And Then I Almost Killed Lianna (that title is completely literal!)

(Mark)

Today we woke up and got down to our second kung fu class by nine. The dojo that we practiced in was pretty nice, it’s spacious and the floor is completely padded, which was especially useful for today. There’s a rack of weapons on one wall, ranging from cheap training swords to pretty nice looking halberds and spears. Also some spiked maces and weird chain weapons, which I didn’t expect to see here. One corner is filled with a bunch of sparring gear, as well as a large punching bag that I totally almost broke my foot on. The opposite corner has kicking pads and a bunch of weight lifting stuff. It’s pretty cool.

Warm-ups included jogging, suicides, grapevines, the usual. And then some weird kicking things, jumps, the unusual. After about an hour and a half of warm-ups and calisthenics, we took a ten minute break, which is when I tried out the punching bag. After that, he tried to teach us how to do a flip. A lot for a beginner, right? Basically the idea is that if you can do a small cartwheel really quickly, then it should be pretty easy to just take your hands out of the picture (small meaning your feet land pretty close to the starting point). For me and Alex, this sounded like a lot of fun. Allison and Lianna, however, who have apparently never done a cartwheel in their lives, were not as excited. We worked on this for about an hour, at the end of which I was able to do a quick, small, one-handed cartwheel about once in ten tries. I will certainly keep practicing though… doing a flip would be awesome. We then spent the rest of the time going over the series we learned yesterday, perfecting it and speeding it up. 

I don’t know if Allison talked about the little girl in the dojo, so I will. Basically, there’s a six-year old girl who’s constantly in the dojo; we’re not sure if she’s a student or if one of the instructors or staff or somebody is her father, but in her Shaolin jacket, she is the CUTEST thing ever. I bring her up because we noticed while going through our series, she was off to the side of the room learning the same thing. She was much better at some parts, probably because she still has the flexibility that comes with youth. Also she’s small enough that she didn’t have to bend down very far to be close to the floor.

After the first class, we headed to lunch in the “hotel” dining hall. It actually was quite good, despite some of the warnings we’d gotten from George. Unless we puke our guts out again in a few hours, knock on wood. After lunch, we basically just lay in bed for an hour, as we were too sore to do anything else. When we returned to the dojo for our third and final class, we were one down, as Allison opted out of it. This class started a little more easily than the previous ones—no running, just stretching and a few calisthenics and such. Then we did a bunch of random/weird things, including front rolls, back rolls, and the move where you start lying on your bag, flail your legs and push yourself up and end up on your feet. The only problem with most of this stuff? I couldn’t do it because my legs don’t bend. For this reason, Shaolin overall was kind of a bust for me. For those of you who don’t know, my legs were congenitally dislocated, and I now can’t bend them all the way. Chinese kung fu is heavily based on your leg bending—for one thing, all of the stances he showed us involved bending at least one leg. I thus couldn’t fully do most of the stretches and moves he showed us, but I just did my own version, and was able to complete the series anyway. It was still great to be here and to see everything, and to partially experience lessons, but it would have been much better if I could do it.

After the break, we did a very small amount of pad work, including some punches and kicks, but I think only because the instructor saw us playing around with the pad. Then class started for real, and all hell broke loose. It consisted mostly of strength training stuff (not with weights, thank Buddha). It was stuff like repeatedly jumping over a bench, doing a lap around the room carrying a partner, and doing a lot of push ups and curl ups as FAST AS WE COULD. It was incredibly tiring, though I realized that everything we did would have been EASY back when I was rock-climbing. Guess you were right parents, I need to work out more. When we finished, Alex said that he felt more sore than he did at any point during his three months of uber football training or something, back in freshman year when he was even less fit than he is now. 

After class, we headed out to the Shaolin sword factory. With four decorative swords, and a bunch of other Shaolin memorabilia in hand (including the red jackets that all 28,000 students have!), we headed out to dinner, which was nothing special. Obviously the swords didn’t come to dinner with us, thank you Lianna. Afterwards, we came back to the hotel to relax and repack our bags. We have another flight tomorrow, because the silly government stole our train tickets (according to Richard).

And then I almost killed Lianna.

Basically she was just drinking water, and apparently I made her laugh. It took me a few seconds to realize she was doing MORE than laughing—specifically, wheezing and spitting up water. When she was suddenly unable to make any noise at all, I figured it was time to run for help. By the time we got to Allison’s room, however, she was wheezing again, and from there she just got better. In retrospect, she probably wasn’t really in that much danger, it was just terrifying in the moment. And Alex was on the toilet the whole time, which just adds a little humor. His version of the story is much better. DeBors, don’t worry (and anyone else, I guess), she’s COMPLETELY fine now. So now I’m lying in bed writing this. I should probably go to bed, seeing as how we have to wake up at 5 AM tomorrow. EW.

P.S. I forgot to mention that I had a lot of coke and fries at dinner, to make up for the fact that I’ve lost about 12 pounds on this trip. Steve, I bet I’m lighter than you now! 

Shaolin Temple (Look Out Jet Li)

(Allison)

We are currently somewhere outside of the city of Luoyang..at the Shaolin Temple Scenic Zone. The Shaolin Temple is the birthplace of Zen Buddhism, and a very specialized form of kung fu. A Buddhist monk named Bodhiharma (Damo) traveled from India to China. He walked across the country for three years and finally settled in a mountain outside of Luoyang (the future site of the Shaolin Temple). He lived in a cave for nine years. While living in the cave, Damo drank only water and ate vegetation available to him on the mountain. In the cave he meditated, and observed the actions and movements of the animals –which led him to develop kung fu.  Eventually he traveled down the mountain, settling at the site of the current Shaolin Temple. He became the father Zen (Chan –Chinese Word) Buddhism, a form of Buddhism with a major emphasis on meditation. The kung fu that was developed, through Damo’s teachings, is a combination of Buddhist meditation and martial arts.  The movements are brief but strong and it is only used in self defense.

Next to the Shaolin temple, there is a martial arts school, the Shaolin Monastery Wushu Institute. Their student population is huge – 18,000 --they all wear red jackets and black pants. We are staying in one of their dorms…which is kind of run down and dingy..and there is no hot water in the morning, but everyone is very nice and helpful. 

Mark and Alex are in heaven here. They have been obsessed with buying swords since we entered the country…

George,  our new tour guide, is quite a character, he a little older than most of our guides have been, and he kind of looks like a cowboy to me… he wears pointing leather boots, and he has a big buckle belt…He met us in the lobby and we headed towards the temple.  Before we reached the temple, we stopped to attend a martial arts performance.

The performance was very impressive….the performers were all students from the school, ranging in age- decked out in their gi’s ( kung fu garb)  Two of the highlights included – one student throwing a large metal needle through a pane of glass, in order to pop a balloon, another student split a piece of steel over his head.

Lunch time – we walked to a restaurant that was attached to the temple.. vegetarian of course! Yummy noodles, and pieces of “chicken” made out of tofu…

Next – the renowned Shaolin temple. At this point in the trip, we have been to quite a few temples…as you know -if you have been reading… The Shaolin temple looked very similar to most of the other temples that we have seen…( I still think it is kind of weird that we get to walk around and take pictures in Buddhism’s most sacred places of worship) - but the history of the Shaolin temple is unique --considering the popularity of Zen Buddhism, and the cultural phenomenon of kung fu. 

The temple was built in 495 CE – but most of it was burnt down during various uprisings over time. Most of the structures are reconstructions, except for the two buildings that are the farthest back. These two buildings have beautiful - and very old- frescoes covering the walls. One of the frescoes depicts the monks of the temple using kung fu to defend themselves from invaders. 

 Back to the dorm to rest, and get ready for our kung fu instruction. Ok..so I have never taken any type of martial arts classes and I was a bit wary of the experience, but to my pleasant surprise, it was actually quite enjoyable, and very challenging.

Our lessons took place in a small gym area within the dorm. George introduced us to our instructor – Mr. Hu. He had us warm up by running , and then engage in some serious stretching.. We learned very quickly that kung fu requires a large amount of flexibility. We then did some calisthenics, -- running back and forth…including jumping, high kicks and spinning in the air.  Then Mr. Hu began teaching us the basic stances of kung fu….including “ma bo” (sp?) or horse stance…which involved sitting in a squat for a long period of time). Then he began teaching us a very basic series, continual movements involving various stances, punches kicks and other arm formations --  kung fu actually kind of reminds me  a little bit of yoga..  it took us a very long time to master the series - but it was fun… Mr. Hu was very kind and patient with all of us. Finally, he said that if we could get through the series – individually, on our own, we could end class. We did it!

After class we were exhausted, but somehow managed to get in the van to go to dinner, get back to the dorm, shower and go to bed….

 

Another Traveling day…

 

 (Mark)

First of all, let it be known that there was a mistake in the blog; I wrote the entry on the Terra-Cotta Warriors, not Lianna. As such, it was I that made the mistake in the entry: it was Chiang Kai Shek who was kidnapped at the hot springs, not Sun Yat Sen. Also, I think I spelled “Shelob” wrong in my Stone Forest entry. Sorry LOTR fans! I’m just full of mistakes!

So anyway, today we had a slightly early start, as we had to check out of the hotel at 8:45. Ew. At around 9, Obama LAMA said goodbye to Richard, who refused to accept our tips, which instead became donations to Peng Liu. We got into our private van, which was surprisingly spacious, and set out for our 5 hour drive to Luoyang. The drive itself was rather uninteresting, though thankfully quite smooth. We stopped about two hours in for a brief rest, and to check out the Yellow River.

The Yellow River gets its name from its color: a deep, muddy brown. So why not the “Brown River?” I don’t know. Anyway, it is brown mainly because of pollution and dirt from upstream. Essentially, China has three “levels.” Tibet, in the west, is the highest of the three. The Yellow River flows from the second level, snaking through many different provinces. Prior to the 12^th century, all of the capitals of China were located in or near the gorge around the Yellow River. I’m not completely sure why, because George, our new guide, told us that the river is impossible to navigate, as it’s so difficult to tell the depth of the water at any given point. Even today, most boats don’t risk it. Maybe they did before the 12^th century? Maybe back then it was deeper, allowing it to actually be useful for trade. As we drove away from the area, we passed by some large hills, which George informed us were completely dirt—no rock. In the spring, the wind blows dirt off of these hills, making the air very dusty, and adding to the color of the river.

After another three hours of driving, we finally reached Luoyang and the Longmen Grottoes. The Grottoes are basically a series of caves and niches, carved into the mountainside, featuring thousands upon thousands of Buddhas. Dating back to about 1,500 years ago, many of the limestone carvings have fallen apart (generally first the head goes), or else have been stolen or bought by museums. A relatively new pathway allowed us to walk up right next to many of the caves, including the Thousand-Buddha cave and the Fifteen-Thousand-Buddha cave, each boasting its respective number of Buddha carvings. In the Grottoes, the carvings range from a mere 2 centimeters to 70 meters tall. The tallest one is one of the highest in the mountain, in its own little clearing with a few other large carvings around it. Originally, to get up to it, one had to follow a long, snaking, and often-steep path of the hillside, but stairs have now been constructed for easy access. There was a relatively large cave in the way of the stairs, however, so they just went ahead and built the stairs around it, such that it juts out halfway up. It was really cool being there, we didn’t see any other westerners the whole time. George told us that very few Americans ever come to the Grottoes, and only a small number of Europeans. No world leaders have ever visited the Grottoes during any visits to China, and even Mao never came.

After the Grottoes, we headed into the city to a nice hotel for dinner, though we had to sit around and wait an hour for the dining room to be open. We ate in a buffet-style revolving restaurant on the 25^th floor of the hotel, which was pretty good. The food all looked and smelled delicious, but it certainly wasn’t the best tasting dinner we’ve had all trip. After dinner we piled back into the van for another hour-long ride to the Shaolin Temple. Our first impressions are relatively good—the “hotel” is just a section of the student dorms reserved for visitors. Each room only has two power outlets, and no internet, but I think we’ll all survive… Alex included. We’re just happy that we DO have private bathrooms, even if they’re not the cleanest we’ve seen all trip (Viz, you’ve totally been spoiling us in some of these hotels). As for me, I’m just hoping that the martial arts will be enough to take my mind off of the living conditions… looking forward to it!

Paintings, Walls, and Paradise

 (Alex)

For our fourth day in Xi’an, Richard decided to take us outside the city to visit one of the local towns and allow us to sample some of local culture. After about an hour’s drive, we came to a town that Richard described as “very prosperous and well-developed”. The town appeared to be more of a gated community than anything else, with a shoulder high wall surrounding the entire village and with one very grouchy gate-keeper. After our driver Mr. Liu and the gate-keeper argued for a little while as to how we would negotiate the car through a gate which looked only large enough to accommodate mo-peds, we decided it would just be easier to walk through the village rather than drive. We set off into this “prosperous town”, a term we discovered to be rather relative. Although the town was, by all accounts, far more developed than the towns we had driven through in Yangshuo, the only really indicator of prosperity was the relatively large and well made houses. The streets were, for the most part, deserted, with only remnants of the past nights New Year’s celebrations indicating that people lived here. After about 15 minutes walk, the real object of our visit came walking toward us. Xiao Ling, one of the preeminent cultural artists of China and winner of multiple prizes for artistic achievement around the world, had been contacted by Richard and had graciously allowed us to visit her home and studio. Entering her house Richard exclaimed in English “Her house is bigger than mine!” which gave us some impression of how well off she was. Her studio upstairs was covered from ceiling to floor with magnificent cultural paintings; very reminiscent of some of the German cultural illustrations I had seen in my childhood with a decidedly more Asian flair. It was quite an experience witnessing the works of a lifetime of an artist who had singlehandedly elevated her town out of poverty, and some of us even bought a few of her more reasonably priced works. After a good hour of just viewing her vast collection and asking her more about her experiences, we said goodbye to Xiao Ling, thanking her profusely for such an enormous honor, and headed back into the city for lunch. Most of the food was, as usual, great. However, one dish Richard ordered, “Mao’s Pork” was hands down the most delicious dish I have had in China. Those of you who know how much I love the food here will appreciate the extremity of this statement. With the delectable still Mao’s Pork sitting in my stomach, Richard took us to the old city wall of Xi’an where we learned a little more about the intricacies of ancient defenses of the city, and, of course, were able to bike the entire 26 km length. Mark and Richard stayed behind to sit and talk, while Allison, Li and I all took off at different paces around the wall. I took off ahead of the pack and pretty much stayed there the entire time, but I did meet a friend, “Fling”, a 14-year old boy from a village outside Xi’an who was also riding the wall for the first time. We talked and biked for a while, practicing our respective languages on each-other (he was far better at English than I at Chinese…) The panoramic of the city that unfolded before our eyes was truly spectacular, and extremely therapeutic. It was a beautiful day for a bike ride and I welcomed the opportunity to finally stretch my legs after what felt like weeks of driving and trudging. As luck would have it, Li and Allison had also made friends, the traveling companions of Fling. After finishing our bike ride, we said our goodbyes to our new friends and headed on to what Viz had described in the itinerary as “A Tang Dynasty Theme Park”. Needless to say we were all curious and a little hesitant. As it turned out, “Tang Paradise” was more of a Plymouth Plantation, only on a far more epic scale. We entered the walls of the recreated Tang Empire and were greeted with all the sights and sounds of an ancient, extravagant civilization. This place was enormous, dotted with many buildings devoted to many aspects of the Tang culture. My favorite was a stone carving façade devoted to many of the most famous of Tang poets. However, full appreciation of the park seemed lacking due to both to Mark still feeling a little bit under the weather, and that we could only appreciate so much of the history without speaking the native language or having learned more about its intricate culture. But we all agreed that today was a great day. Right now the fireworks are blowing up all around like a warzone (it’s the last night of New Year’s, and the Chinese are trying to get rid of all their explosives). I’ll take a video and hopefully post it soon. Will blog again soon!

The Legend of Richard

(Allison)

We are in Xi’an – a history teacher’s dream! It is a bustling large modern city, but at the same time incredibly rich in history dating back to ancient times. Richard – the legend…is our tour guide. Richard is a wonderful man..he is the travel agent who is in charge of the travel portion of our trip. We have the honor of having him as our local guide during our five day stay in Xi’an.

Unfortunately, Mark became ill last evening and was not able to join us for the day. Richard met us in the lobby of our hotel - which is in an excellent location – it is in the center of the city – inside of the fortifying walls built by the Ming dynasty – that have been maintained and destroyed and are complete today.   It is in the midst of the historic drum and bell towers, high end shopping malls, several restaurants, and the Muslim section of the city.  

Our first stop was to go shopping for the students of the school in Pangliu School (Richard grew up in Pangliu Village, a village outside of Xi’an, and still has very strong ties to the village – especially the school). Richard, Alex, Lianna and I went to a large sporting goods store, it was going under some renovations…and the sound of a large drill made it a little difficult to communicate, but we survived. Richard helped us pick out a bunch of things for the children – jump ropes, Chinese checkers, a soccer ball, ping pong balls, and few other items. We will bring the items when we visit Pangliu on Tuesday.

We then traveled to the Shaanxi History Museum (Shaanxi is the province that Xi’an is located in). Richard told us it is one of the three best museums in China. He also told us that Xi’an was formerly known as Chang’an, which means “perpetual peace” in Chinese. Xi’an has been the sight of the capital of 13 different dynasties of China including the ancient dynasties of  Western Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui, Tang dynasties --as well as the later –  Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing.

Richard is incredibly knowledgeable on the history of China. Although museums are not their favorite places to go, Alex and Lianna were really good sports as Richard and I moved very slowly from exhibit to exhibit. The history museum has an incredible collection of over 3,000 pieces of historical artifacts. Including several Neolithic tools, bronzes from the Zhou period, terra cotta soldiers of the Qin, pottery and currency of the Han,  a detailed exhibit on the Silk Road (began during the Han dynasty - Chang’an was the start and end of the Silk Road in the east), tricolored pottery and silk of the Tang, and stunning celadon pottery of the Song dynasty.

For lunch, Richard selected a local noodle restaurant! Northern China is famous for their noodles and dumplings (we had dumplings for dinner last night). Alex saw Chinese meatballs on the menu and had to have them – good thing because they were so good! We sampled two different types of noodles – first, a thick noodle with a very tasty sweet sauce - second, a thinner noodle in a beef based broth=delicious, once again.

Second museum = The Xian Beilin Museum, also known as The Forest of Steles in Xi’an – it is the oldest museum in China. It was initially founded in the year 1087 CE - inside of a very old Confucius temple. It is the home of China’s largest collection of stone steles.  The steles include inscriptions of classic Chinese literature, historical events, and other important pieces of information engraved in Chinese calligraphy. The stones are massive and very impressive. Several of them are supported by large stone tortoises (Richard explained that it is because tortoises symbolize longevity and they can carry a large load) One of the stone slabs describes Nestorian Christianity arriving in China around 635 CE, a reproduction was made and stands in the Vatican. The museum also includes some beautiful tomb stones, large statues excavated from ancient tombs, and a grand collection of decorative horse hitching stakes.  After spending a considerable amount of time in the second museum of the day - we were slightly museumed out – but rallied to visit one more site – The Great Mosque of Xi’an – the largest and oldest mosque in China.

The Hui people are the largest group of minorities in China. They speak mandarin Chinese, but they practice the religion of Islam. The mosque was built in 742 CE --during the Tang Dynasty. It was built in the style of traditional Chinese architecture—so at first – you feel that you are simply in another Buddhist or Taoist temple - but when you look closely - you can see Arabic writing and art engraved into the walls.  On the way out - several of the Hui people were congregating in the temple for their mid-afternoon call to prayer.  We walked through the Muslim bazaar – and the shop keepers were yelling out at us “hello” and “just looking”.  We walked back to the hotel to check on Mark…he was feeling better but decided not to join us for dinner.

Dinner plans – a Muslim dinner! I did not know what to expect – but – as usual it was amazing. Once again Richard, Alex, Lianna and I headed out from the hotel and walked back to the Muslim section of the city and entered the restaurant. Richard took us up the counter and had us select some appetizers – we selected persimmon cakes, spring rolls, sliced cucumbers, and sliced lotus root. When we got back to the table there were four bowls with these flat round pieces of semi-cooked bread. Richard told us that we had to work for our dinner- and then instructed us to tear up the bread into very small pieces. We went to work…Once we were done the waitresses took the bowls away and we worked on the appetizers.

Eventually, the bowls came back and the torn up bread had transformed into an amazing lamb stew (I had never eaten lamb before our wonderful hot pot dinner the other night – now I have eaten it twice in one week). The stew was so delicious…and we were so full!  Ignoring our fullness and despite my mixed emotions of western food establishments invading the rest of the world.... Alex, Lianna and I were seriously wooed by the Haagan – Daz (with a Starbucks next door) located directly below the Muslim restaurant.  We gave in - the Haagan-Daz was actually more like a restaurant (with decadent ice cream creations on the menu) , but we opted for “take away”.  Alex ordered two scoops – and they put them in two different cups…it was funny. Lianna and I decided that we did want to sit down and enjoy the ice cream – Alex headed back to the hotel…

After we finished Lianna and I strolled back to the hotel – and we were fascinated by a women who was carrying a tiny puppy in a box. There were several rick-shaw drivers standing along the road – they repeatedly called out “hello – need ride?”. We declined. I convinced Lianna to walk to the fantastic pharmacy I had discovered when I went exploring last night…we made some purchases and then strolled, once again back to the hotel.   

Over 8,000

(Mark)

Blargh I am sick again.

So today was our first full day in Xi’an, home of the Terra-Cotta Warriors. Before seeing any of that fun stuff, however, we had to have breakfast. Normally I wouldn’t comment on that, but the restaurant in this hotel is AMAZING. It has two sections… I think one is for dinner and one is for breakfast. The breakfast one is a little less cool, but it still had armchairs at some of the tables, which were really comfortable. But the dinner section… it was HUGE. It’s a three-story room, decorated with giant Chinese luck knots and fake palm trees. There’s a very small moat going around the room, which is full of goldfish. It was all very cool.

ANYWAY, after breakfast, we headed out to the Terra-Cotta factory type thing, AKA the place where they now make Terra-Cotta replicas. Basically, they just showed us how the Terra-Cotta warriors were made (which is largely how they’re still made today). They pretty much just take clay, put them in warrior-shaped molds, carve out the details, and fire them. As we walked around the building, we couldn’t help noticing the shelves upon shelves of mini Terra-Cotta warriors all lined up, which made it look like they’re actually mass produced. They’re not, however, each one is made by hand, which is pretty cool. After seeing that, we headed to the actual Terra-Cotta Museum, where the actual warriors are. For those who don’t know anything about them, you should look them up because I don’t remember everything—there’s been SO much going on here that it’s getting hard to remember the details, and I forgot to take notes. I do remember that they were built for the tomb of the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, but that he died before the project was completed. They’re something like 2 to 3 thousand years old, and they were destroyed by a Qin-opposing army, but many of them have been restored, and some even still have color.  It is estimated that there were originally over 8,000 soldiers initially buried, but many of them still lie shattered on the ground. It was quite amazing to actually see something in PERSON that I once thought I’d only ever see pictures of. Yeah, it was cool.

After the Terra-Cotta Warriors, we headed to a hot spring, made famous for the love tragedy during the Tang Dynasty (or maybe Song, sorry guys!), as well as the kidnapping of Chiang Kai Shek. The spring was pretty cool, it was basically split up into the old and the new, but everything was the traditional Chinese style that you always see in pictures and such. The water was 40 degrees Celsius or so, making it VERY enticing as a nice hot tub, but we opted out of taking a bath.

We then went to get foot massages, which were very…. Interesting. The girls weren’t expecting male masseuses, so they found that very awkward. Alex and I just found it very awkward to have women rubbing our feet… it was very strange. It also kind of hurt. The last adjective I would use to describe it would be “relaxing.” At one point, they sat behind us, and pulled us back so that we were lying on them… Our heads DEFINITELY were resting in places they shouldn’t have been…

So after that we had our dumpling dinner, which was sub par, although I’m a little biased, as I think it was what provoked my illness. They had a bunch of different interesting dumplings, but I really can’t think about that right now ‘cause I might throw up again. Sorry!

Well, that was kind of a lame blog entry. Oh well, I’ll do better next time, I promise!