CHINA DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Friday, March 12, 2021 | 7 CHINA ‘Ox routes’ ‘Sisters’ attracting make up for herds of county’s new runners manpower YINCHUAN — A route that tra- shortage ces the Chinese character for “ox” has recently become popular with thousands of running enthusiasts HEFEI — Donning a red vest and in the Ningxia Hui autonomous rubber boots and carrying a huge region. The distances and roads pesticide tank, Zheng Jingjing walk- used in the “ox routes” change, and ed side by side with four “sisters” in can be modified to suit a runner’s a wheat field to spray pesticides for fitness level. their neighbor who is in poor health “Running along an ‘ox route’ gives and whose husband works away me an incredible sense of achieve- from home. ment and it is more fun than regular “A bucket of pesticide weighs marathons. I have already done it more than 50 kilograms. I have a four times with different people,” neck problem and therefore can’t do said 49-year-old Guo Yayan after heavy work,” said Zhang Xialan, completing an ox route around Yin- owner of the field. chuan People’s Square along with 20 “They did the work that would other runners. The 23.67-kilometer take me almost a whole day in less run took her 2 hours and 17 minutes. than half an hour.” According to Du Bin, an organiz- As a volunteer in Yingshang, Anhui er of the Run Ningxia event, the From left: Xiang Xinran at the construction site of the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan, Hubei province, in 1983. A painting done by province, Zheng, a mother of two, is a activities, known as “Run and draw Xiang of the tower after the completion of its reconstruction in 1985. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY member of the county’s women’s the Ox”, are arranged by local run- council established in June. ners. They design routes based on Yingshang has a population of the Chinese character for ox and 1.79 million. Of those, 540,000 peo- mark the names of streets so partic- ple work in other parts of the coun- ipants don’t get lost. Since last try, leaving behind a large number month around 17,000 people have Little-known architect of women to care for the elderly and tackled ox routes in the region. children and tend to farmland. “Competition is the initial motiva- Huang Qi, Party secretary of the tion for people to take up running,” county, said: “Many of them spent Du said. “Now, enthusiasts voluntar- their spare time on mahjong or chit- ily organize a lot of regular activi- built a towering legacy chatting. It was not only a waste of ties, which contributes a great deal time but also often caused disputes.” to improving public fitness.” “Stay-at-home women used to be Guo said she has changed a lot Late designer who wanted to cry out “to release all of a marginalized and vulnerable since she started running in 2016. “I the pressure”. “I was honored to be group, but as society develops, more have become more cheerful and recreated historic able to bring back its glory and women in the countryside aspire to haven’t caught a cold for a couple of landmark in make history touchable,” Xiang Xin- do more and want to gain recogni- years,” she said. She uses her writing ran said. tion,” Huang said. skills to create promotional material Hubei capital The tower receives about 4 mil- The volunteer group, Cunsao about the ox runs to try and get peo- lion visits a year, and has won a (sisters in the countryside) Coun- ple to join in. remembered for design award from the Architectur- cil, was set up to mobilize rural Li Shiheng, 33, leads a team that contributions al Society of China. Xiang Xinran women in Yingshang. The council likes to tackle a 27-km ox route in was selected as a deputy to the sev- now has 4,322 members, with the Xixia district, Yinchuan. He has also enth National People’s Congress, majority 30 to 50 years old. Zhang designed other novelty routes for By ZHOU LIHUA in Wuhan China’s top legislature, in 1988 for Yan, head of the women’s federa- running enthusiasts. and CHEN MEILING his contributions to reconstruction tion of the county, said 94 percent “The route design should not be of the tower. He published two of them have a middle school edu- too long or involve any dead ends. In 1978, little-known architect books on his work, in 2014 and 2017, cation or higher. Safety also needs to be taken into Xiang Xinran was given the job Xiang, his granddaughter and wife at the East Lake Greenway in which included his hand drawings The council members play an account,” Li said. opportunity of a lifetime when he Wuhan in 2017. and paintings of the tower plus sto- active role in rural life, including A former soldier, Li now works was asked to reconstruct the his- ries about the design work. promoting government policies, at a State-owned enterprise and toric Yellow Crane Tower in persuading people to break with old maps and running are his hobbies. Wuhan, Hubei province. generations of architects, accord- possible about the architectural Mentor’s legacy customs, keeping villages clean, cut- After designing a route in the Xiang, then 38, had graduated ing to officials and former peers. style he wanted to recreate. Encouraged by his father, Xiang ting hair for the elderly and mediat- shape of the figures “2021” Li tried from Tsinghua University and “Exhausted from working over- Shang majored in architecture at ing in disputes. it out before inviting other run- worked at the Central-South Archi- Towering figure time, I sometimes nodded off on college. After graduating in 1999, he “My family was not supportive in ners to join in. tectural Design Institute. He was The original Yellow Crane Tower the bus and missed the station,” he worked as an architect in Shanghai. the beginning and wanted me to In 2010, he founded Dawn Steps, asked to help a senior colleague was built in 223 AD during the said in the article. At 1.8 meters “He cared about my work, asking focus more on household duties, but the very first running group in draw up design sketches for a new Three Kingdoms (220-280) for mil- tall, his weight dropped to 60 kilo- about my projects all the time as if I actually had plenty of time and Ningxia. From only a few initial tower to commemorate the original itary use. In the following dynas- grams at one point due to the he was my client,” he joked. wanted to do more,” said Zheng, 24. members, the group has expanded one, which no longer existed. ties, it became a travel destination tough work schedule. Xiang Xinran’s passion for “They are more supportive now. My to more than 1,000 people who are Xiang drew up an alternative for intellectuals and was written In September 1983, the roofs of architecture didn’t stop after his husband often offers to help me if I scattered across the region. “There plan to his colleague’s based on about in many ancient poems. the tower were in place and Xiang retirement. He worked on projects have an issue in the council.” are more running groups in Ning- how the tower would have looked It was destroyed seven times, moved into a 12-square-meter including the Hubei Provincial Being a council member is not xia and running enthusiasts can be during the Qing Dynasty (1644- due to military conflicts or acci- room at the construction site to Museum, the East Lake Greenway easy as it requires the volunteers to seen everywhere,” Li said. 1911). dents, and restored 10 times dur- speed the workflow. The room in Wuhan and the rebuilding of do tedious and time-consuming In terms of equipment, the sport To his company’s surprise, offi- ing the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing contained a bed, office table and the Xunyang Tower in Jiujiang, jobs. They sometimes are misunder- just requires a pair of running shoes. cials thought Xiang’s design stood dynasties. The last restoration of drawing boards. One of his son’s, Jiangxi province. stood, especially during this year’s “However, only a small number of out from the pack of proposals the tower was in 1868, but it was Xiang Shang, remembers visiting Sheng Nieming, deputy chief Spring Festival holiday, when they people can stick to it,” Li said. they had received from leading again destroyed in 1884. the construction site when he was engineer of the Wuhan Institute of were asked to visit each house to To encourage more people to get architectural firms. Almost a century later, the a small boy. “The working environ- Landscape Architectural Design, ensure those returning from outside into running, Li organizes an activi- In a 2017 article published in Wuhan government decided to ment was harsh,” he said. “Father said in 2016 they invited Xiang Xin- observed COVID-19 control meas- ty called “Run on Contract” via his CSADI’s magazine, Xiang said it build a new tower on a different site put all his energy into it and moth- ran to work as the design counselor ures. However, they encouraged WeChat account. Enthusiasts pay a was the “blessing of his lifetime” to the original. Their intention was er took over all the duties at home.” for East Lake Greenway buildings.