My first two months were very difficult for me, I had never really experienced winter in my life before and now being in winter conditions that Norwegians complain about. I had to get out and see something and find some warmer climate. So Nirup and I decided to go on a trip down south to visit some other martial arts school and visit some other cities. Lucas was also leaving to go home so he joined us for the first leg of our journey up to Wudangshan. Our intended trip would be 4410km long starting of in Siping heading south west to Beijing then down south to Zhengzhou in Henan province then to the little town of Dengfeng. Next we would take another train down south to Wudang in Hubei province then heading east to Shanghai. Next we would travel back north to Yantai and then catching a ferry to Dalian and finally another train back to Siping.
The train wasn’t too bad, we had a hard sleeper coach six beds per section, packed like sardines but not too terrible (this is how chinese middle class travels), I can't imagine what the hard seat section is like to Beijing.
12 March
We arrived in Beijing I got our my laptop and found the directions to the hostel. We bought tickets on the subway which is very efficient, a Chinese man helped us, he was well spoken and had lived in Canada, he was also on the T60 train that came from Siping and then also went from the subway line 1 to line 5 with us.
When we arrived at the hostel they told us they don’t have any 3 bed rooms for 50RMB, they wanted 228 RMB for a room. So I told Nirup and Lucas to stay there and I was going to check out the other hostel that also wanted 50RMB per 3 bed room. As I was about to board the subway Nirup called and told me that he had made a plan, he got us the better room for the price we wanted. They gave us room 108 but then had problems with the lock and they moved us to room 217 which was even bigger and better for the same price.
We had breakfast at the hostel, I had an omlette and a chocolate milkshake it was pretty good, not as good as back home but 100 times better than anything at the academy. We went to the Lama temple afterwards we went to the Pearl market which is complete chaos, knock off central they have absolutely everything. I bought a second battery for my camera and another travel bag.
13 March
We got up early and had breakfast at the hostel, I had oatmeal with banana and milk and muesli with yoghurt and fruit. At 10:00 we went on a greatwall tour which was organised by the hostel. Unlike most other tours we went to a section which was located in a rural area with no tourists around. Some of the sections are really old and unmaintained. First we had lunch at a local restaurant which was rather different, I even ate a chicken head and its brains, quite strange. Climbing the wall was really though some of the sections were had a 70 to 80 degrees incline, so it was like climbing over a wall. To think that humans created this massive structure is mind numbing. It was pretty cold up there but the sun was shining.
For dinner we had duck at a restaurant, also had a salad and some spicy rice which was all very good.
The duck is served on 3 different plates, the skin, white meat/breast and meat from wings and drumsticks all separate. You are also given vegetables and little pancakes which you fill up with meat and vegetables and then dip into the dark purple plum sauce.
14 March
In the morning we left the hostel quite late at about 11:50, stored our luggage and went off to the pearl market to exchange our fake 32gb (1gb) memory sticks, this was no problem because when we bought them we told the sales woman we would be back, she laughed when she saw us the next day and gave our money back shortly after she sold the same memory sticks to some american tourists. I bought two t-shirts for 15 RMB each which took a while to negotiate because the seller wanted 400RMB at first. Then we went off to the acquarium. First we had a look at the zoo which was beautiful with all the snow around but I was rather disappointed by the small enclosures that the big cats were in, they all looked rather frustrated.
On the way back we went to the west station to get tickets for the train to Zhengzhou, we wanted to travel through the night and arrive in the morning, but they had no tickets available so we had to get tickets on the CRH express train for the following day at 9:40. So we have to spend another night at the hostel. It wasn’t bad and we met some pretty interesting people at the hostel.
15 March
In the morning we got up early and had breakfast, we got to the west station (Bejingxi) at about 9:10 our train left on time at 9:50, the train traveled at about 200km/h most of the time and we arrived in Zhengzhou at about 14:45, 5 hours later. At the main station we had lunch at a very very dodgy restaurant that had horrific toilets. We also bought tickets to Wudangshan but couldn’t get any that were over night, so we ended up getting ones in a sleeper during the day leaving at about 13:00 and arriving midnight.
We then took a bus from Zhengzhou to Dengfeng which was 26 RMB, we arrived in Dengfeng which is quite a beautiful place despite the smog in the air. We took a dodgy little 3 wheel taxi to the hostel, the girl that works and manages the place, Coco is a extremely friendly Chinese girl that is also very well spoken. After settling down we got a room for 40RMB per night, we negotiated from 50RMB. The city seems very peaceful and there are tons of weapon shops here, everything here is about martial arts. We then went to go get some dinner we ended up at a muslim restaurant selling hotpots. At first it seemed like tartar and raw vegtables but infact it was actually like fondue but with boiling bone soup, It was very delicious. When I got back to the hostel I called my mom for her birthday.
16 March
This morning after getting up I did some Yijin jing (Qi gong) with Nirup, afterwards, we went out to get breakfast we ended up at a some ranfom place with no clue what we were ordering, we got some eggplant, chicken with vegtables and some very fatty bacon with vegtables, most of it was covered in chillies and rather oily.
Afterwards we went to have a look at some weapon shops, I bought 2 short daos, training shoes, knee supports, an AK47 bayonet and some small shaolin figures. Afterwards we went to a local Chinese herbal doctor which was accross the road from the hostel so Coco helped us translate. The doctor just felt our pulses by touch and looked at our tounges and appearance then he gave us a diagnosis. He told me I am as strong as a Ox and that I am in good health. Many passers came in to look at us, after the diagnosis we sat with the doctor and drank green tea and sat there for about an hour, he really enjoyed it.
17 March
In the morning we went to the shaolin temple, it is a truly amazing place and one can feel many energies eventhough a lot of the structures are not original because they were destroyed in a war. Afterwards we went to go visit some schools, some of the Chinese ones were impressive.
There are many of these small pagodas, each is to honour a specific monk that made positive impacts
Finger imprints from finger strengthening archigong exercised performed by monks
The Tagou school has 20000 students learning shaolin martial arts, they have students at the shaolin temple including foreigners and another bigger school outside the shaolin temple in Dengfeng which is for locals only.
18 March
This morning we went to Tagou the biggest martial arts school in Dengfeng and the whole of China, it was amazing seeing so many stuendets training together, could really feel the energy, also it was nice to see them train together and motivate eachother by clapping.
At about 11:20am we left the hostel for the bus station, we bought tickets for the bus and arrived in Zhengzou at 13:20, we had lunch at mister lees and just got on our train in time. Our train took forever and was really slow stopping at every single tiny village, we finally arrived in Wudangshan at 1:00am and went to some dodge hotel for 40RMB.
19 March
In the morning we left the hotel and went to the academy in Wudangshan. We were told we could stay for 50RMB per night including food. The academy is pretty nice they use an old temple for the training but the only problem is the smog and pollution from the factory next door. The master Yuan which is also the headmaster is very well known in China and also can speak English well so that helps, the other shifus are Chinese students that are pretty well trained and can speak basic English which helps. The training is pretty intensive and there are 35 foreign students. The town is also very beautiful and is a 5 minute walk from the academy and everything can be found there.
Master Yuan with some reporters from Hong Kong TV
21 March
This morning we went to the Wudang Taoist kung fu school. The master there is called Chenchi Xing who had the same master as master Yuan. There aren’t many foreigners but the school does have translators and is also in a better area with cleaner air and less noise.
We had lunch there and then headed back to the other academy.
22 March
Today we went to Wudangshan in the morning took the bus up the the Purple point and then walked up to the south cliff and had a look of the temples there but did not go to the peak, it was very beautiful being up there.
23 March
24 March
We arrived in Shanghai at about 14:00 and after a lot of looking we took the Bus 144 to Dong Pu Road, to hour hostel. The hostel was more expensive than excpected, it was 190 for a double room but it was quite a nice room despite the fact that it had no window. I went out to get lunch and then later at about 19:00 Nirup had a friend that he knew from Changchun came over. We went to have papa johns pizza at peoples square which was actually not that great.
25 March
I went to the Bund early in the morning, along the river there are little parks in which old people do taiji and qi gong. The Bund looked very peaceful in the morning. I got back to the hostel at 7am, slept till 11am, we left our stuff there and headed back out.
Afterwards we went to go check out the bund again and some markets, we had pizza again but at pizza hut which was quite a bit better thatn the papa johns we had the night before. At 21:00 we got the the south train station and got on our super long train to Yantai.
26 March
We arrived in yantai at about 17:00 we took a taxi and managed to get an acceptable hotel for 120RMB. We took a cab and went to go look for some dinner, we ended up at the brazilian bbq which is like rodizio back home, a buffet for salads etc and then waiters come around with chuncks of different meat and place them on your plate. It was good especially for the price of 40RMB. After dinner we went back to the hotel.
27 march
At 11am and headed for the harbour station bought our tickets to Dalian, then we went back to the brazilian bbq for breakfast. The boat ride was ok, we had "first-class" sleepers but in a room with 8 other people, I slept 2 hours but then the air was too thick and smelly so I went outside for a bit.
We arrived in Dalian at about 20:00 in the evening, took the bus to the center of town and found a hotel there, by the time we settled in we were really tired and went straight to bed.
28 march
The next day we went to go out to have a look at some shops, Dalian is a beautiful city and the culture is much more western the people don’t stare at foreigners and the girls are all very beautiful and tall.
That night we went to a Japanese Teppenyaki restaurant, I had a lot of sushi, a fillet steak, 2 salmon steaks, a kob steak and a fruit salad for dessert, I also had some freshly pressed juice that was very good.
29 March
We left for Siping at 15:00 the following day on a soft sleeper train and got to Siping at about 22:30. Because it was too late to get back to the academy we spent the night at the Jinlihao.
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