Adventure in Shaolin - Time to go home

Amituofo!

Final episode of my story:

Shaolin time is over, time to go home. The last Sunday in China has arrived. Today I fly back, but not without a struggle :)
I checked the internet if there were any delays on my flight, but it all seemed OK.

So I decided to go back to ZhengZhou airport by bus instead of taxi. That would leave me roughly 3 hours of checkin time. More then enough.
The guys from the Shaolin Temple Traditional Wu Shu institute dropped me off at the bus station where I got on the bus to Zhengzhou. Quiet a comfortable bus for this 2.5hour trip I have to say.

 

The bus ride was pretty smooth and dropped me right of at the departure terminal of ZhengZhou airport. There the trouble started. I entered the terminal, and went for the nearest message board with flight info. It said that my flight to Shanghai was CANCELLED. Now what...., I went to the China Southern Airlines information desk and got in line at the desk. After a while I manage to block enough Chinese people who were all cutting in line and I managed to speak to the guy at the desk (in China you don't really have a line, you force yourself forward and shout as much as you can to get attention.... also one of those impolite habits).
He told me my flight was cancelled.... oh really.... I asked him: Yes I know, and now what?
He explained that there was a flight from earlier that day which got delayed by more then 8 hours. I might be able to get on that flight but I had to come back in 2 hours.

So I went for some diner. Strangely enough at this moment I was not feeling any stress at all, as if I am completely in Zen mode... Diner was a struggle on itself since in the restaurant you needed to pay with WeChat-Pay, which of course I do not have installed. After some searching I found that you could also buy a prepaid card to pay and with some struggle and a lot of sign language I managed to get a prepaid card with 17 kuai Juan on it, enough for a nice huge bowl of beef noodles (Best noodles I ate in china :) ). I finished my meal and relaxed or a while and then went back to the CS desk.
The guy who told me to come back didn't remember me, but I told him that he told me to come back and he would try to book me on that delayed flight, and I showed him the flight number that he wrote on a card for me. He was doing some very stressed out typing and then said: OK, follow me...
And he took me to the 'priority checkin' lane where I received a boarding pass. YES, I was now on my way to Shanghai. The flight however was delayed so far, that I only had one hour of transfer time left in Shanghai. Anyway... I went through security checks and proceeded to the gates. At the gate I took a seat and started waiting for the latest boarding information. This is where I met Sophia, a Chinese student who running up and down the lane at the gate very nervously. She asked me which flight I was on and she was on the same flight, so she was at the right gate. A bit strange, but once she found out she was at the right gate, she left again. She came back half an hour later, checking if I was still there, and left again. This happened a couple of times. The third time I decided to start a talk with her. She was going to Oakland (or Auckland, could also be I realized afterwards) for studies. She studied business (marketing and communication kind of thing). We spend half an hour talking about University and what I have been doing in China. She told me the average Chinese girl don't like Wu Shu so much, they like shopping more.... (Sounds like a Western girl to me...).
Anyhow, after a while she left again. I had to go to another gate, since the gates had changed and after a long while waiting there we could board. And there was Sophia again. We again talked for a bit, and told me she most likely missed her flight to Oakland. I still had 30 minutes transfer time on my flight so it was getting very tight.
After boarding we spend quite a while waiting in the plane before we could take of. But finally we did.

The flight was pretty ok. And after a couple of hours we landed somewhere on the outskirts of Shanghai airport. We were transported by bus to the arrivals terminal, during the ride I noticed Sophia again and chatted a bit to kill some time, by the time we got at the terminal I had 10 minutes left or transfer, and I still needed to wait for my luggage. So I missed my flight to Amsterdam.

When I picked up my luggage I went to the transfer hall, where I explained that I missed my flight. The China Southern employee made some calls and told me to take a seat and come back in 30 minutes. After sitting down for 5 minutes however, a guy came by and shouted: "OK everyone going to the hotel follow me", I stayed seated, cause I had to wait on direction of the CS employee. The guy however came to me and said:" Aren't you going to the hotel? We are closing down here."
Ok,wtf?!? He explained me that KLM staff had gone home, and would return tomorrow at 8.30h. I needed to return here at 8.30h and they would then book me on a new flight.
Ok, so I went with the guy on my way to the hotel. He took us outside the terminal to a bus stop and there he disappeared. Another guy started shouting at me in Chinenglish, but I couldn't understand him... After 3 attempts he got frustrated and said: "DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?!", My reply: "Yes I do, but I don't think you do".... sorry, I was getting cranky after 10 hours of travelling. He slowed down his shouting and I understood that the bus to the hotel was full and I had to ask the guy at the bus which other bus I should take. I went to the other guy and asked him, and got an answer in Chinese... great... this guy didn't speak English...
All of a sudden I here a familiar voice. It was Sophia again. She said: Follow me, (she spoke Chinese and English, that could be usefull :) ). And she took me to another bus. We threw our suitcases in.
After 20 seconds Sophia said: 'hmmm, I think its the wrong bus'... lol ...
So I grabbed my bag out again and went back to the guy who guided me here... but he was gone.
Now I everyone was gone, I couldn't find any of the people I recognized anymore... So I decided to go back to the airport and sleep in the departures terminal. It would also be better for my relationship that I did not spend the night in a hotel with Sophia I guess...

When I got back to the terminal I found a bench to sleep on and tried to close my eyes. I had to wait for about 7 hours, so that was a longggg wait. At 6 in the morning I bought a sandwhich and coffee at starbucks (for 45 kuai yuan! My super nice noodle diner in ZhengZhou was 17 kuai!)
At 7.15h the first staff arrived at the KLM desk and I explained the problem. The guy first told me he could put me on standby for a flight later that evening. Or reserve a guaranteed flight for the next day.
I said: "I need to work tomorrow, so please put me on standby for any flight that takes me back to holland asap".
He looked some more in the computer, and said:"No need for standby, I have an AirFrance flight that transfers via Paris", yey.... I was very happy and said: "Yes, let's do that". Checkin started immediately and I half an hour later I was passed customs waiting at the gate.

This man even takes his Rice Cooker to Paris :)

Man what a chaotic airport this is (Shanghai main airport is one of the largest in the world! But 10 times more chaotic then Schiphol).
Example: the gate where I was waiting was the right gate, but the electronic sign at the gate did not show my flight to be leaving from there... and the 'generic' electronic information said that my flights gate has change, but it did not say to which gate.
After a long wait I could board, and even at the time of boarding the sign at the gate said another flight was boarding... crazy....

In the plain there were some problems again. A passenger count was needed, but try to do that when you have a plain filled with Chinese people that refuse to stay seated for more then 3 minutes... :)
Anyway, after a 45 minute delay we finally left. YES! On my way to Europe again. For some reason I am filled with a feeling of joy now...

Quite a nice plane this Airbus, I like it better then the 787 I had on way to China.

I really really enjoyed the meal in the plane. I never felled so good while eating a piece of cheese while enjoying a glass of red wine (I did choose the French meal, and not the Asian meal this time :) )

After a 13 hour flight we landed in Paris, and I rushed to my connecting flight. At Charles-De-Gaulle it really became clear that I was in a well organised Europe again. Everything went smooth here.
I arrived at the gate 5 minutes before boarding started. And the plane left spot on on time.
45 minutes later I landed in Amsterdam.

Beautiful view of Hollands coastline

After landing I picked up my luggage and asked the customs officer if I had to declare tea. I didn't, so I went out and finally gave Katja, my love of my life who was picking me up at the airport, a very big hug. And we went home.

With mixed feelings I look back at my time in China. I loved the training here and there were many beautiful moments.

I finally have seen Shaolin temple and a more quiet Buddhist temple with my own eyes. I've seen the difference between performance Shaolin Wu Shu and traditional Shaolin Wu Shu with my own eyes. I traveled through China on my own and had to do many things outside of my comfort zone, which made me grow as a person. And over all, looking back, it was a trip I would love to do again..

But there were also many low-lights in this adventure. I had quite some depressed moments due to my injuries, which put me in a negative mood, I suffered from homesickness on top of that, and I really got annoyed with some of the nasty habits that the people around here have.

What I did not share with you is that I also reflected a lot on my personal life, my relationship, my job, and how I am living my life. And I found out that I will have to change some things there as well cause I am not really happy in the way things are going now.

Anyhow....

Now I am back in the Netherlands for a couple of weeks already, and each time I write on this story I already want to go back there. So I guess I will try to do this kind of trip more often.

From personal experience I can now say: If you have a dream: Just go and do it, I promise you it will be worth it, even if its not exactly what you expected, it still will be something you would never want to have missed after you've done it!

Amituofo!

Adventure in Shaolin wk4

Amituofo!

Time for the last episode of my Shaolin adventure already.

This week I played tourist a little more then past weeks. 

Sunday, my resting day, I decided to finally visit the Fawang Buddhist temple. This temple is located in a Unesco nature park in the North of Deng Feng. When I arrived at the entrance of the park I had to pay 50 kuai yuan to enter.... Dutch as I am I decided to walk a bit and see if there was a entrance where I didn't have to pay, since I didn't came there for the 'tourist' attractions anyway... 

A couple hundred meters further down the road there was an entrance to the park where I could walk in without having to buy a ticket, so I walked in there. After a nice hike, 1,5 hours of walking, upstairs up the mountain, I ended up at an entrance for a Scenic route, where I again had to pay 50 kuai yuan.


1,5 hours of walking upstairs to get up the mountain... Seems easy but your buttocks start to hurt after an hour I can tell you.... and that on my resting day

There was a map at the entrance of the Scenic route, but it was not really clear, never the less I had the feeling I was not going to arrive at the Fawang temple if I would enter. So I decided to turn around. The moment I did so I so another sign which confirmed my suspicion it said 'Fawang temple to the right'. The other side of the sign, which I passed on my way to the scenic route entrance, had other info and did not say where the temple was however, that's why I missed it before... Chinese logic I guess. I continued on the way to Fawang temple. After again half an hour of walking on a nice mountain road with beautiful views over Deng Feng I took a right because some other steep mountain road got my attention for some reason. It appeared to go to a building I could see in the distance up the hill, also looked like some temple kind of thing... So I walked up that road.

There were some animals running free here... I had to make a selfie of them, cause each time I looked at them they would hide in the bushes, and as soon as I turned my back they came back out :) 

When I arrived at the end of the road the mysterious building was just some restaurant or something... no temple. I again turned around and continued my trip to Fawang temple.
After 2 more hours of walking I finally ended was there! 

But when I wanted to enter, some guy in a Unesco blouse wanted to see my ticked... With hand and feet I tried to explain him I had no ticket, but I would like to buy a ticket. Guess what... still 50 kuai Yuan. Apparently the entrance price was including a visit to the temple :( That's what you get for being cheap... ehhh Dutch... Anyway, I gave the man 50 kuai and I got a used ticked in return and I could enter the temple.

It was a beautiful temple. Almost no tourist there (except for myself of course). Really nice and quiet and lot's of birds living in the Temple. Really what I would expect from a peaceful Buddhist temple.

This temple also has Kung Fu students nowadays but unfortunately I didn't see them train.

 

 Pink pigeons on the roofs and in the temple.

The mandatory cliche Kung Fu picture at the temple main building :)

It was really a worthwhile day! And it was worth the 3.5 hour walk.

I decided to take a taxi back to Deng Feng. Since I walked more then enough that day. And then I found out that the Temple was located roughly 5km from the main entrance which I didn't enter cause I was being Dutch... :(, Well at least my legs got good training :)

In Deng Feng I went to the pizza place, and I realized that this would already be my last Deng Feng pizza :( 

Monday my last training week started. This week Tyson will not train us since holiday season started here and he had to train the kids. So we need to train our self this week.
Training started OK but it is going to be a though week. I started with my core/upper body workout like always, but as expected the increase in repeats was quite a challenge.
Later that day Sifu came by and I got a lot of very good tips from Sifu. He tells me a lot more about body dynamics then Tyson which makes it a lot easier to understand. He explained how to move my hips and body and how to generate force from that without using (upper body) muscle but purely on body dynamics. Biggest circle movements are in the Y-axis from the hips. Added to that is a small circle from the hips/SI joint which connects the feet/ground to the upper body. This movement is reinforced from the knee to give the Y-axis movement more range.

The rest of the day I practiced on this Gong Fa. 

On Tuesday I did the same, mainly practiced Gong Fa, and a little Taolu. Training the full day is OK now, but my body is really done after such a day... I do have energy but my body doesn't want to move anymore :). My left should started to ache as well now... My joints need to get used to the more explosive movement from the new techniques I learned.

Do you know that song: "Sleep, Train, Eat..... repeat....", That's my rhythm at the moment and I am really starting to like it...

BTW. Did I tell you we moved to a hotel? Because the holidays started and lot's of parents are dropping their kids for summer camp and stay a couple of days, we got upgraded and could stay in the hotel next to the school. It's lot more quiet in the night, and a lot less crowded with fly's.
But for some reason I liked the 'school' accommodation better. (Maybe because the boiler on my shower doesn't work.... and I have no fan in this room)


In the night I took a painkiller again since my hip started acting up. My shoulder started hurting a bit more and also my knee is swollen a bit. Some moist build up from 2 consecutive days of quite intense training. So today, Wednesday, I need to take it a bit easier again. I didn't do the 3x20 pushups in the core workout, stopped at 13, then my shoulder acted up. And I shortened the 2nd training block a bit. I did do my 'Dutch' Taolu at high speed/intensity, let's see how that works out... In the afternoon I tried to do Xiao Hong Quan and Qi Xing Jian fast, man that feels different after 2 weeks of training a lot of Gong Fa and basic parts from the form. Not bad at all.

Thursday I played tourist again. I finally am going to Shaolin Temple! The birthplace of Wushu!
I left early. Started walking at 6.30h, and jumped in the first taxi that stopped (yes if you walk next to the road a lot of cars will stop, some to say hello, some to take a picture of the Laowai and some offer you a ride). I arrived 7.15h so it was nice and quiet. Not to much tourism going on yet. I heard it could get sort of Disneylandish here in terms of tourists... So I hope I came early enough to be ahead of that. When you watch the pictures down here you see that I was ahead of most tourists... :) 

 

Shaolin entrance

 

One of many buildings and training grounds of the Tagou  (One of the biggest Martial Arts school in China, Housing more then 30000 students!)

Shaolin theater, where Wu Shu demo shows are held nowadays.

Luckily there where no tourist yet.
So I could continue my way to the Temple without to many pictures being taken from me...

When I arrived at the temple there was a school making a movie in front of the Temple. It was a lousy school with a low level of skill unfortunately. And I could not make a cliche picture because of it.... 

I entered the Temple and immediately got disappointed a bit. There where market stances all over the place where you could buy 'healing potions, cremes' and other ' Chinese medicine' stuff. Not really what you expect from non-materialistic Buddhists.

More and more tourists started to come in now so I didn't take to much pictures, still got a couple of nice shots though... 

When I was on my way out of the temple I walked thru a door that was closed earlier. 

And all of a sudden I was standing in between a lot of Wu Shu students that were training here in the Temple. Students here in the temple are wearing the same shirts as students in the school where I am training. 

I wasn't supposed to be there but since I was wearing my Wu Shu outfit no one noticed me. Another Laowai who was training there greeted me, after watching for a minute or two I continued my way. 

Since I had spend only a couple of hours in/around the Temple I had almost a full day left. So I decided to do a nice hike and visit Damo Cave and Damo Statue al the way on the top of the hill. 

It is a huge hike with lot's of stairs, and I mean really a lot!

After a long climb I reached Damo's Cave... a monk was sleeping there at the entrance :) But she woke up to fast so I couldn't take a picture inside the cave... I went a little further up and went to Damo Statue.

 

I spend half an hour mediting and chilling here, reflecting a bit on my month in China, and then I went back down. When I was back I still had half a day left. So I visited Pagoda forest, the old burial grounds of the temple. In the past you could train here, but the many tourist almost destroyed the place so now it is fenced and you can only watch. 

 

I went for some lunch and then I decided to take another hike.


There was a mountain route where you could go up with a cable car, but I decided to walk that route since I had many hours to spend left. At the end of the route there was a path the a mountain temple.

I walked all the way to the top where the cable car ended. Took me 2 hours to walk up there and again, many many stairs.

Gotta love 'directives' and chinenglish translations.

 

 A small burial ground I passed on my way up the mountain

Stairs, Stairs, and some more stairs....

That's why I wanted to hike, and not take a cable car, beautiful little 'zelda' alike ponds hidden in the mountains!

And then I was at the top. Man my legs are sore at this moment after 2 hours of walking stairs (not counting the trip to Damo Cave in the morning!). At the top it was really busy with tourist who had taken the easy way up in the cable car. (See the difference in wetness of t-shirts in my picture with a chinese tourist...)

I could go further and walk to the mountain temple that lies 2 hours ahead, but I decided not to do that, since I had to walk back as well.

After taking some pictures of the beautiful cliffs here I ate something and resumed my hike back down the mountain. 

 

On my way down I needed to take some more pictures with Chinese tourists.

When I came back at the Temple it has gotten a lot busier, but still far from Disneylandish

I bought some ice cream and took a long rest after that immense hike.

Took me 4 hours of walking . I counted the stairs on my way down from the mountain, it where 1956 stairs. (+/- 50, not including the trip to Damo Cave earlier in the morning!).

Shaolin monks going to the Temple for a 'jian' demo

After my rest I decided it was time to go back 'home'.

On my way out of the temple premises I noticed the Tagou training grounds were now filled with students. So I took some time to watch them and take some pictures.
Although I like the surroundings here, the kind of wushu they learn here is really modern show wu shu. It's nothing like the Traditional Shaolin Wu Shu I am learning at the school. So I am glad I did go to the school, although this would also be a great experience and maybe a bit more 'shaolin' feeling.

 

This is where my Kung Fu buddy Sam will be training in a couple weeks from now I guess, since he is going to Tagou. 

I took a cab back to the school, went for diner there, did some Qi Gong and went to bed. Man what a long day... my legs are so sore...

Now the last 2 training days are starting! 

On Friday my hip feels OK, my shoulder hurts a little. My knee is OK again and my spirit is UP. So I will try to go 'all in' for these last 2 days. No evening training on Friday and Saturday so I can give it all during the rest of the day, since its only 6 hours of training. 

I trained modern and traditional Taolu (forms) and Gong Fa at full intensity for 2 full days,  and I finished these days without any problem even though I trained really hard.

My body has finally adjusted and appears to be used to the training, but unfortunately the time has come for me to go home!

More on my trip back in the final part of the story.

Amituofo!