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.
We knew the week would start off slow because our Shifu had to go home to sort out some things so we would have to train pretty much on our own until Wednesday. Monday was really cold so we did some training but nothing too intensive, this was also going to be my second last full week of training so I decided that from Tuesday I would train hard.
Unfortunately Tuesday never got underway as I had anticipated. I wont include information on what happened that morning, but lets just say a student "lost it" and I mean went crazy, I even got bitten during the commotion.
The bite
Then the crazy lunatic fetched his sword and threatened to chop another students head off. I know it sounds like a movie script but despite this the headmaster was insistent that it was just a minor behavioral issue. There were only 5 students at the academy and 4 of us decided to go to Siping to avoid decapitations until the "management" made a satisfactory decision. We ended up spending two days in Siping during which we had received news that the student had been expelled and was currently packing up his things. We got back to the academy by Thursday afternoon and the crazy had left.
Dinner in Siping Tuesday night, notice the half eaten apple in the center of the photo (right)
Some tea house furniture, this table is actually a single piece wood from a very thick tree
solid wood Buddha table (left), a really cold day in Siping (right)
Some noodles at the newly opened and discovered love noodles restaurant
Friday morning was extremely cold, about -18 Celsius and it was snowing heavily, during afternoon training we had to do lots of snow shoveling. We also got a new student that afternoon, a girl from Holland staying for 1 month (possibly the worst month to come here).
After the shoveling we had a bit of a snow fight
The weekend was freezing and temperatures ranged from -15 to -26 Celsius with 30km/h winds, all I can say that it is extremely unpleasant and with the windchill factor it felt more like -40 Celsius.
An interesting windchill chart from Wikipedia
On Sunday we got a bit bored and decided to blow up and old toy car.
This coming week will be my last full week of training so I will be making the best of it.
Monday morning I woke up feeling recovered and enthusiastic and we were also blessed with higher temperatures.
sunrise at 6:15am
Our morning session consisted of the normal warm up and then practicing kicks for about 1:30 hours (various kick types for 30 seconds each leg) after which my legs felt like jelly.
By the afternoon the sun was shining and the weather was pretty good, we practiced with some sparring. In the evening we spent the hour kicking and punching the bags some more.
The main highlight on Tuesday was that we got a new student. A guy from Denmark (22), staying for 3 months. He has never done martial arts before so he might be joining San Da but he isn't sure yet.
Below a video of the kids shaolin shifu doing a back flip:
On Wednesday I felt like I had more energy than usual which meant that the training would be more intensive. At 8:00am we went for a fast pace 4km warm up run.
frost on all the corn and lakes partially frozen
warm-up run back to the academy
After we got back we had to do 5 200m sprints and right after each sprint we had to do one of the following: 30 jumping squats, 20 jumping push ups, or 40 push ups, we only had a minute rest between each set. After the sprints we had to do 6 sets of 40 leg raises, 5 sets of 30 back raises, it doesn't sound like much but the intensity was high and we felt broken. In the afternoon we practiced punching and kicking for 2 hours with the hand pads to improve reflexes and accuracy. In the evening we did weights, I also noticed that my knuckles swollen even though I had been wearing gloves.
Thursday started the same as Wednesday, same warm up etc and we spent most of the morning improving punching speed. Lunch was slightly more exciting than usual, we had noodles which were a great change, because food during the week hadn't been too exciting. In the afternoon we went for a walk. Lately there have been quite a few fighter planes in the sky but they are extremely high so I don't have any good photos, but I've checked online the aircraft is a Chinese Chengdu Jian 10 which is a tactical fighter, quite surprising to seem them out here in the middle of nowhere.
(left) 4 planes flying in formation, (right) a close up of the same fighter [not my photo]
We also discovered that a ski resort is being built behind the academy and the farmers are burning the harvested corn plants before the snow falls.
the main sky slope behind the academy
corn plants being burnt
Some of the kids have been getting colds, so the doctor comes around to the academy everyday and gives them glucose and sodium chloride drips, some kids are even on 3 different drips for up to 3 days. Never seen the use of drips for a basic cold but it seems to work without the use of any conventional medicine.
Friday morning we had pretty good weather about 12 degrees and only a slight wind. We usually go for a 9km run but we decided to run to Yehe post office and back which is about 17km. I must say that I find running long distances has a lot more to do with the mind and mental focus than fitness. For example if you have never run 10km before you will think its tired some and maybe difficult to keep going (even if you are fit enough), but once you have run 20km (even with the same fitness) you will think 10km is easy because you tell yourself "that's nothing I've done twice that before" and its the same with pretty much anything in life. Anyway after the hard week of training our bodies were pretty tired but despite that we did the run in about 1hr 40mins including stops to take photos. In the afternoon we just did some weights.
Dan before the run, corn cobs waiting to be collected
rice being harvested, some houses on the way to Yehe
Beginning of Yehe, a guy crushing blocks of coal into smaller pieces
some village houses on the way back to the academy
3 white baby calves, Dan in front of the red sign
at the end of the run
our shifu training kids some San Da in the afternoon
We decided to go to Siping this weekend to buy a train ticket for Daniel to get to Beijing. When we got to Siping we were told you can only buy tickets 5 days before if it isn't a holiday season. After doing some shopping we decided to go to the Buffet to have some different food and add back the lost calories from Fridays run. I think I had about 5 plates of food, including 1 plate filled with cake and fruit.
my dessert
After we were done with our lunch we headed to the taxis to get back to the academy.
baby ducklings on a stick, fetus eggs with shell removed on a stick
you can buy a duck stick in every stage of growth (pre embryo, embryo, pre hatched embryo and hatched duckling)
some dogs for sale
I've also got two short clips to illustrate the noise pollution.
This morning my knee was feeling better so I had a fast run to the bridge and back, no pain even whilst sprinting up the driveway to the academy gate. Shortly after the run I was barely able to walk, my leg had frozen up and the knee was extremely painful, I had obviously pulled or mildy torn a tendon. We got a new student, John from England staying a month. At 8:00 my shifu told me to go to my room and rest, I guess he could see the pain on my facial expression. In the afternoon I just did some basic punches and weights, I'm so annoyed by the fact that I haven't been able to train with 100% intensity for about 2 weeks now.
Tuesday, the pain is still ever present even after applying pressure with knee supports etc, I wish I had some pain killers, I never take any but this really hurts. Just lying in bed all morning is really boring.
The only thing that made things better was a call from my parents telling me they would be coming to China to visit Dan and I. I didn't train on wednesday and thursday and after speaking to the parents it was decided that Dan and I should fly down to Shanghai and travel with them to Beijing and then the academy, that way we could spend some more time together.
Both San Da shifus and us
On friday we booked our flight to Shanghai, the choices were either to fly from Changchun or try something new and fly from Shenyang. We opted for the Shenyang choice because the distance by train was almost the same as going to Changchun also the flights from Shenyang were cheaper and shorter. The flight booking wasn't as easy as expected, it was the first time I had used ctrip and they wanted a copy of the credit card and a copy of their faxback credit card form sent to them to confirm the booking. Only problem is that the academy has no printer I could use and no fax service. In the end i wrote out the form by hand took a photo of it and the credit card and emailed it which worked out fine. After I was done with that I headed off to Siping to get the train tickets to Shenyang for monday morning.
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.
