Dengfeng A Rural Chinese Kung Fu TownAfter living in Dengfeng for 6 weeks, I thought Id do a photo blog to give you an idea what a rural Chinese kung fu town is like.

Dengfeng is a small town that sits in the Henan Province of China, with best proximity to the famous Shaolin Temple. Dengfeng is only accessible by bus or car from Zhengzhou, a large Chinese rail hub. Dengfeng and the surrounding villages are mainly rural and sit in somewhat of a basin amongst the Song Mountains, which can be seen in almost all directions.

Although Dengfeng itself has lots of different shops, the roads sprouting out from the town are lined with kung fu schools and shops. There must be close to 100 schools tucked in and around the area, from the grand theme-park looking ones to the most basic. I reckon theres probably a 1:1 relation between shops and schools too. You typically see several shops in a row all selling similar merchandise clothing, swords, staffs, pads and human looking punch bags.

You can tell the town isnt used to tourists. There are no English signs, most people will stare inquisitively at you as you walk down the road and the odd child might shout hello as they skip past. It tends to be the younger generation, having learned English at school, that I can communicate best with. Its only when youre in a town like this that you realise it has a more balanced demographic. Im used to the demographic of a City of London residential neighbourhood therefore skewed towards 20-40s and only a few babies and elderly. Here, you have more of a balance, with families being carted around on scooters and makeshift tractors which move close to jogging pace, in front of a cloud of noise and smoke.

Buses service the area with master bus drivers. I say masters, because theyre masters in fuel efficiency and dodging people/motorbikes. By fuel efficiency, they purposely cut out the engine when going down hill or coming to a stop. I cant complain about them though, because you rarely have to wait more than 5 mins for a bus and will take youfor a bargain price of 1 CNY (about 10p) per ride. By dodging skills, they share the road with lots of mopeds (some silent electric ones) and people scooting about their business.

Road rules are very different to what Im used to. Traffic lights are highly informative, telling cars how long they will be red or green. This gives rise to the common sight of either an oldperson diagonally running across a large junction clutching a small child in each arm or a Shepard herding animals in the same way.However, if youre green it seems like you have the ability to cut across stationary roads any which way you can. Whilst you think you have to look for cars coming from the middle of the junction a moped might be cutting right across, going up the road the wrong way in order to make a turn. It means furiously looking in every direction and crossing roads like the infamous game Frogger. Its typical to see cars and mopeds driving up the slip roads in the opposite direction. Having broken all the directional rules, they more than behave when it comes to speed and alertness. Cars are used to pedestrians and mopeds so tend to drive at a pace slow enough to trip you up rather than kill you and horn lots. When I say lots, I mean lots and lots. They horn when they about to move, when they overtake, when they want you to move. Their highway code is effectively mirror-horn-signal-horn-manoeuvre-horn.

In town, the pavement is used by everyone.Mechanics use it to sprawl out their work and fruit sellers to display their goods.

Children are left to roam and play on the pavement. I witnessed a child hitting something plastic with a stick, only to find that when it exploded, it was a cigarette lighter and he learnt a lesson in combustion. Luckily, aside from a few surprise-inflicted tears, the child was fine.The elderly sit, talk, play Chinese chequers and otherwise relax.

Its taken me a while to realise where the restaurants are here. Restaurants come in three categories. Theyre either (a) dingy, largelyempty shops void of picture menus, (b) a hole in the wall or (c) well presented establishments but completely hidden from the street view.

Funnily enough, Ive never seen so many road sweepers, who desperately keep the roadsclear, but neglect the pavements.

Dengfeng is the first place I saw the most practical baby clothes around. Babies are dressed in pants that have a huge slit at their base and rear. The idea is to remove the necessity to have nappies. They do this by excreting at will, in the middle of the street through the gap. If youre lucky, its by a drain. If youre unlucky, its into a parents lap or a passer-by. N.b. I could bring myself to take a picture of it, so the following photo I simply swiped from the net.

The town seems to be sucked into the furious building phase encompassing most of China. Rubble tends to be part of the ascetics here, with most buildings looking part-finished alongside a stack of bricks, stones, slates or sand dumped right outside. I dont know if most stacks are there because theyll use them to build more in the future, or because they cant be bothered to move them after having used what they needed already.

From what Ive understood, the government are going to swallow up a large amount of land in the area. They can do this, because land is owned by the state government, who have the absolute right to evict you (with some compensation) to find a new home. The government is looking to take over land in the area to boost tourism by building modern hotel facilities to cater for tourists. At the moment, there are little options for tourists. If you knew that the amount the government would compensate you was based on the number and size of buildings you had, youd realise that your best bet to cash in on an opportunity is to construct lots of buildings on your land, very cheaply as close to the compensation date as possible. That is happening right now, so you sadly have some of the better views of the area needlessly being spoilt by temporary ghost houses.

Its all in the Leading up to last weekend, I began to get a little frustrated at the kung fu school. It was down to a combination of two things. Firstly, feeling the lack of material progress in my kung fu. Secondly, not being taught moves in a new form (set of kung fu moves) I had started learning.I wasnt throwing my toys out the pram over a one day thing, but after a week of no progress, it definitely impacted my confidence and I didnt know why.

It felt like my time at the school was running out and there was something I was missing.I was being told yidian (little by little) and mingtian (tomorrow). I was doing countless laborious movements 100s of times a day, every day and had worked hard on extra training.

It didnt feel like the reason behind not teaching me anything new was malicious, but I couldnt understand what why. Even if there was no time in the lessons to learn, there seemed to be time during the breaks. These were breaks I was happy to forgo, when the other students would mess around and choreograph kung fu fight scenes, I was stretching my hamstrings and repeating the forms I had learned. I know the students here have a different attitude to training they have no issues skipping odd training sessions bumps on a life long kung fu road arent as important for them as they are for me.

As for my progress in the basics in the first month at the school, I had feltmy hips loosening, my legs worked hard and my back get stronger. I was pleased with the way I learned the Pan Gen form. But in the last two weeks, I had none of that, even though I had kept my head down and concentrated on learning as much as I could.I wasnt sure if my body was fully reconditioned or if I just wasnt pushing myself enough. If it was the latter, I didnt know where. Although I had built up strength, I wasnt able to get myself into the stances in the way they described but I wasnt able to see how I could progress into it.

On the Saturday morning, before leaving the school to head into Dengfeng town, I wrote up a heartfelt letter to the senior student whos been teaching me at the school. I copied and pasted it into Google translate on my laptop and hoped for the best (if youre not familiar with google translate, its pretty sketchy with Chinese translation). The message was this:

sorry, but my chinese is not good.i dont want to sound like I complain.youre a good teacher. youre a good friend. i want to be a good student.but im upset because i cant learn. you only teach me a little. you say tomorrow, but then no teach.i have little time here and i want to leave here with good memories.english student learning in china is very tough. i am isolated.i leave my job to come here. i leave my family. i leave my life. i can only come here 2 months.other students want to play. i want to train hard. i train when other students rest. i train with injury.please please please teach me.i can train any time. day or night.I think he understood the message and my frustrations. I couldnt fully understand the reply, but the gist I got was had to head into town to get it his phone fixed on one of the mornings. I wasnt worried about odd classes missed for reasons like that or dwelling on the past (if the past was that he didnt understand my desire to learn), rather that the final two weeks werent going to be a write-off in my own learning. I left the school Saturday, hoping that when I returned, it would be a new start.

Over the weekend, I thought about the other issue I had the stances I wasnt able to do properly. I knew my body was getting stronger, but I wasnt able to sink any further (and not enough to be a credible use in my mind).

Mabo (horse stance) is one most people are familiar with.

The Wugulun version is with feet fully planted just a little wider than shoulder width apart, both feet perfectly parallel, back completely vertically straight (no leaning forward, no tail bone sticking out), hands relaxed on your stomach and lowering your upper body to sink into the stance as low as you can. Deeper the stance, the better it is. The one in the picture is about half as low as this guy can go. Essentially, its the perfect full squat.

In various schools and teachings Ive had in the past, you could be forgiven for having a back leaning forward slightly, a wide stance or feet off parallel (pointing at 45 degrees sometimes). Here, its not an option.I thought ability to do this was all about strength and balance.

I made a big boo boo.I missed something so fundamental, that once I realised, I wasnt sure whether to be excited to have found out or annoyed that I onlyjust found out.

It started with me asking one of the senior student why I cant do a this full squat stance in a combination of Chinese mandarin, engwish, a mirror and a Glow Draw drawing app on my phone. Heres what I sketched:

I tried to explain that I can do the squat as long as i lean forward. After exchanging Chinese words for strength and legs, I put the point across that my centre of mass was passed my ankles the lower Iwent. That was causing me to either stay high, or lean forward to stop toppling backwards. I contested that my legs were strong enough to hold me, which was annoying, as Id been working on this a lot.He said the word yidian again (little by little). The context being, work on it bit by bit.

I sketched out another couple of stick men. one me (Wo), one him (Ni). This time, whilst sketching it, I realised that in order to have the weight going straight through (and therefore be balanced), I needed to draw a more acute angle at the ankle.

Then it clicked. Its the ankle.I asked about flexibility in the ankle, I got a positive response. He demonstrated a couple of exercises we had been doing daily. These exercises, I thought, were just for loosing the hips. Instead, these also worked the ankles. However, if youre not actively trying to stretch into them (like the hips), its easy to miss the benefit, and I think this is something I had been doing.

We compared ankle flexibility in the mirror. Blimey, they were massively different. This guy was probably twice as flexible (could get double the angle of deviation) than me. Gees, how did I miss that when Ive been watching the guy for hours every day? I thought. Wed been working on this stance every day without fail since I had been here.

Thinking about what this meant..

mobility in the ankle=ability to maintain your upper body perfectly over your hips as you lower=ability to balance with proper grounding=ability to build strength and generate power

I had been working from right to left, when I should have been working left to right.Damn it.

Theres me thinking Ive got good, strong legs so therefore I can balance, where in fact, my balance isnt great. Lack of flexibility in my ankles mean if I deviate my body passed a certain point, then (compared to them), Im ready to topple like a bowling pin.

Ok, so lesson learned ankle flexibility is the key to my progress now.

How possible is it though? Is it something you can even work on or are you just born with it?

I tried to stretch my ankle, unlike hamstrings or other parts of the body, the feeling seemed different it felt a bit bone on bone type restriction. Are my ankles genetically different that I cant stretch them I thought?

I spent Sunday afternoon googling about it.Heres what I found

How do you do a full squat?I started with something like full squat. Faint memories of someone commenting that asian people have genetically better ankle mobility led me to google ankle better flexibility asian too. Essentially, is it not my fault. This comedy video was onto something, but didnt actually tell me why my ankles arent flexible

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gWTmg4dHiKgWhy arent my ankles flexible?I found that ankle dorsiflex ability (ability to lift your toes up) can be impeded by two things:

tight calf muscles (most of the time)

scar tissue (rare occasions, due to past injury)

The truth is, Im not actually sure which one is the major cause for me.

In terms of tight calf muscles I never thought mine where tight. Reading on, for women they blame tight calves on heels and for both sexes, lack of walking around in bare feet. [ok, thats plausible].

You didnt grow up squatting on a regular basis so your calf muscles shortened. Women who wear high heals every day have an even worse problem with this as they find they cant wear flat shoes or go barefoot comfortably. Shortened calf muscles caused from wearing shoes with heals higher than the ball of the foot (even an inch or less) is also a main contributing cause to plantar fasciitis.They recommend walking in bare feet. However, in the last 6 months, after reading Born To Run, I had already transitioned to barefoot running and gone through the calf ache that comes with it. Only that weekend, I had just done 16km in my barefoot running shoes and didnt feel any calf ache. Not sure if my calf muscles are that tight, but Ill work on them.

Onto scar tissue they say its common in footballers (link hereand here) from past ankle injury. Thats likely for me then Ive clocked up a lot of football minutes in my time.

I rack my brains and think back to childhood for any ankle injuries?

I can faintly remember times when I sprained them. But youre a kid you just try and get back to playing footy as quickly as you can. I recall one specific spraining my ankle in football after kicking into someone elses foot pretty hard.

What are the implications of lack of ankle flexibility?The scariest one is Poor Dorsiflexion will usually cause foot pronation, then knee valgus, which can lead to multiple knee injuries.

There are several links between ankle mobility with knee pain -http://www.maximumtrainingsolutions.com/Ankle-Dorsiflexion-Glute-Interaction.htmlBetter still ankle mobility with glute/shoulder pain -http://www.maximumtrainingsolutions.com/Shoulder-Injuries.htmlMy lesson from this?Ankle flexibility is really important in martial arts and mykey to taking my progress to the next level.I cant be sure why my ankles arent flexible. Its something I can get checked out in London on my return. For now thought, I decided I was going to concentrate on ankle flexibility for the rest of my time here.

My Realisation About A Dangerous HabitTowards the middle of last week, I was feeling a bit disappointed with the school and the teachings. I felt frustrated by repeating the same stuff (even though I was fully prepared that this is likely to happen and didnt want to admit it) and I felt time was being wasted in-between the tougher training sessions. Having a couple of sessions rained off and others that were shorter than normal didnt help. I thought Id try to consider why I was frustrated.I sat down and structured all my thoughts on paper, so I could go to the guys here and speak to them. By the end of trying to get my head round it, I realised I was making a far-reaching mistake.

The short version is that, I realised I was making excuses for my own lack of motivation and blaming others for it. I decided to arrange a new schedule going forwards.

The detailed version is described below

These were my thoughts, what I found myself blaming it on and what I concluded the real cause was:

Thought: I find it hard to concentrate on the breathingI blamed it on: Kids always messing about and the sound of car hornsReal cause: Im not slowing down my breathing, concentrating on the moment and Im letting things distract me. I need to learn to cut them out. The place Im at is the hand Ive been dealt and those things wont change. Learning to concentrate is the skill in itself that I need to practice. Sometime in the past, I had read the first couple of chapters from The Power Of Now. I realised now, that the nature of controlling your mind as described in the book, has a massive impact. I had always said that i was never in the right place to read the book in detail. Now couldnt be a better time and reason and apply it to the classes here.

Thought:There isnt enough time spent on training and the time I am spending is still on the basics.I blamed it on: The structure of classes theyve come up with is too slow and suited to the guys who are here for years.Real cause: Was I really maximizing all my time practicing? No. Did I really expect to jump into the more advanced stuff sooner rather than later? No. Am I as flexible and strong as the advanced students? No. My mind was playing games, I was ignoring the fact this has to be learned. I have to put effort and come up the curve myself. Ill use the time that they dont train to do my own stuff. My strength and flexibility is down to me. Of course you would have differentobjectives if theyre here for X years, Im here for 2 months. They have more time and this is ALL they are doing. I need to adapt the system, not blame it.Of course theyll take things easier. This is their choice, theyre not forcing it on me.

Thought:Im upset that the work i had done on my body (i.e. body building) more specifically on the upper body was slowly diminishing and my running fitness not being kept up.I blamed it on: Restrictions that didnt really exist.Real cause: My own lack of motivation and a not putting together a schedule that can work with my kung fu training.I realised last Saturday morning that when we all went for a run, they were all REALLY poor at it. Only then did it occur to me that its just not something theyve trained at, rather than something that theyre actively against doing. I could take a stab at saying the monks in the mountains just didnt have the environment to need to run far. I.e. a matter of ignorance, rather than an active decision against it. As for weights, Im lucky that there are a set of concrete kettle bells here at the school. After giving them a try, I was blessed with timing Master Wu walking past as I was using them and gave me the thumbs up. They cant be against the principles here if hes giving a thumbs up. In conclusion,I can work on the upper body without causing too much tension and go for runs without tiring my legs before a training session. I can add this to the kung fu schedule and it will be my schedule.

Thought:Its really difficult learning with the language barrier. Im missing out.I blamed it on: Not having someone readily available to translate. Whats the point of learning Mandarin if Im only going to use it here?Real cause: Im not learning as much Mandarin as I possibly can and it IS useful. On the weekend, I met a spanish guy called Raul in the hostel. His story was that he left Spain and came to Beijing to get work. He was spending his weekend visiting the Shaolin Temple. He spent loads of his own time learning Mandarin and by 18 months, he was fluent. Usual story there I know, but what really struck me was thats not the first time Raul had just got on a train to somewhere where he didnt speak the language and just committed himself he speaks 5 languages fluently. The world was an open place for him because he was willing to work at any language barrier. I realised, Im in the best possible place to learn Mandarin, so what ifIm in the deep end of the Mandarin pool? So I decided, when the kids are learning Maths and English in the evenings, its the perfect time for me to go through more Michel Thomas tapes. I have the tapes, so I have no excuse not learning it.

During this process, I remembered back to something I heard once that seemed really applicable. A teacher once told me:

Think of something that youve always wanted to do, something you can do every day and only takes up to 30 mins of your time. If youve come to the conclusion that its THAT important to you, then Im almost certain that if you did that thing EVERYday for a year, it would be the most significant thing you could do to improve your life.

I thought to myself here I am in a place where Im cut off from the life Ive led so far, somewhere with a loosely defined structure to the day and Im making excuses for not fulfilling what I want to do here. Im letting a busy mind control myself. Im going come up with my own things that I do everyday to make a positive difference to my time here. I realised the habit of excuses and lack of motivation is something thats most likely grown over time and has made an impact in my life, work and my hobbies to date.

These were the things I decided I would do whilst Im here at the kung fu school: I will spend an hour a day learning Mandarin

I will spend an hour a day internalizing the book The Power Of Now

I will do a session of Push Up Fu every day. By the time I leave, I will be able to do the Big 100 (100 press ups)

I will use the weights I have here to train my legs daily and a different part of my upper body every day. By the time I leave, I will be able to do a one-legged squat.

I will build up my running distance to half marathon in my barefoot running shoes.

So heres my new schedule as a screen saver on my phone. Its the original school schedule with my own one interleaved. (FYI, Wednesday afternoon and Saturday morning are my running days)

Why blog this?Because I know myself well enough that if I tell people Im going to do something, Ive got a better chance of actually doing it.

The takeaway is this making excuses for anything is a subtle but dangerous habit to have. The world is yours to make the most of it. Write your own script. This is what makes your life unique.

Learning About YourselfWhen I told people that Im going to China to spend 2 months in a kung fu school, most people would imagine a purely physical experience. They assume that youll learn to fight, perhaps learn a few party tricks, overcome pain barriers and finally come back wanting to wear a kung fu suit every day.

For me, one of the important aspects of my time here, was to learn more about myself. I wasnt quite sure how that would happen here, but a leap of faith told me that it would. The gut feeling was that the most traditional teachings of something extremely deep was the key.

Now, comingto the end of my time here at the school, I look back and feel that Ive learned a lot about myself. Its by no means the answer to everything, but a big step in terms of understanding.The process feels like noticing, questioning and peeling back layers in my thought process one by one, exposing important truths underneath. Its difficult to put a price on it, certainly at this stage.

In this post, I explain how I think the time here has allowed me to do this, what Ive learned and why I think its important.

How has the time here allowed me to do this?

Life here is simple and structured around non-mind activities. Waking early each morning to perform meditative breathing exercises does well to clear the mind and start from a clean slate. The philosophy here is one of patience, repetition and everything you perform is started from a calm mind. Turning up here was something of a shock to the system for me to begin with the way of life is very basic. Ive found that by breaking the normal habits of life the rest can become clear.

The day is structured here, so time is put a side and dedicated wholeheartedly to specific activities. Kung fu, eating, blogging. Typical life chores are all done at the weekend, so it feels much more like Im in control of my time. Taking myself out of the interruptible and habitual way of life that Im used to back home trains the mind to be less sporadic and this means its easier to understand and spot patterns in myself. To a scientist, you can think of it like an experiment on yourself as the control.

With dedicated down time (lunch and evenings), it means Ive had time to consider new ideas, reflect on myself and grow to understand more. Whilst Ive taken time in the past to read and learn such things,often Ive found it difficult to then dedicate the time to really understand and reflect. Its like a momentum thing, with old habits lurking in the background ready for you to fall back on and changes vanish as quickly as you understood them. Here, its easier for that not to happen.

Lastly, I have to say that the blogging has most certainly helped. Im relatively new it, but after my time here, Im a big fan. By writing a blog post, Im learning how to recognise, reflect and structure my own thoughts. It allows me to record how Im feeling at the time, remember how I was feeling looking back and retrospectively understanding the changes themselves. Hearing feedback from readers goes a long way too.

What Ive learned?

So, down to the meaty bit what have I learned about myself? Reading The Power of Now, helped provide some much-needed rational.Whilst Im not completely sold ononlythinking about the now as the book suggests, it has helped me pose some interesting questions to myself.

Comparison with Past or Future

My first realisation I made, is thatI become most emotional and waste most energy when I have a vision of some future expectation or past event and I try to relate it to my current situation. I did this with my expectation of the lifestyle of the kung fu I would learn, the learning environment of the school and how long was the right amount of time to spend here. The further my view was from reality, the more frustrated I became. When reality moved closer to my view, I would feel happier. I became much more at ease when I stopped creating a difference in my mind. Its not nice realising that something else is subtly in control the else being my mind.

One might say, well why did you have those expectations anyway?. I think the answer is, I didnt go out of my way to paint a picture, but most importantly, I didnt go out of my way NOT to. In some ways, I didnt understand the power of the mind in generating false realities and how often it can run away with ideas. Whilst Ive known few special times when my mind has run away with negative thought loops, I noticed them and assumed those exaggerated events were few and far between. What Ive learned is that theyre not there common and practicing the art of clearing the mind has massive benefits in happiness and focus in life. This is something Id like to learn to do.

After questioning how past and (desired) future events can shape you, I spent some time questioning whether past events could affect me in the actions of today. Without divulging all of them, many being personal, Ill give one example. When I was younger, I got lost on a hiking trip. It was certainly something which my mind framed as dont let this happen again, wrapping up various negatives emotions with it. When I turned up at the airport in China, I was picked up from the arrivals and driven 2 hours to the school, which is in an off road in outside the nearest rural town. In short, I could have been anywhere. Although I didnt think I would have a problem with that, the truth is, I did. I think it added to the culture shock. Until I got wifi, could throw up a GPS map on my iPhone I wasnt comfortable. Funnily enough though, I didnt know why I was either at the time. I couldnt really relate the two events. When I consider how it affects me day-to-day, I believe my desire toalways know where I am has manifested itself to limit some of the exploratory decisions I make. Training myself to do otherwise going forwards, will do me good.

So, to summarise to something meaningful by saying that after questioning myself honestly and wholeheartedly, I understand how I react more strongly in current scenarios after related negative past events.Realising how the negative past does affects me, I need to learn how to think less about the past. If you want to do this yourself, Id recommend it. Put aside some time, remove all distractions, be brutally honest with your fears and deeply question how they may have affected you now.For anyone who thinks you are who you are based on your past experiences and you cant change them, I would disagree. I think you can, its just something that takes desire, time and practice to do so.

Accept, Change or Remove

I spent some time considering my emotions alongside activities I do. I now understandwhy I like taking part in the Tough Guy event and how I can apply the reasoning to other situations in life. We all know that life is full of situations you are dealt. Some good, some bad. How you take the bad ones, goes a long way to determining how at happy or at peace you are. With each situation, you should have the ability to accept, change or remove yourself from it. If you dont have the ability to remove yourself from it, changing it ortruthfully and wholeheartedly accepting for what it is, is key. How does this relate to Tough Guy? Well, I always thought it was good to go through the pain of the event, and come out on the other side. If youre not familiar with it, heres a brief YouTube intro. I realise that Tough Guy is a great way to conjure up a pretty bad situation for yourself. Youre cold enough to have hyperthermia, youve probably been electrocuted, youre caked in mud, probably looking up at a 20ft cargo net you need to climb and the whole time your mind is in shock constantly questioning why youre doing this. You can try to change the situation, by choosing different ways of doing obstacles or what to wear, but largely speaking, it doesnt do much. The key to completing it, is to accept it. Accept every obstacle, accept anything thats currently happening and will happen to you as you take part and youll be much happier. The more you think about the cold, the mud, or any pain that youre in, the more it hurts and affects you.The way contenders help each other climbing out of ditches, picking up people who have slipped over or sing always look on the bright side of life, I realise are in full acceptance of what is the current situation. Doing Tough Guy each year can be seen as training in the art of acceptance, something which should be applied to many a (bad) situation in life.

Enjoying the Moment

Considering other activities and the similarities with kung fu, I made some more realisations skiing/snowboarding and hiking. Both are some of my favourite past times. The commonality amongst them and why I like them is more clear now. Both are activities which youre forced to think about the present moment and youre removed from many of lifes distractions. With skiing/snowboarding, youre concentrating on your next turn and with hiking, your next step. The more you pay attention to the feedback from the terrain, through to your body, you realise youre concentrating on the very moment. It then very quickly disappears and is replaced with something similar without time to be distracted in between. Couple this with an environment of little or no phone reception and you have the makings of something very peaceful but physically rewarding. This, I realised, through the similarities with the kung fu Ive learned. Its another activity with a very similar environment and benefits.

The 7% Rule

If you havent heard of this before, it states that communication is only 7% verbal and 93% non-verbal (the 93% made up of 55% body language and 38% vocal tone). I used to think that figure was very exaggerated and often found myself being the type of person to pay a lot of attention to the words I used when communicating with people. Relating that to my experience here, I landed in the school here and spent a large chunk of time without fellow english speakers and started from an almost non-existent command of Chinese Mandarin. Ive realised that by relying almost exclusively on body language and vocal tone, the 7% rule has proved more true than I originally thought.

During my time here, Ive used body language to understand whats going on in social situations (tension between people, when someones being told off or congratulated and when Im being alerted to something).Ive learned a lot of Mandarin like a young child would learn their first language. I began to understand what words meant through repetition and association with actions, before (a) being able to say the word myself and then (b) actually looking up the specific translation. Likewise, Ive found people have been able to understand me and my emotions too proving to me that it goes both ways.

The Pressure of Society

Mid-Autumn Festival in China is a night of celebration held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar. This year, it fell on September 30th, whilst I was at the school. Im so used to commercial celebrations back home Christmas and New Years being a classic example. The pressure of buying presents or forking out for a good night is usually felt.It was lovely to experience something non-commercial, in Mid-Autumn Festival. The lunch time meal was served in sharing dishes, but was largely similar food to what youd expect day-to-day.Instead of buying presents for the evening, every student spent their free time leading up to the evening practicing some kind of performance, whether it be a song, dance, poem or magic trick. The mood was high because the people made it so, not because of what was spent or received.The school ran a quiz giving students with winning answers cans of Coke. I wont forget the happiness on their face of the students when theyd get and answer correct and get to crack open a can.I couldnt help but think how kids back home take things for granted, but largely because of the pressure society makes them feel.Naturally, leading up the event, I had asked what should I bring to the evening? only to be told yourself just being there is more than enough.

Until youve lived in an environment similar to what I have these 2 months, you may not have experienced an egoless society. Here at the school, everyone dresses in the same clothes, lives in the same building and is given the same opportunities to learn. Unlike the society Im used to, the only thing money could buy here are the small luxuries that you would use outside of normal time. i.e. the influence of money is minimised. Without outside media influence too, theres little pressure to compare what you have to what youcouldhave. Happiness with what people have got and not being bombarded with what you havent is a peaceful way of life. Ive learned that I can do more to stop being affected by the pressure of society.

Why its important to learn about yourself

With better clarity of mind, my life certainly feels like it has a lot more focus. I understand why Im doing certain unnecessary or unhelpful things and what I can do to benefit me greatly. Knowing those, I can start tending towards them now.

The second benefit of learning more about yourself is way it opens the door to understanding more about others. The differences in how you deal with societies pressures, how you spend your free time and how you treat people all stem from your underlying belief system.Because of this, I feel like Ive learned alittle more about why I do or dont get on with certain people and visa versa.

Lift out of your own subconscious worries, understand more about others andthese personality conflicts that existed in the past will be more harmonious. Thats because when you understand more about others, youre more likely to forgive.

Changes After A Week Of The New ScheduleAfter blogging about my frustrations and realisations last week, It appears in the week just gone, much has changed.

So whats changed exactly?

Ive religiously stuck to my own new mind/body/soul workout schedule The day-to-day training from the school has become more physically demanding

Ive made some progress in learning to meditate

I can be understood more with my mandarin

My outlook on the art here has widened

It feels like the end of a long week. I start writing this on Friday evening at about 19:00, but Im shattered enough that Ill just jot the main thoughts and complete it Saturday.

The New Schedule

During the kung fu training sessions when the students take a break, Ive been taking the opportunity to work on my flexibility. I realised that flexibility is a big key to being able to progress to the next level here. How can you work on the power and stamina needed in a deep stance if you cant actually get your body in the correct stances? If you want to kick high, then first you need your leg to be able to get that high, then you need to work on the strength to hold it there. Where was flexibility in the primary school curriculum in London?

Weight training with on my legs whilst the kids are doing their cleaning chores seems to be working nicely. Its slow, because my legs are generally tired from the day-to-day kung fu training, but Im working up the weight stack bit by bit.

Echkart Tolles statements in The Power Of Now are forcing me to ask myself some tough questions. Its a little early to consider what it means to me. I can feel a sense of self-denial at the moment, but theres plenty of time for the content to soak in. In fact, if you read the book, theres a clear statement that time is somewhat of an illusion.

My morning Pushup Fu ritual is something Im slowly getting used to. Right before I strap on the arm band that counts the reps, theres a sense of feeling sick. But after finishing the reps, I realise thats mind games, because I feel much better after completing them. Im most of the way through Stage 5, for those familiar with the app.

As for the running, after the toughest prolonged period of training ache in my legs, I managed to pull out a 9km run, which Im quite proud of. If I assume 2 running sessions per week, having 4 weeks left and needing to get to 21km, Ill increase the distance by 1 or 2km (5-10 mins) each time. I think the stray mountain dogs are starting to recognise the new scent.

Day-to-day Training

The classes have moved on and become more physically demanding. Now that we should have mastered the principles of the stances, it appears its time to sink into, bounce, twist, jump and leap from stance to stance whilst trying to maintain perfect form (straight back, head held high). It seems like theres a sweet spot among the students. At one end, there are the youngand flexible ones who are happy to attempt anything with ultimate enthusiasm, but little form. At the other end, there are the older ones who have more muscular power and mastery of form, but will pull the slyest tricks to get out of trying to do the exercises.

After a week of doing these exercises daily for hours,my legs are D.E.S.T.R.O.Y.E.D. They feel more worn than doing the 3 Peaks, a half marathon and the hilly bit in Tough Guy one after the other.Early on in the week, I did question if my knees were past their sale by date and learned the hard way to warm them up gradually. Hours a day of moving from horse stance to horse stance as deeply as you can is both a mental as well as physical test.Now I realise these types of exercises are good for stretching the muscles and building power.Another factor thats upped the training here is that Master Wu is dropping into more and more sessions. When he does, he has very high standards and the tone of the class becomes much more serious to cope. There always seems to be improvements to be made to the exercises done by the seniors, which youd think had mastered them already.

Interleaved with the more physical exercises, Ive been taught a form known as Pan Gen, which means Twisting Root. Theres a link to Master Wu demonstrating it here. The form is designed to teach you to maintain balance whilst moving from stance to stance. Ive been quite impressed with myself being able to learn the form, but it only occurred to me at the end of the week why that was so. When the teacher demonstrates move A to B to C, when youve spent copious amounts of time perfecting stance A, B and C in isolation, it becomes more about slotting well-known pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together. Its a shallower learning curve, because youve put in the time mastering the all important basics. When you find yourself introducing the correct breathing too, which acts like your own pace maker. Being told through various hand waves and broken Mandarinthat Im learning quickly was like a gust of wind in the right direction for my kung fu boat.

Mr Miyagi was a wise man, who appears to have somehow rubbed off onto Master Wu.

Meditation

The task of settling my mind and body down seems to be getting easier. On Friday, when most of the students were off running some errands, there was just a few of us training amongst the trees for a change. Im not sure why, but I had the opportunist urge to walk to the other side of the area, find myself a rock to sit on and meditated for a solid hour. It was the first time, I actually felt like it was something I intrinsically wanted to do. It was pretty refreshing to be honest.

Mandarin

Some of the students can understand what Im trying to say. So either my charades skills are improving or my pronunciation of my Mandarin. The progress is largely one way, but a step in the right direction. Ive been building up a translation list of useful kung fu related words. Ill be posting up as a reference for others in the next couple of days once I fill in the last gaps. Im starting to recognise some of the instructive words in class, like line up, move, take a break. The funny thing is, when writing this, I couldnt tell you what they are but at the time, in context, I can.

Outlook On The Art

After I finished meditating on Friday and turned around, I saw the senior instructor showing three of the other students some simple fighting techniques. Something like if someone were to punch you like this I would do this type scenarios. Now Ive seen a fair few techniques like this, having trained in other forms of kung fu in the past. But I have to say, I was truly impressed with what I saw. The ease and fluidity this guy dealt with everything that came towards him and gracefully floored every one of them, taking their balance like sweets from a baby it was something Id not seen before. He didnt have to hit any of them, although Im sure the opportunity presented itself. I take back any thoughts that this form of kung fu neglected the point of the upper body. From what I saw, it demonstrated that if you have a strong stance and know your opponents balance and weak points, you can have their arms trapped and them falling over with ease.I hope I get a chance to absorb some of this myself during my time here.

Whats on the cards for next week?Im told there a new kung fu form to learn. It should be longer and more complicated than the one this week, so looking forward to that. Were kept in the dark with the power training. Surely it cant get any tougher?

First Full Day

Home Destinations Asia Travel China First Full Day

First Full DayI had set my alarm for 05:20 with the idea that I would beat the bell they have and be ready a little earlier. However, instead, I woke to the sound of their bell. A very loud bell. What I realised, is that they have one bell at 05:20 to wake people up and another at 05:30 to congregate outside. When the second bell went off, kids started running out their rooms and making their way downstairs, with an air of panic on their faces.

As I went outside, I could see they were starting to form lines in what looked like a height or age order. I randomly chose the second line and parked myself at the end. A senior student standing in front, facing the students said new? to me, to which I replied yes and nodded. He addressed the group. Each student said something and then they shuffled along to form tight lines. I had no idea what to say, so I naturally said what most aliens would say nothing. Then, the first and third lines trotted off and myself in the remaining second line began doing walking laps of the forecourt. I wasnt sure if this was the usual drill or if I had messed something up for the line by not saying something and the laps were a punishment shared amongst the line. After walking several laps, we jogged a few more and came to rest.

Whilst we stood in a line, the senior student stood in front of us and demonstrated breathing exercises. We watched and followed. The other students had the luxury of watching, listening and following. In other words, I had to try and work out what was going on instinctively. What progressed from standing breathing exercises, evolved into exercises in a stance with the tailbone of the back tucked under. I had the luxury or experience from my kung fu teacher in London explaining the concept and read about the importance of it before I arrived. The idea is to straighten the spine so that the Qi energy flows from top to bottom better and is the basis of the strength and power they generate. Cultivating Qi is the fundamentals for this form of kung fu. As the class is taken, I watched the other students to know when to stop, continue, take a break etc.After an hour of training, the class was dismissed.

I was told yesterday, that after the first hour of training, the students get 30 mins to wash and change before breakfast. With around 30 students and 3 bathrooms, its pretty obvious that washing wasnt going to occur in the morning. At 07:00, the bell was sounded again and the student lined up for breakfast. As I came outside to line up, I noticed Master Wu Nanfang sitting with the manager and Veena. To deviated for a moment, Veena was someone who contacted me after I initially reached out to the school by email many months ago. I spent an hour on the phone to hear listening to advice and information about the school to decide and prepare for the trip. Although at the time of the call she was based in England, she had told me she would be in the area while I was there and would drop by. After a brief greeting, I joined the line of students and went for breakfast. Breakfast consisted of some vegetables, bread and a soup. I was told that the soup contains a fruit that promotes Qi. Again, the food was really tasty and Im being given big portions.

After breakfast, we were dismissed back to the living quarters, to await another bell ring to tell us the late morning class was about to start. I used the time to brush my teeth, but chose not to shower for fear of getting caught in the middle of a shower with the bell going. The late morning lesson was taken in the plot of land behind the living quarters. The land contains tall trees and some stones scattered in the corner. The trees have been planted (or grown) with almost perfect spacing between them. Cleverly, this allows us to train in the shade (the branches almost perfectly meet at the top) and give some temporary cover from the rain, all without impeding on usability of the space i.e. dodging a few trees in known positions is easy. The lesson started with the same breathing exercises as the morning and evolved to some twisting and weight shifting routines. The lesson was about 3 hours long, split with a break period, where the students and I sat on the rocks (like Westerners would around a camp fire only without the fire). Theyd entertain themselves for the break with their mobile phones and lighthearted chat. Whats really nice, is that the senior student who takes the class relaxes with them, so you can see theres a real bond with him. But theres a definite respect when he takes the class.

After the late morning class and lunch we retreated to our rooms again. I could see a schedule in Mandarin on the wall as you come through the front door of the living quarters and was able to place where we were in the schedule. Also, spotting the symbol for the late morning training, I was able to work out that the afternoon training was next and started in about an hour. I used the the time to have my first shower. I was warned that the hose for the bathroom next to me didnt work (I also found out the hard way that the toilet flush didnt work either) and that the one across the hall would take 5 mins to warm up and the one downstairs would take 2 mins. The bathroom upstairs was taken and I opted to go downstairs one. Not knowing who is living where in the building, I never know whether Im intruding on peoples space by using various rooms/bathrooms. Showering was an interesting experience no hooks for your clothes (or anywhere that looked anywhere clean enough to place clothes) and a drop toilet right next to you isnt the most glamorous. My hanging wash kit doubled up as a hanger for my clothes.. Another result on my packing list. Squatting on the floor with a hose was so refreshing that the views/smells of the bathroom were put to one side.

I crossed paths with the manager on the way back to my room and asked him if I could give him the money for the first month of stay. He invited me to give this to Master Wu Nanfang and took me to his room. With some translation about the fact this money was for one month and I will follow up with the rest in town, Master Wu Nanfang showed his appreciation. The manager translated by telling me that Master was very thankful of supporting the school and the money would be used to build new facilities. I think his appreciated was very genuine. Until now, they had taken me in, fed me, trained me and hadnt even asked for any money.

With time to spare, I fell asleep on my bed. I awoke and saw two people entering the room it was the chap who accompanied the taxi driver yesterday and another westerner. The westerner turned out to be Matthew, a former student of the school who had stumbled upon my blog a couple of weeks before departing London. He had been incredibly helpful over email from the US, answering my questions about his past experiences. He had told me he was arriving on the day after me and it was quite refreshing to have him turn up. When he entered the room, he was speaking, what sounded like, fluent Mandarin to the Masters son (I confirmed that was in fact the Masters son at that point). As he unpacked, he told me a little about his story. He practiced kung fu to help recovery and maintain a regular level of health after spinal surgery. The spinal surgery was performed to fuse two vertebrate in his back after his vertebrate shifted over one and other when he was younger. He had visited the school in the past and practiced the breathing techniques daily ever since. Because his wife being native Chinese, he had learned Mandarin to communicate with the in-laws and embrace the Chinese culture. What was apparent after talking to him, was that even his understanding of Mandarin he struggled to understand their dialect at times, because the accents were thick and a lot of the vocabulary new. Good to know that I wasnt being thick struggling with the language, but bad because it meant I was probably going to struggle for the remaining 55 days of my stay The bell was something new to him. When he was last here, he said they all stayed in the main house where the food is served (we lived in a separate house), and there was only a few adults so was taught my Master Wu Nanfang himself. For him, the bell represented something like a military academy. For me, the bell was actually a great way to communicate that I have to be somewhere, so I can relax in my room until then and with everyone meeting outside, I never have to know where to be (we all march off together). Maybe this represents my place in the society that represents the school Im ignorant and need to learn the methods.

That evening, one of the senior students gave a lesson in Chinese medicine. Unfortunately, with that lesson being given in fluent Mandarin, I skipped it and relaxed in my room.

The Real World From Another ViewDuring the rest after lunch, I was lying on my bed and although it felt like I had been here a while, it was only my second full day. Theres two ways you can look at it.

1) Im missing my life back at home2) Ive got used to life here

I think its latter, because I dont have that desire to pack my bag and do a runner. I think Im way more relaxed and bedded in now.

Training continued with the internal techniques.

Now, with more time spent understanding it, I can understand how these techniques are almost meditative. The breathing and fluid repetitive movements are ideal for this.

Later that evening, I left the school with Matthew to go and meet Ibo for dinner in Dengfeng. Ibo was a past student here, who actually made the transition into real life as he called it when Matthew was previously at the school. Ibo is best described as a happy guy, with a big heart, wanting to please and answer anything that you request from him. Im told he lived here for 4 years, practising ChanWuYi daily. One of his talents was also his English skills, being the chief translator for the school.

We went to a hot pot restaurant, which was basically your equivalent of an all you can eat conveyor belt sushi restaurant, except you were each given a controllable hot plate, bowl of boiling water and access to a conveyor belt of fresh ingredients to chuck in. Probably the healthiest meal you can have (if you dont go for all the spices and sauces available).

Ibo no longer lived at the school. His reasons for leaving were that he needed to step into the real world and earn an income to support a family. He hadnt done a full-time profession job before then.He spoke about how he noticed people slouching at their desks and working without breaks. He described how when he got stressed, he would step out for an hour and practise ChanWuYi (although at first, he found it difficult to do this in the work environment).

The funny thing about the conversation with him, was that this was a guy coming from the complete opposite as me. All he had known was the life I am about to lead during my travels. He said that often students would ask him what should I do to relieve tension in X or to deal with Y stress. Funnily enough, he used to answer Im not sure, because Ive not experienced it, which is funny when you think about it. Overall, his goal is to lead this professional life to the full, then find a happy medium.

What he was describing was the real world from another view.

Having missed the dinner at school, I came back bearing a gift of a clean sponge and washing up liquid for the school sink.

Hidden Skills Of A Kung Fu Master

Home Destinations Asia Travel China Hidden Skills Of A Kung Fu Master

Hidden Skills Of A Kung Fu MasterThis morning after lining up outside, we were told that Saturday is a half day. Training for an hour in the morning, then cleaning duties and free time. It was a joy to see all the kids grabbing mops, brooms and sponges and cleaning the school up. They were wearing their regular clothes and the mood was much more light-hearted.They would dash past with some sort of cleaning apparatus and say Ni Hao (hello). I think its a combination of the mood that theyre not training and theyre probably less weary of my presence.

After breakfast, I watched to see how many of the students would take my gift of sponges and washing up liquid. Fail. They all continued to wash their bowls and chop sticks with their hands. Its either a combination of not wanting to use something they think is mine, or theyre just so used to washing up with just cold water. Well find out with time.

As a returning student, Matthew asked Master Wu for a special favour of writing some calligraphy on two scrolls he carefully brought with him from home. Master Wu, as it was becoming evident, is not just a master of kung fu, but calligraphy too. After doing a practice run, he gracefully painted up the scrolls for Matthew as the students watched and stamped on the Wugulun academy seal.

Without the late morning training session, I took the opportunity to go for a run. The school is half way up the 10km road from Dengfeng to the Shaolin temple. I thought it would be useful to know how to get to Dengfeng on my own, so the best way is to cover the distance on foot with a straight road, so you cant go wrong. I took position on the edge of the main road and started jogging. I got some pretty funny looks while I ran. A combination of being a westerner in a small rural town and something like a why is this guy running (because even the poorest people here have at least push bikes). As I ran the route, I memorised landmarks as a way, so that I could run through them in reverse on the way back to recognise the turn off. Yellow sign, big rocks, umbrella, hill. Other than hitting a tree branch with (thankfully) yellow pollen on my yellow t-shirt, it a success.

The road that I run down has so many kung fu schools. All of these schools are the traditional wushu schools. These schools practice the external art of kung fu, with the emphasis on using force, jumping and more theatre type movements by 100s of perfectly synchronised shouting kids in bright red outfits. It makes me glad I stumbled upon the school Im at, because my understanding of the Wugulun practice appears to be something special.As I turned the corner returning back to the kung fu school, I bumped into the students walking to lunch. I appeared to get some respect from the senior students seeing me jogging and doing more training, which was nice.

With the other students left to their own devices, Matthew and I took the bus (for 1 RMB) into Dengfeng. With two missions. Firstly, to go to the clothes shop to get some presents, and secondly, to find the Shaolin Traveller Hostel that I had been recommended by both Veena and the Lonely Planet. I ended up buying four suits to be sent home. Whilst the shop couldhave sent them home on my behalf, they explained that the cost of sending them would be more than the suits themselves. You could see the horror on their face that I was even considering it. I dont blame them. To me it demonstrates the imbalance that exists in the world. They suggested that it would be cheaper and easier to send them from Hong Kong, than from a small rural village. With Hong Kong on my plans after China I decided to take them as they were. I gave myself a hypothetical pat on the back for not over packing and leaving room to temporarily carry gifts (well see how good a plan this is when I try actually try to send them in Hong Kong).

After struggling to find the hostel (even armed with an iPhone and a pre-printed map) we jumped in a cab and got dropped off at the hostel. The hostel had a great feel to it. Well kept rooms, comfy chairs, free wifi and washing machine facilities. I can see why many of the foreign students come here at the weekends to relax and have a good wash. Comi, the guy at the hostel, even offered to take me to the local mobile phone shop to help me get a Chinese sim card. What a legend. I booked myself a room for the next weekend and headed out to grab dinner.

To celebrate the success of the mission to Dengfeng, we naturally stumbled upon another hot pot place and did our best to eat 6 plates of vegetables and noodles.

Climbing Mount Song

Home Destinations Asia Travel China Climbing Mount Song

Climbing Mount SongSunday is a rest day at the school, so after heading into town in the morning and picking up a Chinese sim card, the rest of the day was free.[many thanks to Comi at the Shaolin Traveller Hostel for ushering me to the shop and being a mobile phone tariff translator].

Matthew suggested checking out Song Shan. Little did I know, that Song Shan actually meant Mount Song, which was one of the places I wanted to visit here.Its one of the beautiful mountain ranges that you see from the Wugulun school. More importantly though, its the home of ChanWuYi, where Master De Jian (the ultimate master of the art and devout monk) lives. De Jian sought the home from two nuns and started building a temple there in the heights of the mountain. Its in the middle of construction, but even what is there now was breathtaking. Even though I didnt get a chance to see De Jian, the opportunity to stand up there and soak in the view meant a lot.

In terms of the actual climb, from the route we took, it was steep, but technically easy one about 30-45 mins up with stairs. For those (like me) who have a fear of heights and dont like exposed edges, there are rails to protect your humility. I understand theres another route up which includes more cliff exposure and bridges.

To build the temple, workers would carry cement mix from the base of the climb to the top whilst others chipped into the mountain face to make room for the building and use the stone as material. These guys took almost the same amount of time as us to get up the mountain (given, we were taking pictures) and probably carry several bags up each day.

Rather than describe any more, Ill let the pictures speak for themselves.

A Bit About Wugulun School and My Progress

Home Destinations Asia Travel China A Bit About Wugulun School and My Progress

A Bit About Wugulun School and My ProgressI thought Id write a bit about the Wugulun school, the training and the progress I think Ive made after a week.

Where is the school?The school is about 5km outside the town of Dengfeng, half way between Dengfeng and the Shaolin Temple. Its part of a rural/farming area with a million dollar view (above) of the mountains in the area. Dengfeng is the nearest town to the Shaolin Temple littered with countless martial arts schools.

Whats a typical day at the school?At 05:30 we have an hour of early morning training. We do it as the sun comes up. It starts by warming up doing laps of the grounds outside the school building followed by breathing exercises. The breathing exercises make up the majority of the time and are the fundamentals of every training session during the day. If you concentrate enough, theyre highly meditative because you end up slowing your breathing right down and noticing every minor detail with the physical moves.

At 07:00 theres breakfast. With all the meals at the school, theyre vegetarian and consist of some soup and some vegetables. To be honest, every meal is similar, so to me, breakfast tastes like lunch and dinner. Whilst the strictest traditional Shaolin diet contains no dairy, with pressure from the kids parents, they sometimes have egg. Other than that, its rice, noodles, vegetables, bread, dumplings or lentils. The food is surprisingly tasty although Im only a week in (Im guessing some of the other students have seen the same meal twice now).

At 08:00 its the late morning training, which is done in the land behind the school amongst the trees. This is a 2-3 hour session broken up by a 15 min break in the middle. There are three separate classes going on, so each class is specialising on some topic. Breathing exercises, stepping exercises, forms, weapons etc. The break consists of squatting on the stones that surround the land.

At 11:50 its lunch followed by relax time. By relax, they actually sleep here. Its similar to the european siesta where they take rest during the hottest part of the day after a hearty meal.

At 15:00 its the afternoon training session. Like the late morning, its a 2-3 hour session. Again, what is covered depends on the group youre in, but its largely building on what was taught in the late morning session.

At 18:30 theres dinner followed by lessons (maths, english, medicine for the kids) or for us, another relax time.

At 21:30 the bell rights one final time for the lights out.

Saturdays have some limited training in the morning and Sunday too (although Ive only experienced one weekend to date).

Where is the training performed?Below are some photos of the front courtyard of the building were sleeping in and the land beside it with the trees. We train in both. If its raining, however, theres some limited room inside the building.

So what have I been taught so far?Meditative breathing, postural exercises (to tuck in the base of the spine and straighten the neck), stepping/balancing exercises (the fundamental building blocks of everything else youll learn) and rotational exercises (moves are generated using rotational power all the way from the hips up to the shoulders).

What changes have I noticed?More flexible by the end of todays session, I noticed a big improvement in my hamstrings, hip joints and all the small muscles inside the groin.

Better balance Im able to very easily balance on one leg for extended periods of time. Further still, Im able to jump from one balancing leg in one spot to another leg in another position. I wouldnt put it passed the new appreciation for squatting toilets and interesting wash rooms lending a hand here too.

Improved strength my legs are far far stronger. Its not surprising because all the time is spent on here. Im almost able to do a full one legged balancing squat and after going for a short run, I could noticeably feel the improved strength throughout my legs (and positive posture). Core strength is improved too. I can tell by the rotational smoothness in my waist and ability to hold my legs higher for longer. Thats all without any sit up or stomach focused exercise. Basically, the lower back and obliques have been worked loads throughout.

Upper body nothing in the arms or chest. Only general ache in the upper back from all the stretching.

Weight I cant weigh myself, so I have no idea what the difference is now if any. Im by no means hungry here, theres three big meals a day and theyre carb heavy. However, I dont know if Im getting enough protein because (a) they tend to have less because they think it makes you feel sluggish and (b) I have no idea how much protein is in the rice, vegetables and soya they have.

On Saturday after some morning training, the students are free to explore nearby Dengfeng (or for the youngest ones, be picked up by their parents) for the weekend. For me, it meant a chance to stay at the Shaolin Traveller Hostel and indulge in some luxury. Im told that foreigners from all the martial arts schools in the area use the hostel in the same way. Chance to relax, meet and train with other foreigners.

When I say indulge in someluxury, I mean a mattress to sleep on, private bathroom, western toilet, a washing machine, slouchable seats, wifi in your room and no early morning bell. As for the room itself, it opens into the top floor of the building, which has a mirrored room with lots of space.

A Brief Summary of My Understanding of Wugulun Kung FuSo after a couple of weeks, I thought Id blog a bit about the Wugulun Kung Fu Ive learned and my thoughts on it. Firstly, though a mandatory disclaimer

What I write about here represents me communicating my view and understanding as it currently stands from books, videos and the limited tuition at the school. It is not intended to replace teaching and instructions from the people who have practiced and perfected the art.Firstly, a bit of background of the art and how it originated

This documentary videofromPankaja, contains an interview with Master Wu Nanfang. Summarising:

Shaolin kung fu originated in the Shaolin temple which is a Chan Buddhist temple. . The Shaolin monks had to meditate deeply but sitting in Zen, sometimes they became sleepy, so they tried to find ways to stay physically and mentally alert and also be more healthy. Kung fu was already practised in many parts of China, and as more people came to the Shaolin temple the kung fu, the wushu culture became integrated with the Zen culture and formed the unique Shaolin Kung Fu. When learning Shaolin Kung Fu a person should have great depths of mercy. If he shows any rage or hatred while practising, he will not master kung fu. If you want to show or teach people fighting, first you have to have a compassionate heart. You have to practice kung fu with this attitude. You have to be calm and peaceful to grasp this method of fighting. Training in kung fu in this quiet and calm way and combining it with the training in Zen meditation means a person gains an understanding of the relationship between his internal organs and meridians, and enables him to integrate heart, body and qi together. Through repeated daily training over years combining all these elements a unique fighting skill is formed. This special form of Shaolin Kung Fu became renowned in China and later the world. So this kung fu is practised firstly to achieve a strong and healthy body and secondly for self defence and fighting. When you use this kung fu to fight with other people, you dont fight to kill, but you use your skill to dissolve or diffuse the other persons aggression. And you can control it in a perfect way and not hurt them. With this method the aggressor becomes humble and respectful. It is a way of teaching him to live in a better way..The real Shaolin Kung Fu is a proper combination of body, mind and qi. This kung fu is different. But the performing, athletic Shaolin wushu functions only from the outside. It is just coordinated movements for performing and competitions.

So what does this mean for the type of training Ive done so far?When you ask someone to stand up straight, youll often see an arch in the base of the back where the tail bone exists. Why do we tend to arch our back? Well, if youve ever tucked your tail bone in and very slightly compensated (to balance) by sinking into your feet, youll noticed its a position that requires muscle tension to maintain. In other words, it takes energy and effort to stand like that. By arching your back and sticking your tailbone out, you take the pressure off your waist/hips/legs at the expense of grounding. By grounding, I mean connectedness of your body with the ground. Whilst for usual day-to-day activities its ok not to be grounded, for someone about to perform something very physical like kung fu, you need to be well grounded to balance, twist and move with speed.

In addition to tucking the tailbone under, straightening the neck is also important. This is for lengthening the spine. With both lengthening the spine and tucking your tailbone in, you perfectly straighten your body from the waist up. The result of this is to allow the Qi energy to flow as efficiently as possible from head to toe. What is Qi? Well, thats a deep topic, which I wont go into too much detail on, but simply to say its the energy that flows through your body. They say it takes 3 years of daily practice to perfect this and cause it to be more of anaturalstance.

For any person, beginner or master, they will practice the standing breathing exercises daily tocultivateQi and perfect their posture. So, the first thing weve being doing every morning is exactly that. Starting in the dark and finishing the hour session at dawn. The exercises regulate your breathing (which over night has probably become more random), expels bad toxins from being indoors and stretches the body to awaken it. Theyre supposed to be done in an extremely relaxed state and its pretty meditative performing them. Concentrating firstly on your breath then moving your body in time to it helps you concentrate on thenow. After each repetition, you gain more and more feeling in each and every joint, muscle and nerve as you attempt to perfect the motion each time by synchronizing each component perfectly whilst completely relaxing others.Being a newbie to the motions, keeping my eyes open means its harder to concentrate on the now and really get into it, but the times Ive performed it with Master Wu in a quiet place, its a little addictive. Perfecting it that little bit more each time.For us beginners, we actually do these exercises at the start of every session, regardless.

Wheres all the hard work then?Well, thats where the legs come in. The principle is that after working on the posture to perfect the energy flows throughout the body, you want to carry this posture with the best possible base and use it to generate power. The base being your legs.

The legs are worked far before anything on the upper body, so most of the exercises Ive been doing as a beginner have been strengthening the legs. The exercises are the stepping variety, changing position from left to right to front to back keeping the tailbone tucked in and rotation at the hips up to the neck. Done extremely slowly, it promotes flexibility (ive discovered muscles in my hips I never knew I had in all my sporting and martial arts past practice) and builds power by perfecting the synchronisation of the movements with the muscles.

Theres more in the documentary that discusses the energy flows and why you train from the ground up:

Qi Gong is training the qi from the dan tian (stomach). Dan tian is the source of qi. So if the dan tian has enough qi it is reflected in your meridians and the health of your internal organs. As a real, traditional Shaolin student training in Zen is very important. The process of training in Zen, regulating the diet, becoming aware of the problems in the heart and mind and thus causing them to disappear will create a harmony in your body and soul. In your daily life walk, sit, lie down with awareness. Constantly try to know yourself and understand yourself. In this state you enter into Zen meditation. You can also say it is a process of Zen training. Shaolin is famous for Zen, not for kung fu.It is not only about one part of your body it is about all of them together. When you turn, use the qi to turn the body. First the hips, the legs and arms follow. When the hip starts to turn the body rotates. All the parts follow. In this state, you can get the right feeling of kung fu. It is not only striking with the hands. In the traditional kung fu you first protect and then attack.To defend, you can gather all the energy from every part of your body especially your legs to give yourself total power. This kind of form stresses consistency, which will turn your whole body into a fist.The rotations should not be done with the arms alone, but with the entire body. As you are turning there can be many ways of rotating, so that the two hands are two doors of your body. In particular the footwork should be coordinated. If your footwork is coordinated you can use every part of your body to attack. It doesnt matter if you ware walking, sitting, lying down Zen should be everywhere. Everything is Zen. Zen is kung fu. Zen is wisdom. So this kind of kung fu is the inside and outside working together. Every day, Ive been doing exercises that involve moving from one stance to stance, slowly and methodically, rotating and recoiling with the legs, waist and shoulders. Whilst doing it slowly, you take great care in noticing the change in your centre of gravity from leg to leg.Holding these postures for long periods of time creates great stamina. Its the kind ofburnyou get when youve gone up and down a mountain, rather than sprinted for a bus.The inside of my hips feel well used from all the twisting. Similar to that feeling you get after the first day of skiing, just the inside of the hips instead of the outside. Its definitely building my flexibility and strength. Shifting weight exercises keep the body nimble so when you evolve to fighting techniques, you adapt on the fly depending on your own balance and your opponents.

A lot of the exercises involve changing from upright to crouching like a spring. These exercises are trying to building the speed and power in your legs to regularly change your height (but maintaining stability), so that your head becomes a moving target both horizontally and vertically, i.e. multiple planes of motion.There are some that are done fast and with power.

Here is a demonstration video of the standing exercises done by Master Wu -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYsAFw4zlXw

How hard are these power leg exercises?Well, put it this way can you throw yourself up from a one legged squat position (heel on ground) and twist 180 degrees and land perfectly? These are some of the tougher ones. I personally cant do it from one leg yet, but Im working on it I need to improve a combination of flexibility and power. Being top-heavy does you no favours(yes, compared to the guys here, im a beefcake).

Another one you can try to test your balance can you slowly squat down to the floor with one leg with your heel on the ground whilst keeping back completely vertical?

With the heel up, its easy, but youll notice youll lose allgroundingso if you try to stand back up, your powers all gone.

What about all the kung fu fighting?None yet, Im expecting that in weeks 7 and 8 (or so Im told).

Is there any fun in the training?A funny moment was when Master Wu was trying to get his point across to the group about needing to be springy. He pulled over one kid, put his hand on his head and sprung him up and down like you would bounce a ball. I didnt understand a word, but I got the point. If he did that with me, Id probably have no cartilage left though.

The Pressure Of AppearanceIt only struck me yesterday, when I went to shave my beard, that the only place theres a mirror around here is by the dinner hand out window. In London, Ive been used to one in my bedroom, one in the bathroom, one in the lift and handful in and around the workplace. I realised that its nice to be in a place where appearance isnt an everyday pressure or a signal of social status. So I questioned why do we care about appearance and why doesnt it matter here?

Firstly, lets define appearance. Im not talking about genetically good looks, rather Im talking about well-groomed you are, because thats how people tend to look at it in western culture. Off-the-bat, a good appearance usually signals that you have money (because youre spending it on yourself), pay attention to fashion trends (because youre wearing it) and youre popular (because we associate super groomed celebrities with popularity). So we like to look good as much as possible.

Why doesnt it matter here?Well, the reasons for having a good appearance here arent applicable. It doesnt signal money, because no one here has much its a much flatter monetary hierarchy. Fashion trends arent applicable to a small rural town because even if youknewwhat the latest thing was, you couldnt get hold of it. Thirdly, without newspapers and limited TV, theres little indulgence with celebrities and their lifestyles.

So what does matter instead then?If appearance doesnt, youre basically looking for a replacement for an attribute that demonstrates social status. These are the ones Ive picked up on:

Ability to be late, but not get reprimanded for it When the bell goes off, you have about a minute to get from your room to a line up outside. Its obvious to me that any time a younger kid is late, they get some penalty exercises to do. Theres a handful of older, continuouslylate arrivals, who manage to slip through.

Ability to jump the food queue Dinner should be handed out largely speaking in age/height order. So the younger kids go first all the way up to the oldest. If you manage to jump the queue, whether by cleverly tapping someone on the shoulder at the right time or bullying your way through, it puts you in good stead.

Which area of the building you live Quicker hot water on the ground floor, fewer people per room, working toilets and distance from the school room means all round better quality of life on the ground floor. Top floor corner is a little more like a ghetto.

Which room you eat your meals This is somewhat related to the food queue. By jumping the food queue, you can get a seat at the table with chairs. Recently, some of the older kids have been sneaking in sauces to have with the food. Seat at the table means a tasty meal, otherwise youre left squatting on a mini stall.

How much you get b*llcked by Master Wu This one cracks me up. Every so often, Master Wu will drop in a class and strategically takes apart the senior instructor whos teaching us. Its good, because it show just how much more can be done to work on and improve your technique. But it leaves me thinking something like if HE [the instructor] is so far from the perfect form, what must Master Wu think about me?. What it means is that the more feedback you get, the more experience you must have.

Moving from a Small Town to the Big City of Beijing

Home Destinations Asia Travel China Moving from a Small Town to the Big City of Beijing

Moving from a Small Town to the Big City of BeijingBy Monday night, my time at the Wugulun Kung Fu school had come to an end. Two months there had flown by. I cant emphasise enough how much of a good experience it was. What I learned about myself, understanding the benefits of the repetitive traditional kung fu training, discovering the fundamentals of mastering any martial art and meeting such an open and loving bunch of guys. Before I left, I bought some gifts to give out to the students sweets for everyone and for the students in my group a badminton set for the young ones and some bracelets for the senior ones. When it was announced at the dinner line-up that Id be leaving the following morning, 30 sad-looking faces turned to face me followed by questions like tomorrow? and you come back?. It didnt last too long (realising there were sweets up for grabs) and I had a precession follow me back to my room after to find the sweets. The most senior student had them all line up outside and each one stepped forward to take the sweets, thank me with a hug and fall back into line.

It was a far cry from the initial culture shock I felt when I landed at the school. Its amazing how things change. How much will I miss it? Im not sure but time will tell.

After a two hour cab ride to Zhengzhou airport, I caught my flight to Beijing. Even at airport, I began to feel the changes moving from a small town like Dengfeng to a big city.

A small meal at the airport cost 8 TIMES as much as the local place I religiously got my egg & tomato noodles from in Dengfeng. Its not that I couldnt afford it, but I couldnt help but think of the two families who slaved all day every day to earn an eighth of that and vehemently refuse any tip. I could feel the attitude of the people in the airport you could sense the abruptness in their body language. Suddenly, social hierarchy was back in the picture economy/business/first class tickets and pushing for queue positions (its not a problem when youre anonymous and will never see the people youre pushing in front of ever again). In the school, most people hadnt even seen an iPhone before. Sitting at the departure gate I noticed that almost everyone SPECIFICALLYhad iPhones AND laptops. An iMac shot by me on the conveyor belt at the baggage collection just enough time to get a blurred shot.I didnt think the difference between a small town and a big city would be that obvious, but it was.

Getting from Beijing Airport to the 365 Inn Hostel was very simple. Although their very helpful instructions did help, and the fact that purposely missed the Beijing rush hour on the subway, the big difference I noticed was EVERYONE I interacted with spoke Mandarin with an accent I could understand and they all knew enough English when I didnt. As I walked down the street from Tiananmen Square to the hostel, I noticed for the first time in two months, people didnt stare at me. Seeing a Westerner wasnt a big deal to them like it was to everyone in Dengfeng.

Although there was little difference in sharing personal space (I got lucky landing a dorm room with no one else in it), the luxuries of the room were immediately obvious. I was the happy owner of a mattress (instead of a light blanket on top of wooden slats), anen-suite shower room (instead of sharing two with thirty others) with a western toilet (instead of a drop toilet) complete with loo roll holder (instead of needing to perfect the art of balancing it in one hand) and working electricity. Sadly in the last couple of weeks leading up to leaving the kung fu school, the regular strong winds kept causing the numerous badly taped fixes to the electric wire that ran across the trees in the fields to break. Whilst losing electricity isnt a big deal in itself, the school relied on it to get access to water through a pump. So no electricity, no water (hot or cold), no shower, no toilet (pits outside the school were even a push on the ones I experienced at Glastonbury Festival). A side from the shelter, it felt a little like camping. Packing my bag on the last night in the dark was a challenge. I was in a hostel dorm room, but it felt like a Hilton Hotel presidential suite.

I spent that evening, exploring some of Beijing. I had St Josephs Church earmarked for an evening visit. The church on their main shopping street was being used by numerous couples for pre/post wedding pictures.

As the sun set, the church was beautifully illuminated and the wedding photography session continued.

To get to the church, I meandered through numerous Hutongs (Beijings traditional alleyways) and stumbled upon a very busy food market where you could just about anything that grew on a tree or moved in its past life fried in oil and presented on a stick.

Starfish and snakes were the most surprising.

The following day, still used to my early morning kung fu wake up schedule, I got up and out of the hostel at 6am to see the raising of the flag in Tiananmen Square. I heard the square was big, but gees I hadnt estimated a 10 minute jog across it to make it in time, a security bag scanning station on entry ora couple of thousand people would be up at the same time to see it all Chinese tourists from what I saw, complete with their tour guide colour-coded hats to keep them herded together.

I got as close to the front of the crowd as I could just before it started, underneath one of the badly disguised security stations that played tweeting bird music as you waited.

As the music played I focused on the set of soldiers that I heard would march to the flag. Only when the flag had fully raised and the crowd started dispersing, did I realise I had been watching the wrong guards and not the ones I had expected to see march perfectly in time as everyone was there to see. Damn it.

Wrong guards

Right guards (on the right)

Now I had a two hour wait until the Forbidden Palace opened. Sunrise kite watching, a loaf of Strawberry flavoured bread and watching all the guards march into their resting place in the Palace kept me occupied.

Like Tiananmen Square,The Forbidden Palace is MASSIVE. This is a view from above from the park opposite.

Theres numerous temples, each ranked using the number of dragons in the corners of the roof. This one being the highest ranking building.

The sight has been burned and plundered plenty of times in the past. These gold-plated vats in the grounds even had their layer scraped off.