How to Relax: Entertainment Venues and Stress Relief

By regulation, while an entertainment venue is open, its evacuation routes and emergency exits must be kept clear. They may not be sealed off, may not be locked, may not have things placed in the way, and the exit signs may not be covered either. Internet cafés likewise may not seal doors or lock windows. A venue that fails to do this is breaking the law, and you can report it. If the private room is underground, has only one exit, or the corridor is piled with clutter, go somewhere else.

By regulation, when an entertainment venue sells services or goods, it must clearly mark the prices and must also proactively show you the price list. So-called “sky-high drink prices” almost always happen where you never saw a price list and the bill was settled afterward by a verbal quote. When you enter the private room, first ask for the list and take a photo. After you order, ask for a confirmed list as well. If there is a dispute at checkout, call 12315 on the spot.

Entertainment venues may not sell drugs, may not supply drugs, and may not let people stay on the premises to use them; a venue that violates this must suspend business for rectification for 3 to 6 months, and in serious cases has its license revoked. If you use drugs yourself, you face a public-security penalty. Letting someone “use a bit” in a private room you booked or in your home is harboring others to use drugs (容留他人吸毒), which is a criminal offense. If someone pulls out an unknown powder, pills or a vape cartridge and invites you to try, leave on the spot.

Today's drugs don't look like drugs. “Head-rush” e-cigarettes laced with synthetic cannabinoids look much like ordinary e-cigarettes, and some people make a point of handing them out for others to try in bars, KTVs and hotels. Someone who tricks others into using is detained for 10 to 15 days and fined 1000 to 5000 yuan, and the person tricked into using is also detained for 10 to 15 days. If a drink has been out of your sight, get another one.

A 2022 notice from five departments states that script-based entertainment venues may not be located inside residential buildings, nor below the first basement level. These places are dark, have many partitions and flammable props, and their doors often open only once you solve a puzzle. If a fire breaks out, they are much harder to escape from than an ordinary shop. Before booking, check the address and floor on the review page; if it does not comply, go somewhere else.

When you feel low, brisk walking or jogging brings the clearest improvement. Next come yoga, strength training, and tai chi or qigong, with little difference among them. The higher the intensity is set, the better the effect, and strength training and yoga are the easiest to stick with. The quality of the evidence here is on the low side; what can be said for sure is that moving beats not moving, so pick the kind you can keep up.

For people diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, an 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction course improved symptoms almost exactly as much as taking the anti-anxiety drug escitalopram. Nearly 80% of the people on the drug had adverse effects, and some dropped out because of them. About 15% of the people in the course had them, and no one dropped out. The course has to be the standardized 8-week program; just any meditation app does not count.

Doing 5 minutes of breathing practice a day for a month improved mood and slowed breathing more than the same amount of time spent on mindfulness meditation. Of the several breathing methods, “cyclic sighing,” which draws out the exhale, was best. To do it, breathe in once through your nose, then take a small extra breath in to fill your lungs, and then breathe out slowly and completely through your mouth. This is only one trial, and whether it helped was reported by the participants themselves, but it costs nothing.

People who rarely spend time with others had a probability of dying over the same period about 30% higher. People who feel lonely were about a quarter higher, and people who live alone about 30% higher, more markedly in people under 65. All of this comes from following people and observing them; it may also be that people already in poor health are more likely to live alone.

The greener the area within 500 meters of your home, the lower the probability of dying over the same period: about 4% lower for every 0.1 increase in the vegetation index. What was measured is the greenery around the home, not how often you go to the park. In green neighborhoods, the people living there tend to be better off, and the air tends to be better too. So don't take it to mean that going to the park lengthens your life; just count nearby green space when choosing where to live.