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Tai Chi Classes

You’ll see locals practicing these graceful meditation-in-motion exercises every morning in parks around the city; they have been the favored Chinese method for keeping fit (and balancing spiritual yin and yang) for centuries. If you’d like to try them yourself, the Hong Kong Tourism Board offers free, guided tai chi classes four mornings a week in the sculpture park outside the Hong Kong Museum of Art (and on Saturday at Harcourt Garden in Central). The hour-long sessions, guided by a congenial tai chi master who’s used to beginners, will give you insight into the local culture and jump-start your day right.

Insider’s Tip: The tai chi classes are part of a larger tourism-board program, “Cultural Kaleidoscope,” offering free classes in lots of other locally relevant subjects—among them, feng shui, and Chinese tea- and Cantonese opera- appreciation.