now that goggles, bathing caps and slippers are mandatory in a Chinese pool.
Unlike the usual Australian pool where caps and goggles are optional and if anyone wore slippers to the edge of the pool they'd be considered rather strange.
And while showers are provided at Australian pools and many people use them, most do so after rather than before [or before and after] a swim.
So if you think about it it is also apparent that our perception of our cleanliness is higher than the Chinese people's perception of their cleanliness.
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