The boy who learned to dance to a different beat

While square dancing and its omnipresent boomboxes entrance huge swathes of the Chinese population, it is an ancient form of movement and music that keeps others preoccupied

When Chen Zhichao, 23, ends his long work day at a medical college in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, he eschews the kinds of places many of his peers repair to, such as bars, cinemas and shops. Instead, he goes to a square on the southern part of Big Wild Goose Pagoda, a landmark in Xi'an built during the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

There he meets a group of elderly people who with him are members of a yangge dance troupe.