Hey guys!
Super sorry for not posting last week - it was really hectic because on Friday we left Beijing to begin our week long “社会调查” or “Social Study Project” and by the next day our new "week" had already begun and I had no time to write a blog. Like I said before in my previous post, I chose to go to the Shaolin Temple, so this entire post as well as a (soon to come) video blog that I will post the link to here will document my experience! :) The video blog will also replace this week's blog post -- it'll be nice to see things in video form instead of just reading about it!
In short, this was what our schedule was like at Shaolin:
Now THAT is definitely what I call intense. 5:30 am runs?! 6 hours worth of training!? To be honest, I almost chickened out after I saw how rigorous our schedule would be and almost chose to go to another place for our Social Study Project, but in the end I knew that if I chose to go somewhere else I would sorely regret it, so I stuck with my gut (and my dream) and chose Shaolin, and I am SO GLAD I followed through. This experience was one of the best I’ve ever had in my life.
Let’s do a run down of my week as a Shaolin Student:
On Friday right after my test, we took the 高铁 (bullet train) from Beijing to Zhengzhou and it only took about 3 hours.
Later that evening, we arrived on our new “campus”, 塔沟武术学校 Tagou Martial Arts School.
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| This is an outside training field. Pretty legit. |
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| Students outside training. |
The next day we started off “slow” by climbing 三黄山 Sanhuang Mountain. It took us around 6/7 hours to ascend and descend.
We also visited 少林寺 The Shaolin Temple.
The day after began our first day of training. Our school is situated around 2 km away from 少林寺 The Shaolin Temple, and there is a road that connects the two. That morning at 5:30 am, we ran that distance and did stretches and straight/outside/inside kicks right outside 少林寺, which was a really cool experience.
Granted none of us were really good, but to be training on the very spot where so many famous movies have been filmed and so many famous wushu masters have once trained was inspiring. Afterwards, we ate breakfast and trained for 3 more hours. These first 3 hours focused on getting basics down, so our 教练 (coach) taught us the basic stances of wushu: 马步(horse stance)，弓步 (boat stance)，仆步 (drop stance)，歇步 (rest stance)，and 虚步 (cat stance). I had learned these stances at Yale, but that didn’t mean getting used to doing them repeatedly was any easier. It’s been a while since my muscles have had to work out so much, and I was definitely exhausted after going through drills of all the stances and having to hold some of them (especially horse stance).
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| 歇步 (rest stance) |
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| 仆步 (drop stance) |
After we got the basics down, our 教练 taught us the basic beginner form that all students usually first learn: 五步拳 Five Stance.
Afterwards, we had lunch and then a 3 hour break before we began training again until 6 pm. The second round of training was just as intense as the first - we even learned a brand new form: 连环拳 (the best translation of this I could find was ‘Small Linked Boxing’).
This “block” schedule would be a typical training schedule for the 3 days of kung fu training.
Later that night, we enjoyed an awesome Shaolin performance.
The next day, we visited Songyang Academy 嵩阳学院 and Zhongyue Temple 中岳庙. Both were really cool, and I think both were centers for Daoism and Confucianism. Sadly, the biggest thing I remember about visiting these places was how much my entire body hurt as I walked around. Seriously. My body felt like it got hit by a train - and that was only after the first day of training! This first wave of pain would be nothing compared to what would come later.
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| A statue of Confucius. Apparently every day before class students would have to first come here to bow before the statue. |
That afternoon we got the chance to talk to some of the locals who lived around the Shaolin area. Hearing them talk about their lives was really sad, as a majority of the people we talked to were elderly and had gone through a lot in their lives. The heaviest thing I recall hearing is a grandpa saying, “If I could tell you a sentence to describe my life, it would be ‘Not enough money.’”
The day after was the second day of training. Granted movements were a bit hard as my body didn’t want to move, period, but it was a good day’s worth of training. We reviewed the two stances we had already learned, practiced punches, stance transitions, jumps, kicks, and rolls. We also learned a more applicable, boxing-style fighting form: 散打.
The next day, we climbed 嵩山 Song Mountain. In China, there are five mountains that hold great cultural and religious (Buddhist and Taoist) significance - they are called ‘五嶽’ ‘The Five Great Mountains.’ Song Mountain is the center mountain, and its summit is about 1,500 m above sea level. The trip up was actually very fun, and I felt like I bonded with the group that I traveled with (we were the very last group - don’t judge! We were all really tired!). It took about 8 hours to get to the top and back down.
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| This is stance is called "snake stance." |
Afterwards, we visited another wushu (martial arts) school in the area (there are tons of them) and had the opportunity to talk with the students there. At the school that we trained at, there was apparently only 1 girl student, but at this school there were many girls. This school was also more newly built, so the facilities were more modern. I actually really liked this campus - it felt inviting and open. The students that we talked to were so nice. The youngest was 4, and the oldest was 18. We spent around 30 minutes talking about their lives at the school, their hobbies, their families, their future dreams… This was actually by far my favorite activity that we did because getting the chance to have an exchange with students like this is such an eye-opener. The world that they live in is totally different than ours. Their wushu skills were also amazing. They performed jumps flawlessly and went through forms quickly and powerfully. It was mesmerizing to watch.
The day after was our last day of training, which was very sad. We “perfected” (read: tried our very best) our forms and performed them in front of our peers. The two videos earlier were my performances. :)
Later that day, we were fooling around on the basketball court and actually managed to play a game with some of the students. That was really fun! We also got to see their 高考, the equivalent of EOIs/end of semester exams/etc.
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| The judges watch the students' performances and then hold up a card with their scores. |
The last day we visited the city of Luoyang 洛阳 and the Longmen Grottoes 龙门石窟. The Grottoes were incredible, and if not for the fact that I could barely walk and was overall just exhausted, I would’ve enjoyed the experience much more. A lot of the statues have their faces demolished — this is because during the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese government basically shunned Buddhism and set out to destroy important religious relics. It’s a bit of a pity, as some of the statues are truly a sight to behold.
This past week has been the most physically demanding experience I've ever put myself through, but I couldn't have asked for a better group of people (我的少林寺大家庭) or 教练 to have experienced The Shaolin Temple with. From 5:30 am runs and 6 hour training sessions a day to hours upon hours climbing mountains and immersing ourselves in the local culture, this past week has been unforgettable, and Shaolin will always have a special place in my heart. For now it's back to Beijing - 少林，再见! （7/3/15 - 7/10/15 哈北班社会调查）
The photos posted here are only a fraction of the amount I took. If you want to see the full set of photos, go to my Facebook photo album here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1125087470841998.1073741847.100000222667148&type=1&l=9376a51f5a
Enjoy! The video blog will go up next week! :)
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