As simple as a walk in the park

Cheng Yuyan never expected that the interest group "We Love Strolling in the Park", which she casually created on Douban, a Chinese social media platform, four years ago, would now approach 100,000 members.

According to the 25-year-old from Shanghai, establishing this group was just a spur-of-the-moment decision, and she didn't invest much time in managing it afterward. However, park enthusiasts from all over China and even overseas have spontaneously made it their gathering community. From Fuzhou in southern China to Harbin in the northeast, from Tokyo in Japan to London in the UK, people share park experiences, post photos taken in parks, and offer recommendations and reviews about parks.

"The growth of this group is the result of organic development, just like a park, where people naturally come together. The surge in member numbers also indicates the increasingly important role that parks are playing in people's lives," Cheng said.

Within this group, there is a tag called "20 minutes for parks", which comes from a theory originating from the International Journal of Environmental Health Research. According to the theory, spending 20 minutes in a park daily helps to reduce stress, regardless of whether people exercise in it or simply take a walk.

With the help of social media, the theory has been gaining popularity among a great number of young people in China. Huang Bingbing, hailing from Hunan and now living in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, is a practitioner of this idea.

She said that Shenzhen boasts numerous community parks that are scattered in neighborhoods and between office buildings. Over three years ago, when she was still working at an advertising company, she used to frequently visit the small park downstairs during her weekday lunch breaks. "On that patch of grass, I could connect with living plants and animals, allowing me to refresh my mind and heal from the stresses of the workplace," Huang said.