This blog outlines my experiences whilst living in Northern China at Siping City Shaolin Martial arts academy.
View the blog from the beginning (January 2010) and click on most images to enlarge.
Monday morning the weather was miserable, just rainy and foggy. I trained with the kids at 5:30 and after a lot of sprints and frog jumps up the academy drive way we had to do handstands with our feet resting against the wall. The goal time was 2 minutes however the longest I managed was 50 seconds. At 8:00 we were told that Rahul was being gooned for misbehaving, he got 10 goons, however after the 4th hit the stick broke and the last 6 hits were with half a goon which was quite a bit more painful. Later I also found out that Eagle had mounted a web cam on the balcony which recorded the entire proceedings, however it was pointed straight into sunlight so it was just a white video.
27 April the weather was depressing, just overcast and miserable. Eagle was late at morning line up and had to do 20 push ups. The training was basic and after the usual warm up we just did some power stretching. In the afternoon Umit was late for line up and had to do 20 push ups. For afternoon training we did acrobatics and I was surprised to see how my handstand had improved, shortly afterwards I sprained my neck. I took the rest of the afternoon off and by the evening it felt like I was getting a cold. In the evening I practised the group form which we had started learning on Monday.
Wednesday 28 April it was raining, I told my shifu that I wanted to go to Beijing for the Motor show and needed to buy a train ticket, he said it was fine as long as I come back before Monday. I went to morning training and all we did was some power stretching which was pretty intensive.
When I got to Siping I was doubtful of getting a ticket at all because that weekend was labour weekend and almost all tickets had been sold out, I couldn't get a ticket for Friday so I got one for Thursday evening it was a hard sleeper and top berth which is pretty bad but oh well. On the way back to the academy the taxi stopped at a petrol station to fill up, this is where I saw a terrible site, one of the worst toilets in China.
When we got back to the academy I had some more symptoms of a cold so I took the day off and took some strong Chinese medicine which knocked me out.
Thursday 29 April I felt a lot better and took the training easy, we spent most of the day practicing the group form. After dinner I went to Siping, my train was only at 23:00 and I was really tired so I went to the Internet cafe and browsed the Internet a bit, I noticed I started falling asleep so I set my cellphone alarm clock just in case. I got to the station in time and after the big rush and a lot of squeezing (queuing is still a pretty new concept here in china) I finally made my way in time whilst people were tripping and falling to get to the train despite the fact that they had 10 minutes to spare. I settled into my top berth which was as tiny as I had expected, the bed was about 1,90m but the room between the room and the bed was about 45cm. Luckily it was late and I fell asleep right away and woke up the next morning and hour outside of Beijing.
This morning it was wet and rainy so I ran to the T but skipped the stairs, running along the lake is too muddy. On the way back I just had a walk around the castle. It rained for the rest of the day and we did all of our training hall in the kids training hall. I think the shifu is trying to avoid having the headmaster or headmistress around checking up on him. Later that day I also found out the Chima, Thomas, Josh and Rahul want to leave, besides Chima the others are just lazy and don't train anyway so I can understand half their reasoning. Also I think that these are just empty words and as usual none of them will stick to what they have said.
Tuesday morning was extremely foggy, I decided to run the stairs despite the mud.
In the morning Clemente, Umit and I went to the headmaster to speak to him about making changes at the academy. Most students told us they will support us but told us we will get nowhere. The idea was to take a neutral approach and instead of demanding changes we would make suggestions on how the headmaster could have his demands met if he would help us with our. At first the headmaster refused to listen but after some time we finally listened to us and was happy with what we had to say. In the end we came to a conclusion that a student representative body would be elected from the 3 most senior students which would be responsible for aiding the communication between students and management. Another major point was the implementation of harsher rules with specific reference to students not training and lacking discipline.
The 3 representatives were
Clemente for Taiji
Prashant for Baji
Umit for Shaolin
A few extracts from the document we compiled:
"We hope that the students who act against the rules can change their behaviour and become what they wanted to become by coming here, a martial artist with a strong body, great mind and powerful spirit. "
"We are not here to share our old habits, we came here to get rid of them. We cant call friends those that make us drink and smoke instead of train, true friends here are ones that motivate and help you become a better person!"
The "new" (old revised) rules make specific reference to:
Having no alcohol or cigarettes in ones room
Attending and being punctual for all line ups
Coming outside and at least going for a walk at 5:30
Attending all training sessions
Attending and participating at the test day on the 11th of each month
Maintain a clean and tidy room
Failing to comply would lead to escalating punishment starting off with push ups 20 then 50, then goons 1 broken stick then 2 then 3 finally followed by expulsion.
Even the students that had broken the rules were happy to hear that they were being enforced more strictly as they were unable to take action themselves.
Later that evening we played basketball with the kids and afterwards just practised out forms.
21 April, today all students were formally introduced to the new rules. The training was hard, we did the stairs which meant a lot of sprinting, frog jumps, jumps, hops, bear crawls etc.
On Thursday 22 April we had another intensive day, the main highlight was Rahul getting gooned by his shifu for being disrespectful.
Friday was an exciting day, after breakfast there was room inspection. At morning line up there was a speech because Thomas was late for line up plus he had left training early the previous day without the permission of his shifu. He had to do 50 push ups and an extra 20 for being late. He did the 50 but when he was told to do the 20 he just walked off because he felt intimidated. They told him they would expel him but he returned shortly after. He got 3 hard goons plus he had to do the 20 push ups. In the afternoon Rahul overslept and was late for line up and had to do 20 push ups. Later that evening I went for a walk with Thomas, Anoushka and Jill.
Nirup had asked Clemente if he could bring a girl to his room on Saturday, Clemente asked the headmaster which told him that this was not allowed and he would be punished if he would be expelled if he would do that.
Saturday morning we all got woken up at 7am because the cleaner had found some beer bottles in the upstairs bathroom, the headmaster wanted to know who they belonged to, we ended up waiting 20 minutes and nobody confessed, so the 3 representatives had to do 50 push ups but in the end almost all students did push ups. The headmaster then said that no students are allowed to have any beer bottles or cigarettes in their rooms, even if they drink or smoke outside the academy grounds. Nobody objected except Nirup which was quite aggressive in his response, after and hour we were finally allowed to go back to our rooms. Afterwards the representatives had a meeting and during this time they spotted Nirup with a girl in his room. The headmaster didn't hesitate in making a decision, he expelled him immediately. The headmaster had been looking for a reason to expel him because of past incidents and behaviour.
I went to Siping with Umit and Thomas to relax at the Jinlihao.
Umit and Thomas with their new purchases
Baby chicks for 1 RMB
On Sunday Rahul, Josh and Deepak got really drunk in the restaurant outside the academy. When Rahulshifu, during all the commotion they also found cigarettes in his room so they told him he would be gooned on Monday.
This morning we could not go outside because of the wind, it was blowing at 70km/h and there was more snow again. Our shifu hadn't come back so out test day was moved to the following day. We just spent the day revising our forms. In the evening the winds were blowing at 90km/h and we were told not to go outside.
On Tuesday (13th) I presented my Tong Bei Quan form which wasn't as good as I had practiced but somehow it didn't really phase me.
The screen for Eagles camera had arrived and I repaired it, he was really happy.
By Wednesday the weather was amazing, all the snow had melted and the sky was blue. So we all went for a walk to yehe which took about 2 hours.
Some Chinese camouflage, spot the ducks ?
We ended up talking a cab back but not just any cab we decided to go back with Mister Long who drives a 3 wheeler with a 650cc motorbike engine. All I can say is that the Americans can learn from the Chinese, Americans firmly believe in "no replacement for displacement" and put a V8 into everything that has wheels. The 650cc 3 wheeler carried 7 of us up the hill to the academy, nothing broke, however there was some clutch smoke filling the cabin but we got to our destination safe and sound.
The rest of the day we just practiced acrobatics, doing rolls, flips, cartwheels, slap kicks etc.
The shifu asked me again why I was unhappy and I told him I want some more intensive training, he told me he is concerned that we will be too tired. I told him that it isn't a problem, if 10 year old kids can do it, so can we. We came here to be pushed and not relax, he said he would change the training.
My wish was granted on Thursday and we got pushed from morning to evening. In the morning we went to a section of the castle stairs about 60 steps and had to do 3 consecutive sprints. This was followed by 2 sets of one legged hops. Next we had to do 2 sets of frog jumps up and to get back down we had to bear crawl down the stairs, using hands and feet to crawl down the stairs. In the afternoon we did a lot of side kicks and had to hold our legs up in the side kick position for 2 minutes on each leg. Then we had to hope across the training hall twice in the push up position. By the evening I felt tired which was good, despite the complaints during the training the other students also liked the fact that they were being pushed beyond their capabilities.
Friday was more relaxing which was good because we all had some muscle pain. In the evening Deepak, Thomas (Belgium), Nirup, Chima and I went to Yehe for dinner, once again we cooked our own food lamp with onions and other vegetables.
On the weekend I didn't do much, I just watched the Die Hard Trilogy (1 -3).
On Monday we trained in the castle, but it wasn't too intensive. We wrote a test in Chinese class which was a strange experience. In the evening we didn't train just went for a walk to the castle, during this time it snowed a bit but it had gotten too warm and the snow had melted again. I also decided not to eat meat for this entire weak just to see the difference.
Tuesday 6th April all students went for a walk around the lake which was melting and made all kinds of cracking and creaking noises.
This Wednesday the training was still the same boring stuff as usual and I just practiced my new form and Umit (Norway) helped me with the slap kick I need to do. In the evening I did some Chinese homework with Chris (Scotland).
8 April, this morning there was a 30km/h wind but I went running anyway and did all the stairs in one go without stopping. In the morning out shifu told us he would be away for 3 days because I had to go home and visit his grandmother which has had been in a car accident. I felt sorry for him however I have been a bit irritated with his training methods. Firstly he doesn't push us as hard as the old shifu and he seems rather superficial not really paying much attention to individual training and just tells everyone they are progressing really well. I prefer to hear that my forms look terrible and that I am too slow because that way I learn better. I feel like changing to Sanda but I probably wont right now. Strange enough that day my shifu asked me if something was wrong because haven't been happy the past few weeks, so I told him that I was unhappy with the training, he said he would improve it when he gets back.
On Friday we had a different shifu teaching us and I was satisfied with the training, in the afternoon we watched the kids practising for a performance.
In the afternoon the replacement LCD arrived for Josh Netbook so I replaced it and he was overjoyed. The new student Alex had cracked the LCD on his camera on his journey to china and asked me if I could repair it. On Saturday I ordered a replacement LCD which was actually rather difficult to find.
Tuesday 30 March we left Siping in the morning and were surprised to see that all the snow had melted. When we got back to the academy we were welcomed and I met some new students, I was told there were 4 new students, two guy and and two girls. I was kind of excited because it would be nice to have some female company around. The two male students Chris (24) from Scotland and Samir (26) from Syria had been at the academy for less than a week and had joined the shaolin group. The two girls could both speak Chinese really well as they both had a Chinese parent and had previously gone to the british school in Taiwan. Anoushka (24) was from England/Taiwan and Gillian (23) was from Australia both girls had also joined the shaolin group. Other news was that my shaolin shifu had left and that we now had a new shifu, I was kind of disappointed because I liked the old shifu for the reasons the others disliked him, however I was willing to accept the new shifu.
31 March at 5:30 we had to run down to the T and back (the road that leads to the academy comes to a T-junction and we call this the T, the distance is about 1,8km there and back but very steep on the way back), we then did Qi gong afterwards. I was really amazed, everybody was out and about in the morning, this huge and dramatic change in behaviour was obviously due to the female presence.
The almost 3 weeks away actually did me some good and my flexibility had improved despite the fact that I had only occasionally stretched on the trip. The morning training was less intensive than before but I assumed it was due to all the new students. In the afternoon we trained with the kids which was quite pleasant and motivating. I started learning a new form called Tong Bei Quan and I had 11 days until test day to get it right.
I also noticed a huge difference in Chinese class, whilst on the trip I had to speak Chinese wherever possible and had learnt a lot which made the classes a lot more pleasant.
348 stairs up to the castle
1 April, this morning I ran to the T and decided to run along the lake and up the 348 stairs to the castle, I had never been able to do this before because of the snow. So I decided to give it a try, I must say it was a killer and I got about half way before deciding to walk the remainder, I then did some Qi gong with master Liu. The rest of the day we did some meditating and just practised our forms. In the evening a new student arrived, Alex (36) from England.
2nd April, I ran to the T and then took the extended run along the lake to try running up the stairs again, this time I had made it a little further than the previous day. For the rest of the day we did some basic training with the kids.
On Saturday I went to Siping with Alex (the new student) to show him around and help him buy some basics. He was really impressed at how cheap everything was. Before returning to the academy we went to the Jin Li Hao for a sauna, afterwards we went to the reflexologist for a message.
The rest of the weekend I just relaxed and did some reading.
11 March
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.
Afterwards we went to the acquarium which is the biggest in the world, it was beautiful however I was expecting orcas and other ocean giants but they didn't really have any.
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
This morning we went to Wudangshan to get our yearly mountain passes, we also sent the sword we bought for chima to the academy by post because it would have been a hastle to get on the trains. We then took a taxi to Lioping. On the train to 26 hour train to Shanghai there was a young couple that could speak some English which was nice, we ended up talking for a few hours, one of the conducters also came and joined in with the chat.
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.
