Day 5 beckons. Once again I don’t want to get up but I’m feeling more positive today. The training is almost manageable and the leg pain has gone. I can do this! Heading to breakfast I realise it rained last night. In fact, it’s still raining. It’s a pleasant change. The village is less dusty and it smells a bit more pleasant. Breakfast is egg fried rice and various accessory dishes. One thing I noticed in my limited time in China and Vietnam is that breakfast dishes are not as exclusive as in the west. We have specific foods that we eat at breakfast and specific foods we never eat at breakfast. Stir fried veg and egg fried rice, that’s not what’s for breakfast. Well it is here! We head to training and the standing begins.its as intense as usual. After every correction I take a trick I learnt from John and use objects in the room to line up my height. I can just see a bit of glass in that window above the boxing ring ropes when I’ve been corrected. Ok, that’s my target. I would like to say it’s so I can maintain my height but generally it’s more so I can simply have a goal to get back down to by the time my next correction comes. He tucks my chin in, sinks me down, straightens my back, pushes my chin in and corrects a side wards lean that I don’t quite fully understand. I explore this feeling of trying to attain a physical posture that I can’t comfortably maintain. Can I uncomfortably maintain it? Am I willing to uncomfortably maintain it? How long for? Why not? What is the mechanism within my brain that drives me to avoid this pain and discomfort? Why don’t I have more control over it? How weak willed am I? I don’t care, it hurts. I ease up a little and rapidly alternate between two sets of muscles deep within my leg, somehow it makes it more bearable, at least in my mind. I try to succumb to the pain but I still end up doing something about it. I go up and then try to go back down again. Does he think I should be able to stay at the height he puts me at? What does he think of me when he has to push me down again. Should I really be here am I out of my depth. There’s a lot of time to think when you’re trying not to and also dealing with a standing correction. Soon it’s over and training resumes. Lunch comes and Kim, David, Davidine and myself hang back. Kim is doing an article on training with Chen ziqiang and has asked me to take photos. I have brought my trusty Canon as I do on every trip and taiji seminar and am happy to do so. It’s going to be in an article, so I’ll be a published photographer! Unfortunately he’s busy but says tomorrow as the weather will be nicer and we’ll have better lighting. He has a point. It’s a dreary day. We high tail it lunch and then a nice nap. Perhaps because it’s Saturday the street hawkers arnt blaring out the usual inane sounds. Hooray I think. Later on a couple of five year old kids start. Letting off fire crackers beneath our window. So that was nice. Soon we drag ourselves out of bed and prepare for more standing. We are approaching the kicks of section two. They, at least, are the same as laojia, so I’ve got a bit of a foundation to work with. Xiaoxing’s kicks are excellent and I try to emulate them as well as possible. After demonstrating, then leading us, then getting his son to lead us, we practice on our own, I go up and ask a couple of questions and he attempts to hammer knowledge into my head. It’s slow going. We run through the whole form to the point we’ve got up to a couple of times and then he releases us to hobble away. Dinner involves rice soup and stir fried veg. We eat with abandon. Rich and I head back and scoff some salmon jerky, (tasty!) pringles and oreos. What sounds like a dog being throttled can be heard from outside. As I head out to call my darling wife, Yvonne is trying to find where the noise is coming from. It seems to be in front of ziqiang’s room. We peer into a box and find a small puppy, so young its eyes aren’t open yet. It’s whining. I pet it and it quietens down. Ziqiang appears and puts a plastic bag under it. It seems that’s all he’s going to do. I don’t want to interfere so we back off. I have a chat with my wife and then head to bed. I’m almost finished the book reading and foolishly read to the end. So it’s 10:3o when I get to bed. It’s been a long day. It’s going to be a long night too. The dog is still yipping and whining.
Bright lights, big village
Dawn sees me a little despondent and very tired. Another night on my concrete slab does not lend itself to a good night’s sleep. I drag myself to breakfast and hope my fellow fast breakers don’t notice. Viki hasn’t joined us for breakfast, she has a good reason but I wish I’d done the same and slept in. Rice today, a pleasant surprise. I eat and we head back to the school. We have standing to endure. It’s as much of a struggle as ever but I feel I’
m a little more capable of enduring it today. The only problem is a pain down my leg as we train, ifs reminiscent of sciatica and I’m later informed its piriformis syndrome. This makes sense as the sciatic nerve. Passes through the piriformis, at least in some people, I think. I’m glad for the break when it comes. The training is as instructive as ever, getting through the standing and managing the training is worth it to train with a grand master. I reflect on the training and given that statement, the grandmaster can’t give you skill. He doesn’t tell me anything so ground breaking that I don’t already know. Viki comes to the village to train so that she can bring back the knowledge she gains and share it with her students. Then I remember that it’s not all verbal instruction. He shows us the moves over and over again. He demonstrates with perfect form,the Form. So perhaps I am gaining something more than Viki can impart. After all she wouldn’t keep coming back if it wasn’t the case. The thing that I do realise is that I won’t necessarily make huge gains in China, although I’m doing a lot of training with expert tutelage and fantastic corrections. Progress is not make watching the master, it’s applying the master’s teaching. That happens at home training or in the class grinding out repetitions of the form. That’s where the skill come in. Practice, day in and day out. That’s its own sort or bitter. Before lunch 7 head to the pharmacy to get some tiger balm or deep heat. I mime to the man my soreness and then rubbing it with cream. He offers me a strange cream, it looks like it may do the job. I’m later told its hormone replacement cream and I’ll probably begin developing breasts, I’m excited at the prospect, turns out they were joking.Lunch comes and goes. There is rice. It’s actually quite good. I have my customary nap and head to training, not before applying my boob cream. I also take an ibuprofen. The two Chinese students training with us have a bag with them. I’m sitting outside as they approach. My warrior shoes have arrived. They had to order from a different shop to get my size and the delivery has come first. I’m quite excited as I’ve been wanting to get a pair of these for a long time. I try them on and fortunately they fit. We weren’t sure they would. I’m very pleased I took the chance and asked for two pairs. I decide to wear them for training. I’m told jokingly they will make standing easier. They don’t. We survive training and head to dinner. This time the rice is hidden inside what David accurately calls gruel. The steamed bread we didn’t eat at breakfast has been deep fried and is quite nice. I have four slices. We head back to the street outside the school to shop. I find a book I’ve been looking for and Kim tries on a peach coloured shirt. She asks the opinion of a group of Chinese men watching us, they stare blankly until she says something in Chinese. They all smile and give her a thumbs up. We go outside and see a lot of activity outside the Chen family shrine. We’re not sure why. We all head back to our rooms. My. Room looks out over the entrance to the little street where the school, the shine and the famous ditch are located. It seems stalls have been setup, families are streaming in and some terrible music is being sung or played. It can’t possibly be recorded as I can’t imagine anyone would pay for such poor singing. I record it for posterity. I go outside to send my wife a message. I’m taken by the urge to investigate further. I back to the entrance to the shrine. People are buying tickets and going in. I go back to my room for my camera, I purchase a ticket and head in. Its festooned with lights, sexy pigs glowing with internal illumination. Giant lotus flowers and more. Await me in the normally serious Chen family shrine and museum. Music is playing and little diaoramas are set up. In one a pig man carries a princess. I can only assume its a scene from the journey to the west. I wonder what the grandmaster thinks of these shenanigans. The children are certainly loving it. I head into the taiji park and there are lights everywhere. A corridor of lights lead me to the famous taiji Square where I’ve seen photo of the ying yang symbol many times. Tonight it’s got a giant glowing tea pot on it. Not what I thought my first em experience of it would be. In the corner a stage is setup and music is blaring. I head closer, a magician is dismenbering a young lady. It’s a trick, he’s not some sort of psychopath. Well, he might be but I have no reason to think so. The crowd are enjoying themselves. I record some of it and then turn to go. I turn back when 8mi head him fire up a chainsaw. He’s going 59 dismember the young lady again, only she’s lying down this time. I reflect that I’d prefer to be dismembered l would prefer to do it lieing down as I’ve experienced enough pain standing the last few days. I head back out after this as I want to talk to my wife, I miss the sound of her voice (well, that and other things too but I can at least talk to her on the phone) we have a chat and it’s the highlight of my day.
Third times a charm
The dreaded day three
Kim, the American teacher who’s joined us on this trip, wrote a blog post during her lady visit to the village. It describes day three ,the day when you run out of puff, get put pushed to your limit and have to find some way to go on. I can’t say I quite had the experience she’s described, day three can happen later on. In her case it came on day 6. It was certainly a tough day though. It began with Richard, my room mate doing some activity. He’s an early riser and I’m a light sleeper. I don’t mind. I tried to go back to sleep. I had found sleep difficult last night. I favour sleeping on my stomach but had trouble because the weight of my legs on my thighs was enough to cause pain. They were really tender. Fortunately I was extremely tired.so I was relatively well rested this morning. The now established routine of breakfast was had and we moved inexorably to the next training session. We favour a weapons stand outside for our pre training gathering. We all stick our legs on it and stretch a little while we wait for the training hall to become available. We head on and soon the standing begins. I am corrected into a posture of pain. My general fatigue has got to a point where I can simply not manage to maintain the postion I’m placed in for more than a minute. The grandmaster does not take exhaustion or sore muscles into account when placing you in the desired position. He’s feeling for the capabilities of your body. What your structure and flexibility can manage. This does not always align well with what your muscles can ensure but regardless of where you are on your taiji journey, you will be shaking within minutes. I ease a little out of it but try to find a point where I can stay as close the original posture as possible while ensuring my legs don’t fall off in the process. The leaves me feeling slightly despondent. I have have been corrected and I cannot maintain it. It’s a little failure perhaps. Perhaps not a physical one as much as a mental one. What will he think when he next comes round to correct me. While he take this to mean I am not committed to my training or learning from him? Is everyone else doing the same thing, thinking the same thoughts? I don’t know. It keeps me trying to get back down there. I am left wondering if I have have the mental fortitude to truly persevere, to improve to the level of accomplishment I might like to attain in my lifetime. I think perhaps this is a skill as much as any in life but it is the tiger that stalks my dreams every day. Not only in taiji but everywhere. I’m not sure if it will eventually catch me and tear my throat out or I’ll stand my ground and shoot that kitty right in the face. Enough of that strained metaphor. Standing finishes and I try to resurrect my legs before we return to the form. Xiaoxing is as good as ever, after he calls our midmorning five minute break. He heads off to a funeral, he’s only gone about twenty minutes. We continue training in his absence. Two and a half days in and we’re nearly to the end of the first section. Given the number of days we have here, he seem to be pacing us well. Soon lunch is called and we head to our usual spot. Just before they though a gaggle of European faces peer at us through the glass in the door to our training hall. They are French and are just stopping by to sightsee. They are from a Chen taiji group, they gather in front of the building to have their picture taken with Xiaoxing. I wonder why the don’t stay and get some training in. It’s one thing to visit and be outside looking in, but they could train with one of the coaches here and experience the place from the inside. While we contemplate this, Viki and i turn our attention to the young Chinese students practicing applications. They are catching kicks and doing sweeps or perhaps low kicks, reminiscent of exercises we’ve done before with Viki in karate, which only goes to show why practicing karate can be a useful accessory to taiji, you actually get to hit people (and get hot) . We are all overjoyed (well except the vegetarian lurking in our midst) that we have been upgraded to a little meat. We are treated to a bit of chicken. It’s a very welcome surprise. Davidine insists well make sure it’s all eaten so the cook knows we liked it. There’s no chance of that not happening. I head back for my customary nap. We return to our scheduled programme with some more standing. It’s still painful, I’m still shit at it. Nuff said. Xiaoxing is still correcting me fortunately. He rushes over to correct my hand position right at the beginning of the form. I’m pleased I still qualify for attention. I try to ensure everything he’s corrected me on I do. Especially when he sits right behind me to watch us go through the first section. I am tired and struggle to get though it all but I try. Knowing he’s watching helps. Soon it’s over and the trap excitement of the evening is almost upon us. We’ve decided to ditch the cook and eat out. There’s a themed taiji restaurant in the new area and it looks very nice. We head in and are given a private dining room. Davidine confidently orders and we are treated to a feast (still no tea, only hot water) beef brisket, deep fried beef pancakes, winter melon soup. Aubergine in a delicious sauce, stif fried bacon and an entire chicken. Including feet and head. We gorge ourselves and then head to bed. We are all sated. I’d do that everynight. Another excellent day. I’d go into more detail but you probably don’t care and i’m too tired to go onBittersweet symphony
There is a much repeated phrase (at least in the circles I seem to run in) called eating bitter. It refers to how, if one is to make progress in their gong fu (which translates as hard work) l, one must eat bitter. That the training hard and painful effort yields results (no pain, no gain, perhaps?) . Today I begin to feel this saying, deep within my muscles. Its day two and my legs muscles are tender. They are sore when I poke them and walking down stairs is uncomfortable. I drag myself out of bed, brew some tea and head to breakfast. Today its broth with a bit of egg, boiled eggs and roasted peanuts. So par for the course really. Oh, there’s also steamed bread, which is filling if nothing else. I have a tracker bar when I get back to the room. I bought a box of 24 before leaving the UK. I also brought protein powder and have my first shake with some milk purchased from the shop below my room. There’s a distinct lack of meat in our diet. We later discover its because the last group was mainly vegetarian. Soon we have to start training and after a bit of warming up the standing begins. Chen Xiaoxing is gentle and I can smell the cigarettes he smoked when he adjusts my chin. It’s not an entirely unpleasant smell. He makes his rounds and then returns. Each time putting me lower and increasing the agony in my legs. After his first adjustment I’m immediately hot. The room is cold but my entire body is like a furnace. I can feel the heat rushing into my hands, they tingle with the increased blood flow. I note this pleasant result as a minor distraction from the burn in my legs. I’m discovering a routine to the standing session. After the second adjustment he leaves the room, come back in and wanders around the hall before m akin a final adjustment. He pulls me back, down and lengthens my spine. Straightening my lier back and removing any forward tilt. My chin is tucked in and my chest relaxed he pushes my arms and shoulders down. I attempt to comply. It’s hard. After adjustment 3 he claps and we are allowed to stop. 30 minutes have passed. We take a short break to commiserate each other’s suffering and then straight back into the form. There is a raised platform which he stands on to demonstrate. He points out essential tips on honthe execute the move and repeats for our benefit. Then we do it together. Finally he gets his son to lead and stealthily corrects. He spots me and comes over. He guides me through 5 moves. Holding my hands to guide them and keeping my waist low throughout. It’s stupidly hard. It’s also incredibly instructive. I think he will stop after one move but he continued then the next and the next. Eventually we hit aposture that requires me to go on one leg and that leg unexpectedly gives out, I’m more surprised than he is. We stop, he laughs and I bow and thank him. That correction alone is probably enough to make the trip worth it. David told me the day before that you don’t need to apologise to him for any deficiencies in your Taiji, that’s why we’re here. It’s only if you don’t try that he’ll have a problem. And then he would simply stop giving you corrections. So as long as I’m receiving attention like this, I feel I’m doing OK. I’m barely able to stand after this but we continue training for another 20 minutes before a five minute break is called. A fellow student comments on the ordeal and says she could mostly hear it but she felt for me after that. I felt for me! Soon we start up again. It’s hard but I persist. Mercifully lunch is called. Its rice! With veg and egg. It’s quite tasty, I have two bowls. I head straight back to my room and have a nap. Just outside my room is a loud speaker repeating the same stupid phrase every twenty seconds. I’m too tired to care about and a fall asleep. Just before my alarm goes off the sound stops, ah well. I buy a pack of faux maltesers and a Fanta knock off and head for training. This time after my first correction I’m in instant agony. It’s too much too handle. After a minute I ease out of it, as its simply too much for me to handle. He returns to correct me twice and each time. I’m a little embarrassed that he has to lower me again. My legs shake uncontrollably, I look at the person in front of me, the main organiser of the trip and she is shaking as much as I am. I feel slightly better. I am relieved when a break is finally called. I sit. We resume and go back to the form. It’s a tricky bit and we go over it numerous times. It’s hard going for me. But I have no choice but to continue. Xiaoxing demonstrates his fajin (hard, fast, powerful movements) and I’m amazed at his skill. Viki tells me I looked at him in awe as her performed his moves. He corrects some. Of my movements an is patient as I fail to grasp the subtleties he’s trying to impart. Eventually I get it. I am keen to finish but also to continue as the solo practice is so useful, going over a single move again and again. At the end he asks for questions and I ask a few. I’m normally vocal and inquisitive. We are told the cook is off tonight and get excited at the prospect of a good meal from a restaurant. Our hopes are dashed when discover Ziqiang has organised another cook. Its mostly made up over left overs from lunch as well as some chopped tomotoes with sugar (?) it’s not the most satisfying of meals. As we leave Viki suggests we go and get a little filled roll. I heartily agree. I’m burning an extra 2000 calories a day and not being fed enough. With no meat whatsoever. I need some protein. The roll is tasty but the hot sauce is a little too much. It does distract from the pain in my legs though. I want to visit the supermarket I’ve heard has been opened in shop. Yvonne is also keen to go. We go looking for it. After a good long walk. We don’t find it, Richard texts me and asks for the room key. We turn around defeated. After making it back to the room we discover he couldn’t find it either and it’s been shut down. My legs are unimpressed. I head back to my room to rest, blog and then hopefully talk to my wife. I’m looking forward to hearing her voice. Tomorrow is the infamous day 3. The day that requires you to dig deep and find something to help you make it. After day 2, I have no doubt I’m going to need a minor miracle to survive tomorrow. But first, I get to sleep. 
Standing room only
My bed is hard. Not hard like you might say about a cheap hotel bed, hard as if they had carved a block of wood and wrapped in cloth to pretend it was a matress. I am not exaggerating when I say it has no give at all. Given that, I still slept far better than I had expected to. We are staying in the old rooms but they have been renovated. They’re pretty good. There’s an AC unit for warmth. Multiple lights with switches above the bed and shelving units for me to live my detritus strewn around in. Really, it’s only the horrific mattresses for me to be sad about.I wake up early, but then I went to bed pretty early too. I decide to get out the room before seven and see what’s going down. Turns out there’s almost nothing. An old man is practicing double sabre. I give him a wide birth. He’s wanging those swords around like a mad man. I head to to the main building to try and steal WiFi. I’ve become a little mixed up the time zones and days of the week, so I’m a little confused when my phone pops up with a work email. I ignore it. I’ve got bigger things to think about, like breakfast, and maybe training too. A little while later when the village has woken up a little more, we head to breakfast. We are eating in Chen Ziqiang’s school. I’m not sure why but apparently the food is better. For one it’s cooked by an older lady, while in the school its cooked by the kids. Which, in my mind, sounds horrific! Breakfast is a broth with some egg and noodles in, some boiled eggs and, actually, I think that was it. Tasty but not as filling as one might hope. We head back to begin our training. We are expected to warm up before training so we all individually get ourselves warmed up in the main training hall. Half the hall is taken up by a boxing ring and the floor is an unacceptably slippery marble. Chen Xiaoxing sweeps in with his lady (wife?) who will be training with us. We start with standing. I assume the posture and very soon he comes over and gently, but firmly, pulls me lower. The suffering has begun. A few minutes later he does it again. I feel stupidly low and my legs begin to complain. After a little while they don’t hurt quite as much but they certainly feel uncomfortable. I begin to shake, a lot. 25 minutes go by and he claps his hands to signal the end. Instead of the expected silk reeling, we launch straight into xinjia. He demonstrates the first move for us. He does is again, as he begins, three men wander in to gawk. It seems that anyone can waltz into the school and explore. He stops, looks at them and scowls. He waves them out and the closes the door. This happens a few times over the course of the day and he always shoos them away. After demonstrating we do it together a few times, he then gets his sun. (Chen zijun I think) to lead us while he corrects. He spots me doing my poor rendition of the form and rushes over to correct me. He seems to take this seriously. He’s not just going through the motions to pander to the westerners. He’s putting effort into helping us to improve and learn. He also comes over at one point to correct a mistake, indicating I’m suffering from the same problem that Viki regularly informs me of, my shoulders are too high. I try to relax them. We continue, soon he tells us to practice on our own and we continue working hard. Soon a break is called and we troop back to the other school to eat. This time its more noodles. With some veg in a sauce. As well as a carton of milk and a citrus of some sort. It’s filling. We have a 2 and a half hour break so I head back to the room for a nap. I’ll take all the rest I can get! All to soon its back to training and we repeat with 30 minutes of standing and more form. At times I’m corrected and once he holds my hands and directs my movements. Its very useful. At one point he sits behind me while we go over 5y4 section we’re working on. I hear him quietly laughing, my spirits sink as I think I’m doing such a bad job he’s laughing at me. As we turn I see he’s looking out the window and laughing at the children wrestling outside. I feel better about life. I ask a few questions and am enlightened. He doesn’t make me feel stupid. He patiently demonstrates the answer to my query and I am satisfied. We head straight to dinner after training. A pleasant surprise and we have broth with rice. It must be a special occasion. Some cauliflower, carrots and roasted peanuts are provided as well as a mysterious root veg. I’m told it’s one of the four products of the village. Dinner is tasty, more protein would be appreciated but I have supplies back in my room. We wander to the shops on the way back. There are a number and they all have one thing in common. Taiji! I purchase a t-shirt for myself and enquire into a pair of sparkly silver and red shoes for someone special. Pretty soon I’m back in my room and now we’ve worked out how the hot water works, have my first shower. It’s warm and very welcome. I’m ready for sleep. First though, I must blog and see if I can have a little chat with my wife… Day one was fantastic. You may have noticed my usual lyrical writing style is absent from my posts. It’s mostly because I’m too pooped to be witty. It’s a shame but right now, I don’t care. I will say this. I have been looking forward to this trip for a long time. Now I’m here its lived up to expectations. Being here, seeing the place where countless videos and pictures I’ve seen was taken or filmed. Seeing where my teachers and their teachers and in some cases their teachers too, were all trained. I feel like this is somewhere that will stay with me for many years to come. That I will probably always yearn to come back to and will be a source of strength and inspiration in the future. I’m truly blessed for this opportunity. Even though my legs are sore after the first day. It’s a good sore and they’re only going to get worse.
Village people
I had trouble sleeping. I’m not sure if it’s excitement or jet lag causing me to wake up at 5am. I try to go back to sleep and I’m awakened by my alarm in the middle of a dream involving my wife, mother and a multiple choice test involving parachutes. No doubt there’s a Freudian explanation for it. I have a quick call with my wife and then prepare to checkout. The train station is impressive. Cavernous and stuffed with people and food. We find somewhere to get breakfast. There appear to be a large number of places that sell duck feet but nobody is buying them. I look for the busiest place and head for it. 8 yuan (about 70p)gets me wuhan’s famous breakfast dish. Hot dry noodles with a peanut sauce. Needs seasoning but it’s quite nice. Viki gets me a coffee. Eventually our train turns up and we board. It’s very nice, we’re in first class and I’m given a drink and a little box of goodies including peanuts, fruit roll, biscuits and a wet wipe. I’ve attached a photo of it. At first I find it interesting to sit and watch the world go by. But soon I run out of steam and succumb to sleep. The train peaks at 300km an hour. (a little under 190 miles} and is comfortable and efficient. After two hours we arrive in Zhengzhou. I have discovered this is the city where most iphones are produced. Foxconn have a factory here with thousands of staff. Stepping into the station concurse and I feel like the haze is visible inside the station. We head out and it’s even worse. It’s everywhere and you can smell the pollution. The station building is reminiscent of the giant pyramid in blade runner, only inverted. It dwarfs everything apart from the other futuristic sky scrapers around us. We are joined by the US3 Kim, Kathy and Richard. Who are as excited to be here as we are. Apart from the smog. We are met by our driver whom I recognise. He’s a senior student of Chen ziqiang and has been to Europe to teach. I recently read an interview with him where he describes his journey through taiji and his passion for it. His driving, sadly is not as good as his taiji. It takes a very long time to get out of zhengzhou. The city is immense, but finally the journey is over, we pull into the village. We here! We’ve made it! We drive straight into the school and laid out before are scores of children and a fair number of adults, all training. The children jumping like frogs up and down the path. Teenagers practicing with home made barbells and adults going through the form. Later I see a group of teenagers wrestling on hard concrete. One is thrown to the ground. It looks painful. The ground is as unforgiving as the training. We are united with more members of our training team. The Manchester 4. David, Davidine, Yvonne and ninja Dave! We are shown to our rooms. They have just been renovated and we’re the first students to use them since then. I’m pleasantly sioricsed. The only disappointments being that we can’t put paper down the toilet and the solidity of the mattress once I sit on my bed. It’s not much softer than the concrete those kids were wrestling on. David’s luggage has been lost during his flight so we go to find him some training outfits. I wander outside for a while. Some filming sems to be taking place. Serious looking men are adopting serious looking taiji poses. I take a few surreptitious pictures. The area outside the school is quiet and peaceful, those returning students constantly comment on how much has changed since their last visit. I pop into some of the shops to buy Dave back home some trousers,they all sell taiji shoes, swords and outfits. Some sell swords, Guan Dao, sabres and books. It’s like I’ve died and gone to taiji heaven. Ninja is hungry so we go find some food. And that food is….. Noodles! 70p gets us a large bowl of tasty noodles. We all chat and finally move on. On the way back we buy bread stuffed with a mystery filling we later decide is tofu. It’s quite nice. A few essentials are purchased and we head back to our rooms. It’s six and we’re all pretty tired. I chat to Richard for a while but I’m fighting a listing battler. I write this entry and then try to find some WiFi. There’s none in the room. Tomorrow the real work begins. Tomorrow we train!
Yellow crane spreads wings
Before the real excitement begins. We have a day to experience the breathtaking beauty of the glorious city of Wuhan. Population 8 million, which is a lot. Roughly the same as London. Much like London, its defined by its River, or more precisely, rivers. The main one being the mighty Yangtze, longest river in Asia. We knew that we’d have to make the most of our day, but had to temper it with the knowledge that we’d be jet lagged and probably a still a little sleep deprived. Our solution, walk 26 km and cram like crazy.
First things first, I visit the corner shop below the hotel. It houses a wide variety of snack foods. Some stranger than others. Everything from eggs boiled in tea through mcvities digestives all the way to dried mango pieces and something called a cheese wager. I play it safe and get some chocolate chip cookies and a few presents. I head back to wait for Viki to get ready and we set off. One of Wuhan’s claims to fame is its breakfast cuisine. Noodles, steamed buns and dumpling soup. I tell Viki about an area about an hour away that provides these sumptuous delights, as I do so, she eyes up the plentiful stands right in front of us. My initial plan is abandoned and we opt for pancake like sandwiches with noodles in hers and egg and spring onion in mine. They are rather tasty.
We brave the metro station and purchase tickets. Which come in the form of little plastic tokens that you scan like an oyster card on the way in and deposit like a vending machine on the way out. It works and the metro is cheap. About 40p. The trains themselves are clean efficient and playing peppa pig on screens in every carriage.
Our first destination is the yellow crane tower. Built quite recently in the 80s but on the site of 12 previous towers. Along the way we stop in a park to watch some ladies dancing to music. Have a coffee and a croissant and generally go a roundabout route trying to find the entrance. The tower is impressive. As is the giant bell next to it that some children. Are enthusiastically ringing with the help of their father. The gardens around the tower are beautiful and the crowds not too bad. Leaving the tower we cross the river, an act that seems to take forever. Which was also punctuated by the sight of a man in speedos heading into the river. This is remarkable for two reasons. 1. Its the tail end of winter and not particularly warm. 2. The river doesn’t look very clean. We salute him and continue on our way. On our way to a Buddhist temple, Viki mentions lunch. She spots a tiny shop seeking noodles and we point to what one customer is eating and request the same. Turns out it’s noodles with tripe. It’s actually quite nice. We slurp it up and continue. It’s costs about a pound. We find the temple and go in. It’s a chan temple which is where Japanese Zen comes from. We pay our respects and take in the atmosphere. Once we leave we wander around a bit more. Coming across one of the many construction sites that litter the city. It seems like it’s in yje midst of transformation. There are dozens of giant apartment blocks and dozens more being built. Numerous cranes (also yellow) are swinging open top skips of rubbish or pipes around above our heads. It’s the sort of thing that wouldn’t be allowed in the UK. We finally head back to our hotel and i being to feel the jet lag catching up to me. 32000 steps will do that to you. After a too short nap we head out for dinner. Finding a place in a shopping that’s got bowls of food on display. It’s a little cold but tasty. We head back to the hotel,not before I purchase a few packs of communist playing cards. They’ll make good presents.
I head back to my room and immediately lie down. Tomorrow we head to our intended destination. Tomorrow we go to the Village!
I head back to my room and immediately lie down. Tomorrow we head to our intended destination. Tomorrow we go to the Village!
Day 0, the one that comes before the the actual first day
Much can be said about China. Its a country, they have rice, there’s a lot of people. All valid claims. You could also say something more interesting like its economy is going to take over the world, it’s the home of a millenia old civilisation and, more importantly, it’s where Taiji comes from.
Before we head out onto this great adventure full of Eastern promise. Let’s perhaps set the scene. Back in mid 2016, after I’d been doing Taiji for about one and a half years. The opportunity to travel to Chenjiagou, the place where taiji was ‘invented’ the home of Chen style taiji and by all accounts, a great place to have a go. At the time, I was an even lazier student than I am now and the thought of intense, twice daily sessions of standing and silk reeling scared me away. I didn’t think I could handle the intensity of the training. A decision I have come to regret. Now, I’m older, wiser(!) and married and able to appreciate the opportunity presented to me and grab it with both hands.
And so, for a period of 10 intense days, I will be training under Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing. What that training will entail will be talked about later. Right now I just have to get there.
And what an adventure that was in itself. The visa process, the preparation, the packing. It was, at times, almost too much to handle. Well that was the visa process mainly. I had to document every day I was in China. Provide a signed letter to explain why I didn’t have a South African passport, travel to London for fingerprinting and hope the gods smile down on me and I’m allowed into the country. Fortunately I was.
I’m travelling in a group made up of people coming from Manchester, Reading, Slovenia and the US. We’re all going to be converging on the city of Zhengzhou to then travel on to Chen Village. As far as I can tell I’m the only person travelling there for the first time. So Viki (my taiji instructor/teacher/master/torturer) and flew out of Heathrow last night to the fabled city of Wuhan, population 8 million. We’ll be spending a day here and then on to Zhengzhou. After arriving and checking in, we refreshed ourselves, napped and then headed to the train station to collect our tickets. Then we went to find some food. Viki appeared to pick one at random but the food was plentiful and tasty. The meal was punctuated by a (possibly homeless) man, storming in, grabbing our bowl of rice, putting it down and then grabbing a teapot. There were some heated words and then the man returned our hot water and left. There was a bit of an altercation outside involving an empty Pepsi bottle and soon after that, the man cleared off. I can tell this is going to be an interesting trip. Tomorrow we sight see, we don’t really know what there is to see, but we’re determined to see it. Right now I’m determined to get some sleep. I’m starting to hallucinate balloons and that’s a sure sign of sleep deprivation. Anything written in this state may not make much sense. In the pics you can see, the train station and the square opposite and the view from my room. 
ense.
Xinjia Ninjas 2019 