78-year-old finds plenty to keep him young

Zhong Ming pretended to pull a hair from the head of a child standing in the audience and put it into an empty bag, before taking out a box containing a gift.

The 78-year-old makes an appearance at Fuzhou's Jinshan Park in Fujian province almost every week, and he is always surrounded by people.

He has been performing magic in different parts of the park for free for eight years, and usually performs to the accompaniment of music from his portable player.

"Every time I hear his music, or sometimes the applause, I know he must be here performing and come to watch," said one resident surnamed Chen, who added that she has been one of Zhong's fans for years.

The former official from Huai'an in Jiangsu province and his wife moved to Fujian's provincial capital in 2007 to live with their daughter. "Eight years ago, I was fascinated by a magic show in a shopping mall and decided to learn how to do it," said Zhong, who bought a lot of his equipment on Taobao, a major e-commerce platform.

"Another time, I watched a performer at the mall tear a newspaper into pieces and then produce one that was intact."

He asked the performer to teach him the trick, but was told he'd have to pay a "tuition" fee of 600 yuan ($88.15), which he felt was too much.

After, Zhong found a magic tutorial on Taobao. It cost a mere 6 yuan but took him nearly two weeks to master.

"It usually takes me about two hours to learn a new technique. I study magic not only to improve my concentration, but more importantly, to make people happy," he said, adding that he now knows about 70 tricks but has no intention of charging his audience. "As the ancient Chinese idiom goes, 'To enjoy oneself alone is a joy, but to enjoy oneself with people is even greater'."

Zhong's hobbies extend beyond magic, and he also practices martial arts. Influenced by his wife, he has been a fan of Yueju Opera, which originated in Zhejiang province, for over 10 years, and he has trained 100 people in the tradition, free of charge.

"When I was 50, I was diagnosed with hypertension. The doctor advised me to take pills every day, but after a month, they started to bother me," he said, adding that he stopped his medication and decided to focus on healing himself through fitness and recreation.

Recently, the elderly man has been learning to box with a personal trainer.

"It is never too late to learn anything as long as you really want to, and you will never feel old as long as you keep exploring," he said.

Yang Jie in Fuzhou contributed to this story.