Kung fu grandpas show their chops

An elderly man performs his stunts in the Temple of Heaven Park in Beijing.[Photo by Xue Jun/China Daily]

You may have read about remarkable kung fu skills in Chinese wuxia (martial arts) novels. Just like in the books, a group of Chinese seniors is raising eyebrows with stunning wuxia-like workouts that can put many young people to shame.

These exercise enthusiasts, most of whom are retired and older than 60, practice every day in the Temple of Heaven Park in Beijing in various kinds of extraordinary ways, according to the news website bjnews.

Geng Zhi, one of the seniors, is a 67-year-old retiree who used to work on an assembly line at a car parts factory.

He can swing like Spiderman on a horizontal bar and parallel bars in the park, and then swiftly twist his leg behind his head. "Before this, I didn't exercise at all," Geng said.