The last of the Gongti night-clubbers are still on their way home but another energetic assembly is already about to start around the corner.

It's 6 am, the sun is rising on the horizon and this second group has flocked to Ditan Park to take part in a range of health-enhancing activities, like taichi, sword-playing, shuttlecock-kicking and dancing.

"We old Beijingers prefer to exercise outside," says a 72-year-old man stringing his kite for a flight.

"The air is better out here. And look at all these trees. It’s great. "

Lu Meijun comes to the park each Wednesday with two Nordic walking sticks and sweats it out for two hours in an activity resembling cross-country skiing without the skis. The activity originated in Finland just 12 years ago and is said to work many more muscles and be far more intensive than walking without sticks. Sixty-three-year-old Lu took to it in 2005 when few in Beijing had even heard of it and she is also behind the Ditan Park group, which now numbers more than 100 and includes 11 mute men.

Taichi                                                  Shuttlecock Kicking

Nordic Walking                                          Hoop Rolling

"At first, passers-by seemed puzzled and asked me why physically sound people were walking with the help of walking sticks," she says. Lu had to constantly explain that it was a new way of walking to improve health, well-being and quality of life.