Flying is one of those things us humans can't really do in a natural way. We might not have gills or fins, but we can still survive on the surface of the water. We're not exactly predators on feet and our knees are possibly the worst design nature has ever come up with, but we can still walk and run around. Flying however, is the medium we can absolutely not conquer unless aided by something else, in this case a paraglider.

What is paragliding? for those of you who aren't really sure, here's how it works in a nutshell. The paraglider, like any other flying machine, consists of a airfoil (see left diagram) shaped wing. A specific shape is given to the wing in order to divert the air in two directions: one flows above the wing (at a lower speed) and the other flows below the wing (at higher speed). As you can see the air going below by flowing faster creates upward pressure thus allowing the wind to fly.

If you understand this simple concept, you just understood why birds, airplanes, helicopters, paragliders, hang gliders and sailplanes fly. The same concept applies to sail boats but I'm not getting into that. Every wing, has a minimum speed, which is the speed it needs in order to fly. As you can imagine, the minimum speed of a Boeing 747 is a lot higher than the one for a paraglider. This means the 747 has to rush up to about 250km/h in order to pick up flight. On the other hand, the paraglider needs about 10km/h. Does this mean you have to 'run' at 10km/h to take off on a paraglider from the ground and you will simply take off into the skies? No. Once the wing reaches it's minimum speed it is able to fly, but not go up. That's why airplanes have engines to maintain and increase the speed necessary to elevate itself. Unless you find any thermals (big bubbles of hot air that work as elevators in the air), a paraglider just 'glides' down at a certain rate (usually around 8meters horizontal per vertical meter). For this reason, paragliders usually take off from mountains.

Bored yet? stick with me. Now, if there is absolutely NO wind, this means yo must run, pick up your glider into the air, and pull it up to it's minimal speed and at this point you can just glide off from the mountain. What happens if you have a 10km/h wind? well, the wind is running for you. All you have to do is pull up the glider and the wind speed will keep the glider in the air. That means all you have to do is take a few steps and the glider will start flying like a miracle.

How does one stay up? if conditions aren't good, this means there's no wind, no thermals, and you can just smoothly glide down to your landing spot. Depending on how high you took off, the flight will last different amounts of time. This past weekend however, I was able to make a couple of two-hour flights, once on Friday and another on Sunday.

Was I carrying an engine? again, no. Meteorology can become very complex and I am not the indicated person to explain you how all this works. But I have some vague idea which is how I manage to stay up in the air. Depending on the way the sun hits the ground or the wind hits certain types of surfaces, air is pushed upwards. If you find those spots, then you can climb up at speeds up to 10 meters per second! Thermals are the most common ones. Like I said before, heat on the ground causes big bubbles of hot air to form. After a while they detach from the ground and start floating up. Some only have a few meters in diameter and some can extend for a few kilometers. The thermals obviously can't be seen and this is where people become good at flying. One must feel when entering a thermal and circle inside of it to gain as much altitude as one wishes.

Paragliders are highly maneuverable and can be controlled quite precisely as the pilot becomes more experienced. The fastest paragliders top up at around 65km/h and have a gliding rate of 9:1 (for every 9 meters it glides horizontally, it drops 1 meter vertically).

What equipment is necessary? Paragliding, like any other activity, is very safe as long as you know what you're doing and never go beyond your own personal limits. However, weather is unpredictable and wing collapses do occur. For this, one should always fly with a spare parachute which is deployed manually in case it's impossible to recover from a collapse. What causes the wing to collapse? Turbulence in the air. Whenever you're sitting on a commercial jetliner and are told to buckle up when it gets a little bumpy (like it's really going to save your life), the plane is going through some turbulent air, many times inside clouds. While paragliding the same thing may occur, but because the paraglider is a non-rigid wing, it might just collapse. Helmet is always a must, gloves to keep you warm at high altitudes. A pair of sunglasses works well to keep the sun off your eyes. Depending on the type of flying, pilots like to carry a GPS and a Vario. The Vario indicates not only altitude but also whether you're going up or down at every moment, a not so obvious judgment as you are moving in a 3 dimensional space, something we're not really used to do.

Finally, the paraglider is folded and packed and what you could call an 'oversized backpack'. They usually weigh in at around 20 kg including the harness and spare parachute.

Well, to wrap this up, I'm just going to say that flying is absolutely amazing. There's nothing like it. This past Friday I was flying meters away from the World Champion, as I followed him into thermals learning how it's done. It just doesn't get any better than that. Paragliding is a safe sport and not extremely physical. I have seen teenagers fly all the way up to 70-year-old. The paraglider is a small investment and other than good care, it requires very little if no maintenance at all. No gasoline, oil or spark-plugs, you're just out there playing with the air and soaring with the birds.

If you're in the Beijing area and are looking for something new, get in touch with me and I'll tell you how it works. If you're somewhere else around the world, look it up on the internet and believe me you wont regret it. Tandem flights usually vary in between 50-100USD depending on the country you're doing it. A price well worth paid to feel the experience.

So how is the title of this post related at all to this? Here's how it goes. 'Walk slowly' or in Mandarin 'Man zou' (慢走) is something we hear everyday around here. Whenever you walk out of a store the clerk might shout at you as you close the door behind you: "Man Zou!!". Then as you step off of the taxi cab after a nice conversation with the driver (of which you only understood about 60% depending on his Beijing accent), he might just shout as well: "Man Zou!!". So why walking slowly? In the West, I remember that if I was ever caught working too slowly or taking my time with things, I could be called lazy. Things are quite different in China, as doing things at their own pace is good for your health.

I came to this realization (oh yea, my magazine editor is on my butt for writing theater and not theatre, meter and not meter, organization and not organisation, those British!): these past couple of days I've been running here and there, up and down, a cab here another there, pictures here and even more there. Work is due for my classes in the US, I have to go to class, work on some other business, eat, going to the gym (yes I never thought the day would come but I decided that I want to be healthy), and finally but most important of all, simply Have Fun! That's what life is all about in the end, fulfilling your responsibilities but in the end laughing, smiling and just having plain fun. Well surprisingly I've been able to do all of these things in 7 days a week (only skipped a few classes). I started getting all stressed about about things, oh geez I have to do this! but then when am I going to do that!! does it leave me with enough time to go there? You know what??? just take a breath, and walk slowly.

Whether it is standing in line at the bank, sitting in traffic or waiting for your fries to come out with the Big Mac Meal, just think that working yourself up is only gonna make it worse. Do like the guy in the picture above and take it easy. This 'walking slowly' is present in many facets of Chinese. Things might unfortunately start changing with young people and more influences from the West, but for now, many still employ it. Relax, slow down, eat something and get things done. I tried it and it's working so far. Have a good one today!