Friendship salon for the elderly in Phoenix Community

The Senior Citizen Association in the Phoenix Community gets quite hilarious around 8:00 a.m. every day. The residents in the community come out and greet each other . And some even begin to practice fencing with their Taiji swords .

Now there are 308 senior ci tizens who have joined the association in the community .This makes the association a real home for the elderly as well as a salon for the communication between the elderly and their neighbors .The oldest and youngest members in the Senior Citizen Association of the Phoenix Community are 90 and 55 years old respectively .

Lou Baolan，72，moved to the community in 2002，shortly after the Senior Citizen Association was established . Many residents now in the Phoenix Community are originally from Niansanli，Fotang and Suxi . In the Senior-citizen College ( the Phoenix Community Branch)，Lou has learned waltz，blues，samba，and rumba ，which make her energetic and cheerful every day . Around 7 o’clock every morning，Lou，together with her sisters，walks to the square at the entrance to the Labor
Market and does morning exercises there .“I t’s a happy thing for old people to walk around outside，” Lou said. According to Afang，administrator of the Senior Citizen Association，all teachers in the college were recommended by themselves . At present，there are 12 fitness activities in the college，including Dragon-phoenix Lantern Fair，Drum Dance，Literature & Art，Taiji Soft-ball，Taiji Boxing and Fencing，Huagun Performance，and Ping-Pong . Since the old teach the old and learn from each other，there is no clear di vi di ng li ne between teachers and students . This helps the senior citizens understand
better the characteristics of teaching and learning .

The guiding principle of the Senior-citizen College ( the Phoenix Community Branch) goes as follows：to serve the health and happiness of the aged and to run well the education for the elderly，in an attempt to build up a harmonious campus，an Eden of knowledge，a home of love，and a community of friendship .In the past five years，the Senior Citizen Association
has organized 1，380 persons to travel in various places，including Beijing and Hong Kong.