Getting lost sometimes takes you to unexpected destinations. Sometimes, it’s in a completely different country right in your own backyard.

A few weeks ago, I got lost driving through Temple City on my way to a place I’ve been to many times. Dusk was spreading, enveloping everything in that quiet suburban darkness.

I turned down a side street near what appeared to be a gigantic park – and heard the unmistakable sound of Chinese music blasting from a boombox.

I stopped and saw this.

A group of Chinese ladies have been gathering at night for years to dance in Temple City.

About ten women gathered to dance to Mandarin songs from an earlier era.

It’s actually a scene I’ve seen before in parks and other open spaces in the San Gabriel Valley in recent years.

People dance in Beijingxiangsu Community Square at night on August 18, 2014 in Beijing, China.

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Xiaolu Chu

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Getty Images

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A Chinese phenomenon

However, the first time I saw these dance gatherings was in China about a decade ago. One of the key features of the country’s urban design is its huge public squares – these endless concrete expanses of flat, open space that dot their cities.

One night I came across a group of Chinese women dancing in unison in one of these outdoor markets, about 30 to 50 of them. We watched mesmerized as they strutted their stuff to one Chinese song after another coming out of a boombox.

They didn’t seem like they were rehearsing for a show or there for any reason other than the sheer joy and leisure of the activity.

“Net dance” or “square dance” (广场舞), ca phenomenon is known appeared in China in the 1990s. Legions of mostly middle-aged and elderly women flock together extemporaneously to spin and exercise and stave off post-retirement boredom. In China, the legal retirement age for women is 50 or 55, depending on the type of work they do. These limits will increase starting next year.

Bringing steps to SGV

A group of women in the middle of the dance.

In the San Gabriel Valley, where many Chinese immigrants have settled, the motivation that led this group of women to gather under a gazebo in a Temple City park was largely the same.

A 60-year-old woman in a polka dot dress, who went by the name Ah Yun, said she has been dancing here for more than a decade after learning about the scene through the grapevine.

“Someone told us that this was the ‘plaza dansing’. We came to check it out,” said Ah Yun, who lives in El Monte and is originally from Guangzhou.

A portable table holds supplies for the dancers.

She quickly became a regular, learning the steps from a woman who ran these nightly gatherings. At their peak, up to 100 women appear.

“You can do it alone. It’s not like learning to dance socially, where you need two people,” she said in Cantonese. “With this, no one cares if you’re good or bad at it.”

Ding Ding is from Shanghai. Before immigrating to the US about a decade ago. she said she occasionally joined others to dance in public in that Chinese city.

One day, an 80-year-old person said that he was walking in Temple City and saw people dancing in the park. The ritual quickly became the outlet he looked forward to every day, so much so that he would dress up and prepare for it. Tonight she was wearing a blue patterned dress.

Over the years, dancers have come and gone – but no one is ever turned away.

Tonight’s ladies were especially excited because the woman who started it all – whom they call their ‘teacher’ – was returning to show the group a new number.

Their teacher is 73 years old, wearing a baseball cap and a mask. She did not want to give her name, but said she used to live around Temple before she moved. She still comes back from time to time to meet with the group.

He told me that he unwittingly brought the trend to this park 13 years ago after moving from northeast China. She bought a portable music player, turned it on and started dancing by herself.

Soon women started showing up and asking if they could join. One by one the group built.

Ding Ding intervened. “Basically, the environment here is so beautiful. It’s perfect for dancing. That’s what happened,” she said in Mandarin.