Living and Leisure

Summer is here! Technically the Summer solstice begins on the 21st of June but for anyone that has broken a sweat outside this week, an argument can be made that Summer's arrival has already come. The heat and long daylight hours conjure up the day dreamer in all of us, and especially for those of us working full time. Summer is the time when we contemplate all the things we want to do versus the things that we must do. Some of us might recall the nostalgia of long family road trips and fighting with siblings in the back seat of the car. For others it might be planning a vacation getaway to somewhere exotic. Summer can be about things as simple as the comfort of sleeping in, to going swimming and eating popsicles. Whatever the daydream might be, from recalling the past to imagining the future, our passing thoughts certainly involve recreation and leisure.

A Brief History of Leisure

While academic and philosophical explanations of leisure highlight many gray areas of the word's meaning, a simple explanation can still be made so it's easily understandable. Leisure is free time. This is any time independent from attending school or going to work. While some people might enjoy their work or studying, these things are primarily considered obligations. It comes as no surprise that Summer Holiday serves as the example for free time since young people around the world share the common experience of relief from their main commitment of going to school.

The roots and concept of leisure trace back to recent history from the 19th Century. During the times of the industrial revolution, many people from the upper crest of society saw a growth in income and had the ability to spend their time on activities outside of work. The phenomenon also spread to the working class as they began to work fewer hours as well. Remember, in the scope of history it wasn't long ago that scores of people were working from the time they woke up until it was time to go to bed. Whether it was new labor laws or natural economic trends that have brought us to our current position today, leisure is a large part of our lives.

Reading in a nice library makes one totally relax.

Work Life Balance

The question goes, "Do you live to work or do you work to live?" There are different ways to analyze this question as well as answer it. The idealistic view people hold is that work enables them to live their life which is separate from work. On the other end of the spectrum, people are so engulfed in their work that they don't have much of a life outside of their day job. Their purpose in life is to work versus work enabling them to spend their life as they wish. I will leave the life purpose discussion for the experts.

Regardless of life's purpose, drawing a line and creating a boundary between work and personal life has been a topic in modern culture for some time. In 1974 the song "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin reached the number one spot in the Billboard Hot 100 charts with lyrics that pull at the heart. The song essentially is about a father and son who are too busy to spend time with one another, a true failure in finding balance. In addition to pop culture, this topic is tackled by business publications like Forbes and even Health and Medical Industry related businesses. Most literature and articles reveal a heavy preference towards the life balance side.

Spending some time playing board games with friends is a good leisure.

Tricks to Achieve Balance

No article about leisure would be complete without providing some useful ways to gain more free time. Gathered from the writing of experts, here are three easy steps you can take to create more time for yourself outside of work.

1.) Prioritize. Take a moment to evaluate where you are with your work situation. Consider the associated trade-offs between working more and working less. For some, hard work and longer hours today might have the benefit of greater free time in the future. For another person, five thousand dollars a year of extra salary to be a manager requires ten extra hours of work each week. After taxes are removed, the pay equates to less than ten dollars per hour. For someone with a family, time with the spouse and kids cannot be recompensated and this trade-off isn’t worth it. For a young professional aspiring to excel in a new career, the money isn't as important as the potential to rise in the ranks. Additionally, if there isn't a family missing out on their presence then perhaps this time sacrifice isn't so detrimental. Everyone's situation is unique, and understanding the trade-offs between working more or less can help you prioritize. It can even involve evaluating whether or not your current job fits your needs.

2.) Set Boundaries. Draw a clear line that separates work time from your own time. This might be the most difficult part for some people especially depending upon the types of jobs they have. In some cases it requires you to say "no" to work that cannot be completed within the standard business hours, or save some things to be done the following day. Not letting work infiltrate personal life appears to have made some traction outside of just being a personal choice. Semi-recent news has covered stories about after work emails being banned to some degree in France and Germany. Unless you are French, only you are capable of setting the standard for where this limit lies. The details of your personal life (having a family of not) should not allow your employer to set the rules for when work ends and your free time begins. If this is the case, revisit step one.

3.) Be Efficient with Work. Being efficient with work can lead to more free time, and efficiently spending your free time can maximize its benefit. Have you ever heard of the five hour work day? Stephan Aarstol is the most successful contestant in the history of the popular American TV show "Shark Tank." With his company Tower Paddle Boards he has implemented a five hour work day (salaries remain the same) and written a book about its success. He explains that Henry Ford's production line maximized output of the human body and created the eight hour work day, and that today's technology maximizes productivity of the human mind but we still operate on the factory worker schedule of 100 years ago. In his company, the employees are expected to complete their daily work in five hours. Their work day goes from 8:30am to 1:30pm. Despite the shorter hours, employees still finish their work and the company continues to grow in size and profitability. While a standard worker might not be able to get around their forty hour per week schedule, entrepreneurs and students alike can get work done quicker if they want more free time.

The importance of a work and life balance is not just selfish in nature. It doesn't discount the value of work ethic and rally around simply having fun with no responsibility. Balancing time for your self is also about sustainability. Time is required to fulfill personal needs, be it getting laundry done, shopping, or even just resting. When you don't have enough time to handle personal business the chance for a burn-out increases, and workers who are burnt-out are not efficient either. With the suggestions above you can tool strategy to make sure your time away from work is enough to meet your needs.

Own your Leisure

My Grandma used to say, "Busy hands are happy hands." It's funny how at the time I never truly appreciated these words which is probably because I didn't really understand what they meant. All I knew is that she was always busy doing something whether it was cooking, cleaning, planning an activity, or hosting one. If she were to serve as an example, I'd say her permanent smile and regular laughter were proof that the saying has merit. During her years of retirement, which can be viewed as an eternal state of leisure, she managed to stay busy with something all of the time!

This is not to suggest laying by the pool and doing NOTHING all day is a bad thing. For the people working long hours, or working and raising a family or who are just generally overly occupied, doing absolutely nothing can be just what the doctor ordered. Decompression for the people who fit in this category is absolutely understandable. Change the background story of laying at the pool all day, and suddenly things can be dramatically different. For example, when someone has so much leisure time on their hands that they spend all day doing absolutely nothing but laying by the pool, then this is no longer a case of decompression. Perhaps this is perfectly acceptable for some people, but for the majority of us, doing nothing would get very boring very quick.

Just as balancing work and life is an important consideration for people, so is the balance of how to spend leisure time. Really, leisure time is meaningless. It's just free time open to be used in any variety of ways. How the time is spent is what's meaningful. Leisure activities are either passive or active, although some academics have created several categories and defined their differences. Passive leisure tends to be explained as an activity that doesn't require any special effort or training to enjoy. Relaxing by the pool, reading a book, watching TV, eating a nice meal, or going for a walk are all casual/passive leisure activities. Typically the pleasure from casual leisure is short lived and ends at the time the same activity does. Compared to active leisure it tends to be more hedonic in nature.

Active leisure or serious leisure falls more into the lines of a hobby, and has six defining characteristics. 1) need to persevere at the activity, 2) availability of a leisure career, 3) need to put in effort to gain skill and knowledge, 4) realization of various special benefits, 5) unique ethos and social world, and 6) an attractive personal and social identity. While pleasure is also gained from serious leisure, the defining difference from casual leisure is the personal development aspect. A casual summer pick-up soccer game might be a passive leisure activity for one person, while for another person a soccer game can be very active and more serious. Anyone interested in reading more about the academic study of leisure can look-up Robert Stebbins and his research that started back in the 1970's.

From what I gather there isn't a right way or wrong way to balance serious and casual leisure. Even in the case of being busy or doing nothing, there is no special recipe of what is correct or an instruction book about how to achieve equilibrium. Ultimately all of us are different and what we choose to do with our free time is up to us. Looking back on how our time was spent, and evaluating our levels of satisfaction is a personal judgment call. The most important thing is that we don't waste our time doing things that don't benefit us or that we don't enjoy.

It takes time and efforts to develop a hobby like dancing.

Increase Your Satisfaction

Be efficient with your free time. Just like money, it is also a scarce resource and shouldn't be wasted. You wouldn't spend $1000 dollars on plane tickets you can get for $500, so why would you spend time on something that doesn't bring you as much satisfaction as another activity?

Plan what you want to do and make time for the activities that benefit you the most. When do you access social media? How much time do you spend on it per day? Perhaps you spend too much time in front of the TV. There is nothing wrong with these things, but sometimes we fall into a habit of doing what is easy and not truly things we prefer doing or should be doing. Whether it's a scheduled "date night" with our spouse or "game night" with the whole family, when the time is reserved we can share in an experience with loved ones rather than gaze steely eyed into our cell phones, or read other people's Facebook posts. Planning our schedule not only stops us from wasting time, but it also gives us something to look forward to.

Having free time or leisure is not to be mistaken for being invariably pleasurable. Sometimes we feel the need to do things we don't like because of some external pressure. While planning might not solve every problem, it can certainly give us a reason to politely decline from participating in activities or events we don't enjoy. It's important to be able to say "no" and not accept doing things out of feelings of guilt or obligation, when you stop doing these less pleasurable things you will have more time for the things you do enjoy.

A family playing in water.

Tianjin: Where to Locally Spend Your Leisure

The beauty of living in a foreign place like China is that just exploring can be a fun way to spend free time. Walking down a small street or visiting a different neighborhood can bring new surprises, and it's always rewarding to discover a new restaurant or tasty dish. Do you have a favorite la mian restaurant? While you might have found one close by your apartment that is convenient, sometimes eating this bowl of noodles in a new place can open your eyes to the fact that even a simple dish like la mian can be better or worse in different restaurants.

Tianjin is a great city for sampling the goodies from various small shops and different street food stalls. Although they aren't as easy to find as they used to be, random locations with street barbeque are a fun way to relax outside with friends and eat Chinese style barbeque while hydrating with a cold beer. Outdoor dining places can be found all over town. Some of the main places are the street behind Heping's Joy City, Min Yuan, Aocheng, and Italian Street. When money isn't an issue, dining outside behind the St. Regis Hotel offers a great backdrop as well.

Once the novelty of exploring wears off and Tianjin is no longer new, there are still tons of things to do around town. The number of Western style restaurants has grown dramatically since I first came here more than four years ago. Gyms for working out are everywhere, and most activities we enjoyed back at home are also available for us here. Go see a movie on the IMAX screen. Compared to most places, the number of IMAX movie theatres in China is huge and the ticket price is very reasonable. Compared to the US, an IMAX ticket here is about five dollars cheaper. In Tianjin, their locations are numerous and easy to find.

Places for a great casual evening stroll are everywhere. The water park has wonderful views of a lit-up Tianta TV tower. Hai He's river walk is full of people and has different bridges and buildings that change with every winding turn. Behind the Galaxy Mall is a large lake and every evening there is a Vegas style water fountain show choreographed to orchestra style music. Wander to the other side of the park, and the vast flat well paved areas are full of people inline skating or doing other fun activities. West of Bin Jiang Dao is a neighborhood with many old style buildings that are fun to look at while walking around. The list goes on, and if you have a favorite place to walk that we didn't mention, please drop us a line.

Summer is the time to show off your body shape. So work on it!

If you are into playing basketball, just go to the local university and both indoor and outdoor courts are full of players competing in pick-up games or just shooting around. While you won't find baseball, university campuses around town also have tennis and soccer. For those who prefer non sport activities for exercise, most gyms in addition to traditional work-out machines have a variety of classes from yoga to belly dancing. In my gym there is a spinning room with classes and on occasion they even bring in a live DJ to keep the energy alive as people sweat away.

Outside of Metropolitan Tianjin there are places to take day trips or spend a weekend. There is now a direct bus to the Jixian scenic area, and getting to the coast is quick and easy as well. Want to take some unique pictures, go near Yu Jia Pu station outside of TEDA and hit the streets with your camera. Tall buildings will serve as your background and the area is virtually free from cars and people. You can be the star in your personal "I am Legend" style shots. Check out Jin's story about the North Canal, and perhaps you might want to visit one of the serene and peaceful locations Robert visited during his ride.

How you choose to spend your leisure here is completely up to you. Be creative! Just as Harvey Danger lyrics directly stated, "If you're bored then you're boring!" Get out, have fun, meet people and enjoy the heck out of your free time! You could be back home living your ordinary and predictable life, but you're not. You’re in Tianjin and there is a lot to see and experience. If you need a little help and encouragement, read the short list at the end of the article for some different ideas. Here are some of the various places around Tianjin worth visiting, and even might be ideal to for families with kids. Enjoy!

Enjoy the cool oceanic world at Tianjin Haichang Polar World.

Leisure Places in Tianjin

Tianjin Binhai Aircraft Themed Park

Take bus 462 from Tianjin Railway Station and it directly goes to the park.

Ticket: 220RMB

Hours: Monday to Friday：09:00-17:30，Saturday and Sunday：09:00-18:00

1. Adult：220 RMB

2. Kid：110 RMB

Tianjin Haichang Polar World

地址：天津市滨海新区滨河南路响螺湾商务区61号(近海门大桥)

Add：61 Xiangluowan Business Area, Binhe Nanlu, Binhai New Area (new Sea Gate Bridge)

Tel：(022)66227777

Ticket: adult 170RMB; kid 110RMB

Hours: 9:00-17:00

Dolphin Theatre schedule: 11:30; 15:30

Saturday & Sunday: 10:30; 13:00; 16:00

Take metro line 9 to Tanggu Station and transfer to bus 110/821

Happy Valley

欢乐谷主题乐园

Tickets: adult 180RMB; kids 120RMB

Transportation: Take bus 663 from Tianjin Railway Station and get off at Huanle Gu（欢乐谷）

Hours: 9am-9pm

Milifang Water World

米立方水世界

Transportation: bus 152, 652 and get off at Milifang (米立方

Hours: 9am-9pm

Tickets: adult 160RMB;kids 60RMB

Feng Mang Indoor Rock Climbing

锋芒探险攀岩馆

Address: 5F, Hedong Sports Center, at the crossing of Jintang Lu and Dazhigu Xi Lu, Hedong District

Take bus 608642656665676856905962 and get off at He Dong Ti Yu Chang （河东体育场）

Cost: 70RMB with no time limit

Tianjin Kingkey Golf Club

天津京冀高尔夫球俱乐部

Area: 1,000,000m2, 18 fairways, 27 pars

Add: North of Jin Gang Express Way, Balitai Town, Jinnan District, Tianjin

Tel: 022-58830666

Price: for 18 holes: visitors 1160RMB (weekdays), 1460RMB (holidays)

Members ranging from 460RMB to 1160RMB

All including greens, caddies, cart, locker

Tianjin Fortune Lake Golf Club

天津松江团泊湖高尔夫球会

Two 18-hole golf courses, standard golf ranges

Price: for 18 holes: visitor 700RMB (weekdays), 1000RMB (holidays)

Members 260RMB

Members' guest 560RMB

Including greens, caddies, facilities and carts; membership price doesn’t include cart fee

Add: Tuanbo Lake, Jinghai District, Tianjin

Tel: 022-68505299

Xuanguang Shisu Go-Kart Club

炫光时速卡丁车俱乐部

Add: B1, Ling Ao Creative Industrial Park, Lingbin Lu, Nankai District

地址： 凌滨路凌奥创意产业园内地下负一层

Tel： 13516220292