Club Trip To China 2002
Our trip to China began at 4.30am on Tuesday 9th April meeting at the club’s headquarters. Our group included David Richardson, Emma Murati, Nathan Hill, Martin Evans and myself. We were then driven to Heathrow airport by two of the student’s parents Alan Hill and Steve Baker. At Heathrow we met up with Jonathon Staples, his girlfriend Helen and his other student Andy. We flew to Beijing via Vienna, arriving at 6.30am the following morning.
After changing some money at the airport we travelled by minibus to the Capital College of Physical Education. This was to be our base for the next three weeks. After unpacking and a short rest we went to a local restaurant for lunch. We all ordered different dishes to make a large buffet for the eight of us. When the bill came, it worked out with drinks to approximately £1.80 each. Chinese food at cheap prices, what a bonus. After the meal we went to a large local indoor market called the 5 Star Market. This proved interesting, comparing local Chinese prices to those back home in England. We also seemed to incur a large amount of interest from the local Chinese. Jonathan informed us later that not many, if any westerners travel to this part of Beijing.
We got up early the next morning to start our first lesson at 8am. This covered stretching, basic exercises, kicks, and a basic open hand routine.
That afternoon we travelled to Tiananmen square and entered the Forbidden city. Just inside the Forbidden City, there was a mock up throne room where tourists could have their photos taken while dressed in traditional costumes. Our group succumbed to this tourist gimmick and all dressed up for our photo shoot. The Forbidden City is a vast site with many buildings, gardens, court yards, squares etc. Many of the buildings are closed to the general public, but are still impressive and very attractive all the same. We took full advantage of these splendid surroundings taking many individual and group photos. In one of the squares we were able to watch squads of palace guards performing various exercise drills and martial art techniques. I imagine this is also done in public to demonstrate the guard’s fitness and ability for those who may have had any doubts.
After training on Friday we took taxis to the Scitech area of Beijing. This area contains the foreign embassies, and many shops for westerners. First we looked around the Friendship department store, which sells many Chinese goods, arts, and crafts. Next to this store is a Baskin Robbins ice cream parlour. Due to the warm weather we all piled in and had a refreshing ice cream. We then walked to the local silk market, which contains Chinese gifts and clothes, as well as many copies of various designer goods at remarkably cheap prices. We all filled our boots here (as Martin Evans would say) and left at closing time clutching several carrier bags each full of souvenirs and presents.
Sifu Paul Burkinshaw And Sifu Johnathan Staples In Front Of Lake At Summer Palace
On the Sunday we visited the Summer Palace on the outskirts of Beijing. This site was the royal summer residence away from the Forbidden City.
At The Foot Of 'The Tower Of The Fragrance Of Budha' View From The Top Of The Tower Looking On To The Lake
This is a vast site containing many gardens, courtyards, various buildings and a huge man made lake at its centre. We spent all day leisurely strolling around this site but still only managed to see half of what was there. As with all the tourist attractions in Beijing, you are constantly having to deal with hordes of people trying to sell you things, from postcards to Chairman Mao watches. Part of this site even had its own street full of various shops so that the royal family could look around them without having to mix with the commoners.
After leaving the Summer Palace we then went to several local martial arts weapons shops. Many of the Chinese weapons are very difficult or impossible to find in the UK. Needless to say, much money was spent here buying what our hearts desired. To me this was like being in an Aladdin’s cave, and I needed help from the group to carry what I bought.
Wangfujing Street Lit By A Blaze Of Neon Lights
After training on Monday we took a taxi to Wangfujing Street in the centre of Beijing. This street has two McDonald’s, a K.F.C, a Starbucks coffee shop, American sandwich shop, plus others to cater for the Westerners missing their junk food. On this street I also found a tailor’s and decided to have a suit made. I chose a navy blue cashmere material and opted for a mandarin style suit, with two shirts to match for an excellent price. After leaving the tailors we then found a market running off one of the side streets. Besides the usual goods there were also some local artists sketching portraits. Both Emma and Nathan decided to have their portraits done which drew a crowd of observers.
Side Street Market Off Wangfujing Street
Tuesday during training we started to learn a Northern Long Fist open hand form, which proved more interesting than the basics we had been covering so far. Each weekday’s lesson usually consisted of a warm up, stretching and basics for the first hour, and then learning a form etc for the remaining half an hour. Later on we returned to Wangfujing Street and had lunch at the Starbucks coffee shop and a nice piece of cake to finish off. While the rest of the group browsed around the shops I returned to the tailors for my first suit fitting. While I was there I also bought a silk jacket for my wife and several other items for the kids. We then travelled across Tiananmenn Square to look at some other shops around the Qianmen district. We found a local market here and our group filled their boots again buying more gifts and souvenirs.
Tiananmenn Square At Night
On Wednesday we decided to return to the Summer Place to see the remainder of the site. In the taxi I pointed to the wrong place on the map and we ended up at the Temple of Heaven instead. This didn’t matter though as we were intending to visit this attraction during our stay any way. The temple and its grounds cover a vast area, as do all of the old royal sites in Beijing. The structures and buildings are divided into two areas. The first area is a large flat square structure, which represents the earth, and the second area is a round structure on three levels representing heaven. The emperors would come here to pray for good harvest. As with all these sites incorporating impressive buildings in attractive grounds we took many photos of the surrounds, and every now and again jumping into a martial arts pose for good measure.
From here we caught a taxi to the other side of the city returning to the weapons shop. We all bought spears ready for weapon’s training which was to be our next class subject. While at the shop, we couldn’t resist buying a few other items of interest.
Entrance To Lama Temple
On Thursday afternoon we went to the Lama Temple not too far from the centre of Beijing. Like several of the incredible traditional buildings in the area, many modern buildings have risen up all around them. This creates a stark contrast between the artistic traditional buildings and the bland modern high rises of today. It can seem like stepping from the hectic hustle and bustle, into a calm tranquil place, which is literally only yards away. At a local gift shop several of us bought some traditional Chinese watercolour scroll paintings as more souvenirs. From here we returned to the tailor’s shop in Wangfujing Street. I had the final fitting of my suit. Martin was impressed with the quality as well the price, and so decided to have two suits made for himself. Dave and Nathan not wishing to miss out opted for some hand made silk shirts with a dragon design in the material. The tailor offered me a very good price on a silk waistcoat in appreciation for the extra work.
Friday morning Dave and Emma needed to go to the bank which left Nathan, Martin and myself to train. This proved to be one of our best lessons yet as we spent much of the time learning a new Long Fist form. After a quick shower and change we went to the train station. Jonathon and arranged for our group to be looked after by a Chinese student called Abe. We then took a sleeper train to Zhengzhou which arrived about mid evening. We left our bags in the local university student rooms we had hired for the night, and went for dinner. This meal turned out to be our worst of the whole three weeks. Even Abe was not impressed with the food.
The next morning we caught a bus to Shaolin. This proved to be a very frustrating journey for our group. The bus was part of a tour and consisted of numerous visits to various sites along the way. In the end we missed some of these out and arrived at the Temple shortly after lunch. Personally, and for the group, this was the high point of our trip to China.
Entrance To The Shaolin Temple
After reading many books and watching lots of films about the Shaolin Temple I was now actually walking in and seeing first hand the grounds and buildings of this sacred place. Things such as the main door to the temple, the 1000 Buddha hall with the foot indents in the floor, and the wall paintings of the monks training are things I’ve read about, or seen in pictures and on T.V many times.
Sifu Paul Burkinshaw In Front Of Ancient Wall Painting Sifu Paul Burkinshaw And David Richardson In Courtyard
I wasn’t disappointed with anything and decided to pay the extra money to sign the visitor’s book. For this extra cost I also received a certificate from the monks and was allowed to photograph this important occasion. We continued to walk around the temple taking photos of everything. From the Temple we walked onto the Pagoda Forest. After walking around the area taking the usual tourist photos, we then quickly changed into our training uniforms for a more official club photo.
After changing back into our normal clothes we left the Pagoda Forest and toured around the stalls buying T shirts and other souvenirs. Later on we returned by bus to Zhengzhou and then caught the overnight sleeper train back to Beijing. Sunday was spent just chilling out after the hectic last few days travelling to Shaolin.
Monday’s training session was excellent. The usual warm up and stretch seemed a bit briefer before moving onto the open hand form and then the spear. Before we knew it the lesson was over, which seemed to prove how enjoyable that session was. That afternoon we returned to the centre of Beijing to continue our usual pastime of browsing around the shops. We then returned to what was now becoming our usual haunt. At the tailor’s shop Dave and Nathan’s shirts were finished and they tried them on. Both fitted perfectly and they were well pleased with the results. Martin had the first fitting of his suit and I collected my suit, which was now also finished.
On The Edge Of The Summer Palace Lake
On Tuesday we returned to the Summer Palace. We had only seen part of the site the previous week and had all decided it was well worth a return visit to see the rest. After a walk around the opposite side of the lake to our first visit we crossed the bridge onto the island. We found a nice spot here and had a picnic lunch. This area at the rocks also made for a nice back drop against the lake for some more photos. We then continued to tour the grounds and found some man made caves / tunnels. This proved good fun exploring these and gaming around.
At Wednesday’s lesson we completed the first two Long Fist routines and then continued working on the spear. In the afternoon we returned to what is called the Snake Market not far from the Temple of Heaven site. We had been here a few times before browsing around, and I had ordered a stamp at one of the shops. These stamps are made from a stone resin material with designs chiselled out of the stone. I had ordered our club’s logo with the dragon and tiger design. This had proved a more detailed job than the usual letters or names people normally have on them. The man had made an excellent job of reproducing it and I was very impressed with the accuracy and quality of this stamp. From this market we had all bought some nice and unusual presents. Dave and myself had bought nine dragon plaques, Nathan and I had bought brass statues of the Monkey king, and I had bought a pair of figurines performing the lion dance besides other items.
Friday’s training session was the last one during our stay in China. We practised both the open hand forms before moving onto the spear. This spear form continues several awkward moves, which proved difficult tasking us for a while. Teacher Lou showed us what to do making it look so simple and easy, until we tried it. After much practice things finally dropped into place and we completed the routine. At the end of the lesson we thanked our teachers and took several photos as a momento.
Teacher Lou Teacher Ding
Saturday night Emma and Nathan went for a meal with Jonathan so that Martin, Dave and myself could go out. We caught a taxi to near the Chaoyang district and went to Beijing’s Hard Rock café. We had a meal and several drinks while watching a live band or music videos. The food and drink were very good, and it made a change to have a cold beer instead of usual room temperature beer we had got accustomed to drinking recently. Dave and Martin got up once or twice near the end of the night to have a dance, while I happily watched on from the bar. The only real difference was the cost. When we had normally gone out to the local Chinese restaurants and had a good meal with drinks the cost had been about £10 for five of us. The cost of the meal and drinks at the Hard Rock café was £67 for the three of us.
On Saturday we travelled by mini-bus to the Great Wall at Badaling. We spen our time there walking along the wall for several miles which in certain places proved an arduous task because it was so steep following the contour of the mountains. The views from the wall were quite remarkable as we could see the wall for many miles until it disappeared into horizon.
At one point you could get a certificate and photo saying that you had walked the wall which I though would be an excellent souvenir. Also at this point there was a cable car leading back to where we had started which some of us used as an easy option to return back to where we began.
Sunday we relaxed and sorted out our cases for coming home. We were all over the normal weight allowance and so had to do a bit of juggling around. Several of us had to discard some old clothes, towels, toiletries etc to get nearer to the correct weight allowance. Some of us including myself were still way over the weight limit, but luckily on Monday morning at the airport we were all allowed through with out any problems or penalties.
We all had a great time, with many new and amazing experiences. Everyone seemed to ask the same question though. “When are we going back?”
Written by Paul Burkinshaw
Chief Instructor of Sil Lum Kune & The Shaolin Fist Chinese Boxing Association