Beijing's contagious vitality and progress

The sky is blue, clear and bright. Pollution levels are low, noise is low. Traffic flows, public transport works. Whenever I heard of Beijing, the city was invariably associated with the image of thousands of people in the streets wearing anti-pollution masks.

It may have been before - and it still is on several days each month - but the Chinese capital is now cleaner, safer and more organised than ever. Measures such as alternate circulation - based on licence plate numbers - investment in renewable energies and a commitment to electric vehicles have made it possible to reduce pollution levels.

In Beijing, most of the cars are already electric and the Chinese government wants to put an end - in a short space of time - to the circulation of fossil-fuelled cars. While in Europe they spend years discussing measures to combat pollution levels and climate change, in China (as far as I can tell) they quickly move from words to deeds.

Of course, there are still many problems to be solved and the Asian country remains one of the biggest polluters. This is particularly noticeable outside of Beijing - where industries and power stations proliferate.

The image many of us have of China couldn't be more wrong. We think of it as a closed, poor country, opposed to progress. To understand China, you have to see it, understand it, visit it and live it. It's not enough to read and listen to what we're told. The truth lies somewhere between the two versions. What's happening in China and what we're told through the news in international newspapers, radio and television channels.

In technological terms, China is at the forefront. It can always be debated whether technology is used to make life easier for citizens or just to ensure that actions and movements are controlled. The most blatant example is the WechatIt's a social network that every Chinese citizen must have. And I mean that in the most literal sense, because this application is not just for exchanging images, messages and chatting with friends, but it goes far beyond being a social network - it's an indispensable tool in China.

With the WechatWith the QR code, anyone with a Chinese bank account has access to a vast network of services: from buying train tickets, to paying for museum admissions, to buying 1kg of apples from a street stall, ordering a meal or reading information about a statue in a city square. Simply switch on the app and scan the QR code.

That's why it's unthinkable to leave home without your mobile phone or to run out of battery. In fact, it's almost impossible, because in restaurants, supermarkets, convenience stores and museums there are "power banks" to recharge your mobile phone. Anyone can take their mobile phone with them and return it to another location, thus eliminating the inconvenience of it being "switched off".

Also because of the constant need to have an internet connection - in the metro, on trains, in national parks, in mountain tunnels, anywhere - internet coverage and connection is guaranteed. Young and old all use it, it's indispensable and money is almost a mirage.

For the time being, payments are barred to anyone who doesn't have a bank account with a local bank. Since everything goes through this application, it is therefore a vital source of information for marketing and governments. If this is combined with the use of surveillance cameras, it is much easier to have access to all the movements of any citizen.

If, for those travelling from mainland Europe, an app like this would be seen as a (serious) intrusion on privacy, in China everyone (with whom I spoke) sees it as a huge convenience. The mobile phone is no longer a luxury item, but an essential good.

It is with this same mobile phone that many citizens in Beijing (and elsewhere in China) play music in parks, on the streets, in alleys or anywhere they feel like it. That's where - with the help of a loudspeaker bluetooth or just an old radio - where music plays and women and men exercise and dance.

This is one of the ways they keep active before and after retirement. This is how they see post-working life. They're not resigned to the fact that they're 60, 70, 80 or older and think that life is coming to an end. On the contrary, parents seem to have more energy than their children and grandchildren.

One such evening, in a square in Beijing, in the half-light, men and women - without knowing each other - arrive and dance with each other. At the end of each song, they change pairs. While some arrive, others take the opposite route and get on their bikes and go about their lives, without prejudice, without goodbyes, without any intention other than to relax. Without any look of condemnation.

For this and any other activity, more or less common, more or less curious, unorthodox or too orthodox, the Chinese do it because they feel like it, because they like it, because they want to. And they don't care if anyone stops to watch (and disapprove).

It's perhaps one of the feelings I retain most while I'm in China. Each person, each group of citizens does what they want, without thinking about what others might think of you dancing with strangers in a semi-dark street at dinner time. Or what the neighbour might say about you singing on a park bench, playing the flute or another musical instrument.

And unlike the musicians we see in European cities, they don't expect - or even accept - financial compensation from anyone. They do it not to get something in return or to please visitors or tourists, but for their own pleasure. They do it because they want to.

In a park, perhaps I should say an open-air gym, the 70-something grandfather not only explains to his grandson how to do the splits, he does them with the greatest of ease. Next door, elderly people in their 60s and 80s use the gym machines inside the Temple of Heaven.

What a contrast this is with countries like Portugal, where despite the proliferation of sports shops, the number of people practising leaves a lot to be desired. And few municipalities invest in this type of equipment, which - when it does exist - is used by younger people and rarely by older people. The latter stay at home watching boring TV programmes, sitting on the benches in the garden or on the steps outside the house watching the time go by.

How many times have I heard elderly people - with less or more health - waiting, they tell me, for death. In China, many men and women of the same age live each day to the last drop of sweat, as if it were their last. But they hope it won't be, because they're more alive than ever.

Men and women dance, jump, sing, splash, run, swim, walk and do more acrobatics at 70 than they had done in the previous 50 years. If I had my choice, I'd like to grow old like the Chinese. Or perhaps I should say, rejuvenate like most of them.

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