SHENZHEN is rolling out shared piano stations named Qinxiaozhan that offer piano practice service for citizens, according to Shenzhen Special Zone Daily.

At one shared piano station, located at Xintian residential community in Futian’s Huafu Subdistrict, a reporter with the Daily found the nearly 4-square-meter room is equipped with a piano, an air conditioner, power sockets and several artworks hanging on the wall.

It is said that the room adopts 24-hour surveillance and automatic video recording systems and was installed with a 24-hour disinfection facility.

Residents must reserve Qinxiaozhan in advance via the WeChat miniprogram “琴小站.” The fee is 8 yuan (US$1.25) for every half hour and after successfully reserving, residents can control the air conditioner using their phones as a remote.

Accoriding to Liu Yanbin, deputy secretary of Xintian residential community, roughly 500 people have registered to use the community’s piano station and users spend more than 12 hours a day in the room.

Huafu Subdistrict has introduced shared piano stations to its eight residential communities and average registration has reached 300 people, with users spending more than eight hours in the rooms on daily average.

Thirty-seven shared piano stations are operational across the city and a total of 45 stations are expected to be available citywide by mid-November.

According to Liu Jingbin, the founder of Qinxiaozhan, the stations also provide free online piano lessons for those who want to try playing the instrument.

Additionally, many seniors over 60 years old have successfully learned playing classic red-themed songs through free lessons at the shared piano stations, said the report.  (Wang Jingli)