Who needs to speak when you have ball and hoop?

A cross over dribble from above the key, left to right. Teammates pull the other defenders away from the ball. Right hand extends kissing the ball off the glass into the basket; first point of the game, one to nothing. Teammates slap hands and smile. The opponents wear a smirk that says that move is not going to work again.

Scenes like these are repeated hundreds of times at Dongdan Park everyday. Most of the time it is Chinese hands putting the ball into the hoop; this time it was my American hands.

I consider myself an outgoing person. But with no knowledge of Mandarin, being extroverted proved to be a difficult task for me in Beijing. All that changed however when I was introduced to Dongdan Park, a cluster of basketball courts near the heart of Beijing.