Eyesight - A National Concern

During a tour of a local elementary school early on in the trip, we took note of a portion of the school day when teaching paused, classical music began to play, and the students engaged in government mandated "eye exercises".  These "eye exercises"  seem to resemble ergonomic eye massage employed by businesses to reduce eye strain.  From what we were told, the Chinese mandate was issued after reports showed poor eyesight to be a national concern and problem here.  Testing this theory, our merry band of travelers needed some ID cards to gain access to a local park yesterday.  Asking around the community of expats, we were able to gather up some random cards to use for the day.  To set the scene, we are 3 white folks with blond/brown hair, 2 with blue eyes - and a female over 5'8''.  The cards we came up with were picture IDs of an Australian bearded man in his 60's, a black guy, and a quasi-dwarf female at a generous 5'1''.  Hmm.  So we went to the park hoping they wouldn't ask for the IDs.  No such luck.  Pulling the Jedi mind trick, we each, in turn presented our picture identification to the official and were waved into the gate.  Thank goodness for a lack of eye care.