Into the twilight years without a backward glance

Sweating and out of breath, my brother returned to our small hotel room in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Before he even took a sip of water, he submitted a report on his run in a nearby park: "There were more people jogging than walking backwards!"

He added after a brief pause: "That's only if you count the women cadets that were doing drills." He held his hand as a maitre d' would hold a serving platter, but with the palm facing down, to emphasize the need for accuracy.

Jogging may be slowly spreading in the Middle Kingdom, but the phenomenon of walking backwards is already firmly established. It's so popular I've seen it across China, from Hohhot to Beijing to Guangzhou, thousands of kilometers south.