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Един месец в Шаолин (en)

     Wangshang village has no street drains so after a thunderstorm the roads and fields are flooded for several days due to the clay subsoil; electric power cuts are quite common and cause the loss of lights, ceiling fans and the pumped cold water supply. In summer you wash or shower in cold water. You dry your towels and clothes by draping them over convenient bushes. The toilets are of the traditional squat variety.    The traditional Chinese diet does not include milk products and also lacks any sweet foods or coffee, which some visitors miss more than others. Due to the extreme heat you get through about 6-8 bottles of water per day (the tap water can be drunk once you are used to it but it’s not recommended for visitors). It’s also necessary to put back the salts that you lose through profuse sweating – I did this by dissolving a pinch of sea salt in each newly opened bottle of water. I also found that jasmine tea before going to bed is very relaxing. A typical training day (Sunday-Thursday) at the Academy goes like this: (afternoon break – for sleeping) Fridays and Saturdays are free days when you can either train by yourself or relax or travel to a city. I travelled to Dengfeng, Zhengzhou, Luoyang, and Xi’an on different occasions, to see monasteries, temples, pagodas, grottoes, and the terracotta army, and also to do some shopping for martial arts equipment and presents.  Basics is a fixed sequence of drills involving skips, jumps, punches and kicks, singly and in combinations; in northern shaolin Kungfu almost all kicks are instep (slap) kicks except for the axe kick which uses the heel, similar to Taekwondo. The moves are not counted in Chinese (yi, er, san, si, wu, ...) but by saying “zou” (meaning “continue”) for each move.  Unlike karate (which means “empty hand”) weapons are an integral part of Kungfu. Each weapon also has its own series of forms; these include the Guen (flexible long-staff), Jian (straight sword), Dao (broadsword), Qiang (spear), Bian (chain whip), Pudao (horse knife), and many others. I got the chance to handle the Guen, Jian and Bian but there wasn’t time for me to learn to use them properly (a good reason for a return visit, perhaps?).  Qigong is also practised in the mornings. It involves controlled breathing exercises and external conditioning exercises. The forehead, hands, feet, knees and elbows are conditioned by repeatedly striking bags of hard beans (or later on, pebbles) mixed with a natural anaesthetic; the shins and forearms are systematically knocked with a wooden stick. Headstands on a flat stone and launching the body backwards onto a brick wall are also part of the conditioning regime. This must be continued on a daily basis, as the conditioning effects are quickly lost once discontinued. Sanda is pad and bag work and sparring with gloves and helmets. It is quite similar to the equivalent Taekwondo and Karate workouts, The Academy also has a Chan Room, where you can practise seated meditation (Zuo Chan) with incense and buddhist icons and statues to help you; this is normally done only with the guidance of an instructor and is completely voluntary. It is another way to help you raise and focus your internal energy (or “chi”) and I wish I had found the time to do more of it during my stay. Fortunately Master Wang invited me to come back for another visit so I must have been doing something right! Below is a photo of me and Songmei and Master Wang at the Academy just before I left to return home.  


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