Week 3 (18 January - 24 January)

This Monday (18th) I was the only student practising Qi Gong, Mondays is optional and I guess most just want the additional sleep. Also the qi gong movements are easier and just flow more easily now. For morning training there was another lecture. Two students had alcohol in their rooms and they were asked if they will change their habits or else they must leave. Some students come here to stop smoking or drinking but when they see the prices of alcohol (3RMB for a 660ml beer bottle) and cigarettes (5RMB for a pack of 20) they just can't be bothered to stop.


I do these Qi gong exercises every morning for 30 minutes, each set of movements should be done for 5 minutes.

I've never smoked before so that has never been a problem but I did do a lot of partying in my past and I did enjoy some weekend drinking (often to excess). By coming here I have made the decision not to drink any alcohol for a year whether it is allowed/possible or not.

Tuesday (19th), just as I thought the weather was getting better today is a terrible day, overcast and windy, the weather sucks and I'm in a grumpy mood. My muscles are stiff and my bones hurt, I've told the translator to tell the shifu that I would like to take the afternoon off, which was no problem. Later in the afternoon the snow started melting outside, I'm hoping the weather improves.

Wednesday, overnight the temperature had dropped again, it was -17 Celsius and all the patches of melted snow had become ice and new snow had fallen on top of that. The change on weather also had an effect on some of the people here, people were grumpy or didn't come to training and others came late to training, the shifu did not approve and gooned the late comers. We also got a new translator called Lin Na, her english isn't great but sufficient I guess.

Friday (22nd), I woke up feeling really good today however that was short lived, for morning training we had to go running outside and it was -15 Celsius, every step sounded like breaking glass as the ice below the snow was cracking. After many push ups and an intensive warmup up our shifu told us to do some power stretching. There were about 5 different stretches including the splits, one student held me tight while another pulled my leg beyond its comfort zone, after holding it there for about 20 seconds the shifu came and forced it a little further. The sounds generated in the training hall were probably similar to those generated in torture chambers.

My chinese isn't great however I know a few phrases and the most commonly used ones, I generally point at a muscle or body parting uttering one of the two words "bu hao" (not good) and/or "tong" (pain). Training was finished at 15:00 today and I finished reading eleven minutes (elf minuten) by Paulo Coehlo and I must say my German has deteriorated a little. Luckily there is a small library here with many German books, so if I overcome the laziness I should be able to read a few books.

On the weekend I just did some washing and went for a walk with Axel to the nearby villages. I also had a conversation with Prashant a guy from India who has been here for 16 months and will be staying for 24 months (2 years) total. We spoke about the laziness of the students and also about the training. He told me when he first came there were a lot more students and also students used to train much harder because there was much more pressure from their masters.

Week 2 (11 January - 17 January)

On the 11th (monday) it was a special day to honour the kids and all of their parents came to watch them perform. We also watched the kids perform and it is amazing to see kids as young as 7 doing backflips and other crazy moves. The kids also have a 1 month holiday now so they can go home and spend some time with their family, it is the only holiday they get.

Every 11th of the month there is a test day on which all foreigners must present the forms they have learnt, because the kids performed on this day we had test day on the 12th. Luckily I didn't need to perform anything because my form isn't finished yet. Also my upper hip muscle really hurts, it is the same pain I experienced from a previous injury plus my knee is also still extremely painful, probably from all the running out in the cold.

On Wednesday (13th) the shaolin group had to go for their weekly run, we had to run to the nearby village called Yehe which is 10km from the academy, so the total run is about 20km at -25 celcius. I ran together with my friend Chima from Trinidad, at about 6km from the academy there is a sign at which point we decided to turn back. The bottle of water I was carrying at frozen solid, my eyelids and nose were covered in ice crystals.

Before

After

Later that day training continued like usual and in the evening we had a line up and a huge lecture. Somebody had decided to defecate next to the toilet and the headmaster wanted to know who had done it. Personally I don't believe any of the western students would have done such a thing, it became a huge joke. In the evening I spoke to Steffen, a student from Norway which was leaving soon. I told him I would move into his room and buy most of his basic necessities, his room is also upstairs and faces the sun, so it is warmer and has a much better view.




Thursday 14th, I started learning a new form and had to buy a shaolin dao (training sword), the training is going well and I can notice that my stretching has improved already. However I am still concerned about my knee and hip which are still rather painful.

Friday 15th, today we only trained half the day which is normal for friday, in the evening there was a very rare sun eclipse which we observed. The weekend was really boring, I played some pool in the pool room which they ocasionally open but other than that I was too tired to do anything else and just wanted to rest and let my body recover. The weather is still nothing close to optimal, daytime temperatures range from -20 to -25 celcius but the sky is always blue which is a great.

The rest of the first week

Thursday and friday were really though days, I have been having real difficulty sleeping, firstly my room must be about 10 degrees celcius at night. Despite being physically and mentally exhausted I just can't fall asleep. In the mornings lifting the bed sheets is a mission, I've discovered so many muscles I never knew I had.


During fridays morning session there was an argument between Rahul and Michael. Michael being in his 30's and experienced in martial arts got upset with Rahul who is 18 and on a mission to make it big in Bollywood back in India. I have been warned about him by all students and now I can see what they mean, he has no respect for the masters and everything is just a joke to him. I can't believe he has been here for 4 months already.

On friday a new student arrived, Axel from Malta who is in his 30's.

Most of the training sessions have a pretty standardised warm up but it does vary. We usually need to run 5 laps of the basketball court outside and with strong winds and temperatures ranging from -25 to -30 Celcius this is extremely unpleasant. This is followed by

Stretching
4 sets Sprints (about 30m with no rest intervals)
2 sets one legged jumps (30m no rest then swap the leg)
Stretching and holding mabu, gumbu, pubu for 1 minute (if you can)
4 sets of kicks (2 sets of straight up, inside, outside, side kick)
8 sets of different kicking and punching variations
2 sets of duck walk
2 sets of frog jumps
5 sets of 10 pushups with holding on the down movement for 2 seconds
3 sets of 20 squats with holding on the down position for 2 seconds

After this warm up we practice our forms.

We also had a room inspection, luckily my room was tidy, other students got gooned. A goon is the chinese word for stick, being gooned means you need to assume the push up position and accept a scolding from the stick. We were also told that "this is china no your home country, you must be tidy".

The snow outside just keeps coming and we have spent quite a few training sessions shoveling snow, something I've never done in my life before. The shovels are basically two pieces of wood nailed toegether, a long stick and a square plank, very innovative.

My knee has been hurting really bad from all the running in the cold and all the jumping and movements we keep doing, hopefully it passes.

The weekend was extremely boring, there is nothing to do and too cold to go outside, I did a bit of reading and just sat around letting time go by. I also did some washing, first time I've had to do in my life and I must say its actually quite relaxing.

The Academy and People

The academy is located in north eastern (also referred to as dongbei - in chinese eastnorth) China in Jilin province close to the village of Yehezhen. The actual academy grounds are about 10km from the village of Yehezhen on quite a steep hill which gives a 180 degree view of the surrounding area that mainly consists of many small farming villages and currently unusable corn fields. There is also a castle directly outside the academy called Yehe na la cheng or Yehe Ancient castle. The elevation here is about 300 meters and the coordinates are North 42 degrees 44.846' and East 124 degrees 35.630'. The castle is actually not that ancient, I reckon about 15 to 20 years and it was originally built to film a movie.

View 四平少林文武学校 in a larger map

About 10 years ago the first bunch of foreigners came here to train and they used to live and train in the castle, during 2003 the current academy was built and a school for local chinese children was also built. The owner and founder of the academy is called Che Wen Long, he is quite a successful man in this region, many foreigners claim he has ties with the triads and that he is extremely wealthy. However the only contact I have had with him were replies to my emails, he isn't actually at the academy.

The academy and ancient castle from a distance

The road leading up to the academy

The academy main gate

The academy dorms (for foreigners)

Entrance to Yehe Ancient Castle

The academy is run by a headmaster and headmistress that don't really seem to be involved in martial arts in any way, as far as I have gathered the headmaster is Che Wen Longs brother and he is referred to as Erge (second) and the headmistress is just there to help assist him.

The full name of the Academy is Northen China Siping Shaolin Martial Arts Academy or in Chinese 中国四平少林武术学院. There are foreigners and local children that train at the academy. The children also have a formal education here together with their training. There are a number of foreigners here (17 including myself), I'm actually going to write their names and countries down so you have an idea of the diversity.

Steffen - Norway
Umit - Norway
Marcus - UK
Deepak - UK
Joshua - UK
Wasseem - UK
Clement - France
Aurane - France
Michael - France
Nirup - Holland
Thomas - Belgium
Chima - Trinidad
Raul - India
Prashant - India
Luisa - Australia
Nurbek - Kazakstan

This may be a shaolin academy but there are actually four different types of martial arts that can be learnt here. Sanda, Baji, Taiji and Shaolin.

Shifus/masters here are not true monks like the website states however they have lived monk lives and have been training martial arts most of their lives, even if some of them are only in their twenties.

Many foreigners have told me that there is a lot of blackmail, deceit, politics and some half truths and whole lies going on at the academy (by academy management) and that the website makes many promises that can never be fulfilled. Not a great welcoming but at least I know what to expect and I will definitely have some updates on the academy politics. I was expecting something like this, I don't know how bad it will be but there is a notice on a notice board here that says "remember this is China, not your home". At the end of the day I came here to train and I'm not going to pack up my bags when the going gets tough, I will push through regardless what they throw at me.

First full day of training

This morning I got up at 5:15am with the first bell and had a look at the daily schedule which looks like this:



5:15 Lights on
5:45 Get up
6:00 Morning training
6:30 Breakfast
7:50 Ready
8:00 - 10:00 Morning training
10:30 - 11:30 Training (or language class)
11:40 Lunch

Rest

13:30 Ready
13:40 - 15:30 Afternoon training
17:00 Dinner
17:50 Ready
18:00 - 19:30 Evening training
19:30 - 20:30 Shower
20:30 Go to bed
22:00 Lights off

This morning I went to the training hall at about 5:50am and practiced Qi Gong with master Liu, despite having a stiff neck and painful muscles I felt really rejuvenated after the Qi Gong exercises, at 6:30am it was still dark outside but time for breakfast. At about 7:00 the started rising and despite the clear sky it was still about -30 outside. Before training I sat in my room reflecting realising that I was in so much pain after just a single training session.

 

 At 6:30 after QiGong still dark outside

 The Horizon after breakfast

For morning training warm up we had to do one legged wrestling, we had to hold one leg up and use our bodies to knock over the others, after each round the last person standing didn't need to do the 20 push ups (always on knuckles) and 20 squats. After 6 rounds I had done 100 push ups and 100 squats and my knuckles were bleeding. Right after this we had to stand on the spot and jump as high as we could with our knees up to our chest 5 times and do 8 sets with only 5 second intervals, after this my entire body was shaking. After this we had to stretch and do the basic shaolin stances, the ma bu (horse stance), gum bu and pu bu. My master was forcing me to hold all of these stretches which were all extremely painful, I couldn't quite distinguish if it was tears or sweat running down my face, perhaps both.

After training I had to change my clothes and socks, so many layers everything gets really sweaty and cold, which is really annoying. At 10:30 I decided to take a break and go to Chinese class instead of more training, because characters are too difficult to learn we learn pinyin instead, which is basically standardised spelling of the Chinese language which allows words to be written and read with letters as we know them however this is still rather difficult as each letter can be written and pronounced with up to four tones. There are also instances where words will share the same tones but have different meanings depending on the context however each different word will have a different character.

For lunch there was chicken with green peppers and carrots, tofu with spinach, carrots, eggplant and potato and some little stick things (we don't know if they are chicken, pork or fish neither does the chef). I also had some green tea, we use teapots and a chopstick to stop the tea leaves from coming out. 

Some craples (crappy half pear/apple)

Chicken with green peppers and carrots

Spinach with tofu and bean curd

Eggplant, potato, green peppers and tons of garlic and oil

Little stick things (tastes like fish and cinnamon)

Rice (3 times daily for the next year)

Afternoon training was a drag, I could barely move. I struggled doing most exercises because I can't stretch far enough and doing push ups on my knuckles is taking its toll, the skin is just hanging on little threads so subsequent sets are rather painful. Other students are helpful and motivating, my master also understands which is good.

my hands after my first day of training

In the evening I had to do some stretches mabu, gumbu and pubu but holding a 40kg weight bar until I couldn't anymore. The shower was amazing even though it is far from what I would call ideal.

My first full day

This morning the lights came on at 5:15am followed by a bell at 5:45am sounding like something you would find at a firestation, the bell rang again at 6am. I was extremely tired/jetlagged and didn't get up because I had been told to rest. At 6:30 am I got up for breakfast and I was surprised at how well I had slept considering my bed had no mattress just a wooden plank covered by a bed sheet.

At breakfast I met some students, the 16 students were from many different countries. The breakfast was pretty average (compared to my very low expectations), we got some oranges, a terrible looking porridge that reminded me of the matrix, boiled eggs and some chinese steamed bread. I just ate it without much thought, the others were surprised that I ate it without any hesitation. Others struggle to eat the porridge even with a heavy coating of sugar and milk powder.

At 8:00am there was line up before morning training and I had to introduce myself to the others. There is a line up before every training session and a register is read to ensure all students are present. I also received and orange shaolin monk uniform from the headmaster, which is purely ceremonial and only to be worn for test days and presentations. The translators were a bit concerned about me because my clothing was far from adequate, they suggested I should go buy some proper winter gear which I had planned to do anyway. So I went with a translator called Kaka to the nearby city called Siping which was just over and hour away. On the way to Siping I realised I had forgotten to take more money and had only brought 500RMB which is about R550, I was convinced that it wouldn't be sufficient to buy a decent winter jacket.

When I got to Siping I received many weird glances and stares from passers by, many people were pointing fingers and shouting out "lao wei" (basically meaning foreigner but often interpreted as an insult), the only foreigners this city sees are students from the academy. Siping is considered small by chinese standards but with 4 million inhabitants I wouldn't really call it small. After much browsing and trying on many different sizes (my usual M is at least an XL in China) I bought a jacket stuffed with duck feathers (down), thermals, sweaters, toiletries and some items for my room. Needles to say the 500RMB I had on me was more than enough money, China is really cheap. When I got back to the academy I also bought a pair of Feiyue shoes, these are the air jordans of the chinese martial arts world, everybody wears them and they cost me 30RMB.

I got back to the academy later that day and had my first training session. I had to chose one of four groups, the options were Bajiquan, Taiji, Sanda or Shaolin. These are four different types of martial arts. I chose shaolin because it focuses a lot on flexibility and physical exercise. I originally came to China to focus on internal martial arts and focusing on my Qi (internal energy) but I need to do some basics first. After some stretching my master (shifu) (Master Li Chan Fa) started teaching me my first shaolin fist form called Wu Bu Quan (5 Stance Fist), it is the basic foundation of shaolin martial arts as it encompasses all the important stances. The form is really basic but I can already feel the pain, my body just isn't use to these movements.

My master just keeps telling me that pain is normal and that pain is good. He also placed special emphasis on the eyes and told me that I must always look forwards and look dangerous (I realise that the translators lose a lot of important information in translation), never look at the floor. After training at 19:30 I went for my first shower which was quite a shock. Everyone showers together in a small room with six shower heads, the water is not adjustable, the only option is on or off, not even the shower head is adjustable, luckily the water wasn't cold. These showers will definitely take some time getting use to these.

Next to my name it says 德国 (German) and 少林 （Shaolin group)

There is also a name sign on my door now, my room number is 215 and there are some Chinese characters on the sign. Before going to bed I removed cob webs hanging from the walls above my bed.

The Journey

During the course of 2009 I had decided that I wanted to go to northern China to learn shaolin martial arts, my goal was to take a break from my daily life and just do more to stimulate my body mind and soul. The ultimate goal was to feel healthy and also if I wasn't going to do this now I never would.

Before leaving I promised friends and family a blog and after about 8 months I have finally taken some time to write out some of the notes I have collected in my diary and share them on the internet. And I know the tenses, spelling, grammar and other parts of the english language are used rather poorly but just accept it and I promise I will include a lot of pictures to make up for the poor writing. Originally I had planned to create a blog as I arrived but somehow this never happened. Firstly because blogger.com isn't accessible without a VPN or proxy connection due to the great chinese firewall. Another reason was that I simply felt too tired from training everyday and preferred just writing by hand compared to typing notes out on my laptop. Either way these are the posts that you have been expecting, luckily blogger has a function to change the post dates. So for example the post "The academy and people" has a date in January so this won't include any events beyond that month.

Anyway I left home (South Africa) on 30 December 2009 and spent 3 days including new years celebrations in Germany with my friend Tammo. Because I had this planned departing and saying farewell from home wasn't as bad I had expected. Only when I was on my flight from Europe to China it struck me and I realised what I had embarked on, truly mixed emotions.

I left Zurich on 3 January at about 13:00 and arrived in Shanghai almost 12 hours later at around 7:10am on 4 January (note the 6 hour time difference, 7 hours from South Africa).

 

 On the runway in Zurich, the point of no return...

The weather in Shanghai was average, about 8 degrees but very misty with poor visibility, the airport was huge, grey and rather depressing. After collection my luggage I bought my ticket to Changchun on Shanghai airlines (which was more difficult than expected, not many people speak english), where my escort would be waiting for me. After a 5 hour wait and a 1 hour delay I finally set off north to Changchun. The snacks on the flight were questionable and I ended up only eating the raisins.

After a 3 hour flight which felt like an eternity the aircraft was finally making it's descent into Changchun. I will never forget this day, because when I looked outside all I could see was white, I have experienced winter in Montreal which is cold however this was on another level. Needless to say the temperature outside was -38 Celsius (-36 Fahrenheit if you're American).

 

Changchun Airport

After collecting my luggage I made my way to the arrivals area to meet up with my escort/driver, I was slightly anxious, excited and nervous but felt at ease when I was greeted by a friendly chubby chinese man.

After about 4 hours of driving through snow and ice at about 40km/h we finally arrived at the academy at around 21:00. When I arrived I was welcomed by two friendly translators called Nelly and Vera. The academy not only houses male and female foreign students but also chinese kids from ages 6-14 years. They showed me my room and gave me some food which was significantly better than I was expecting.

My room wasn't great, it had a bed, a coat rack and two cupboards for my clothes. The room was also freezing but still I was happy because I didn't need to share a room. I couldn't shower because I had arrived after the shower time which is between 19:30 and 20:30.

Before going to bed I made use of the toilets which were quite a shock, luckily there are western toilets not the conventional chinese hole in the floor style toilets. However there are 3 toilets right next to each other with separating walls that are barley 1.5m high. To make things worse there was a rather unpleasant and pungent smell that resembles something like ammonia, not from cleaning agents but rather from stale urine, I guess I won't be doing any reading on toilet like I used to.