Ma Tingdong, a nonagenarian with a military background, is just over ninety years old. This retired deputy military-level officer, who joined the revolution in 1938, has walked a total of 87,480 kilometers for fitness in the 27 years since moving into the Guilin Army Academy’s retired cadres’ sanatorium. This habit has given him excellent health. Aside from being a bit hard of hearing, he has almost no health issues. Over the years since his retirement, he has been repeatedly recognized as an Outstanding Communist Party Member and a Century-Crossing Healthy and Civilized Elderly Person by the Guangzhou Military Region Comprehensive Training Base and Guilin Army Academy. He has also been honored as a National Healthy Elderly Person and a Guangxi Healthy Elderly Person. Recently, he was named one of Guangxi’s Top Ten Sports Longevity Stars in the Guangxi Sports Stars selection.
Veteran Ma worked in the military for 45 years and made remarkable contributions to China’s revolution and construction. After retiring in 1983, he maintained the glorious traditions and character of a soldier—diligent in learning and willing to help others. Walking for fitness is a major part of his life: in winter, he walks twice a day, 3.5 kilometers each time; in spring, summer, and autumn, he walks three times a day, 4 kilometers each time. He persists even when it rains, always using an umbrella. When a reporter recently visited his home, they found him with rosy cheeks, a straight back, and not a single wrinkle. He walks briskly, almost like a middle-aged person, hardly resembling an elderly man at all. Not only does Ma stick to his own walking routine, but he has also inspired dozens of other retired cadres at the sanatorium to take up walking and other sports, sparking a “fitness craze” there. Ma lives a regular life—he doesn’t smoke or drink liquor, eats three meals a day at fixed times and in set amounts, loves learning, reads newspapers and watches the news every day, and participates in party organization activities. He is easygoing, well-liked, respectful, and is praised by fellow sanatorium residents as “a white-haired elder with a youthful face and smiling eyes, enjoying a healthy life through walking.”