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On the way, there were many interesting sights, such as, people being carried up by two sedar chair bearers. It looked like hard work for the bearers and a little scary for the person being carried because some parts of the mountain are very steep. Temples and hawkers dotted the filtered sunlit forest. After what seemed a day of climbing (approximately four hours), we reached the Golden Hall, the summit. These temple buildings, listed as UNESCO heritage sites, were constructed around the same time as the Forbidden City, using the same architectural style. The breathtaking views, blue sky and being amidst the beautiful cloud formations gave one the impression of being in a Chinese celestial realm. We saw Taoists in traditional garb, floating up and down the mountain paths oblivious to the rest of the world. For a few short hours, we soaked up the heavenly atmosphere and imagined what an immortal might feel like in his paradise. All those who got to the peak spoke in glowing terms of the difficult climb and the remarkable atmosphere that awaits the pilgrims. Then, just 12 km back down the mountain and we can relax …… About 2km from our hotel down the road is the Wudang Taoist Kung Fu Academy which is connected with the Purple Cloud Palace. Taoist Abbot Zhong Yun Long is the president of the Academy. He explained the history of Mount Wudang and how it is the birthplace of Tai Chi and the internal styles of kung fu. After an interesting discussion at the Institute and a hearty lunch nearby, we were treated to a wonderful display of Wudang martial arts. All present were impressed by the high level of skill displayed by Abbo  t Zhong’s
disciples and students. Besides martial arts, the Institute also
teaches Taoist astronomy, calligraphy, painting and music. By the way,
we were told that some martial arts students are able to climb to the
top of Mount Wudang in just forty minutes!!From Wudang city, we headed for Beijing. The capital city is large and spread out. It is a charming place, an enigmatic blend of the old and new. We stayed in the 4-star Courtyard Marriott Hotel which is attached to a large modern shopping centre. Playing Tai Chi with the Hun Yuan group at the Heavenly Temple Park was a most enjoyable experience. We quickly felt a connection with these people who are also learning the same Tai Chi system. One day we were treated to a very special session with Grandmaster Feng Zhi Qiang. It was opportune for us to meet with another Hun Yuan Tai Chi group from Seattle. The location where we trained with Grandmaster Feng was very peaceful, an oasis in the heart of Beijing. Grandmaster Feng said that it was a special occasion that the Australian and American practitioners could come together in this special place to practise Hun Yuan Tai Chi. We all agreed that there was a strong presence of energy in the place. There are many more treasured moments, far too many to mention here. The food, the atmosphere and the people all contributed to an enjoyable and memorable trip. We all appreciated having a national tour guide as competent as Vincent. When you look at the photo album in class which shows some of the spectacular sights, you will wish that you had been there. I hope you’ll all have the opportunity to visit the Land of Dragon, a unique experience which will reward you with many joys and fond memories! – Chief Instructor Brett Wagland
We thoroughly enjoyed
the trip. Although one doesn't know what to expect when visiting a
country for the first time, we hadn't realized it could be so good.
There were too many highlights to mention them all: the sheer number of
beautiful people; the spiralling flyover roads in Shanghai to cater for
the volume of motor vehicles (they seem to merge in the streets as they
must have done on their bikes when there were fewer cars); the
incredible lights in the cities, particularly Shanghai as we saw on the
evening drive in from the airport and the evening river cruise; the
parks where the Chinese people seemed to gather in the early morning to
participate in some form of exercise – Tai Chi as expected, activities
using bats and balls, fans, and even ballroom dancing; visiting temples
and palaces of great beauty and seeing where Chairman Mao spent much of
his time living comparatively simply it seems; the Great Wall and the
mind boggling work it must have taken to build it.
Talking about goats – Mount Wudang was big, very big. We only touched on the possibilities. How many will return to pursue the rest? High mountains, endless steps up into the clouds and mists, the heart-testing stone, temples old and new, some repaired and some just modified, the Cloud Dragon Taoist Master and his amazing Junior Demons, the Taoists from Taiwan Province (as stated on their banner and with whom we continually crossed paths) and their captivating ceremony. All these remain along with overnight trains, interesting hotels, wonderful people of the “real” China and the small Wudang City that had ten internet cafes charging one yuan for a half hour. But what is a tour without shopping, endless rounds of banquets and one temple or two too many? By the time we had stayed in Beijing it had all happened. Shopping, the Great Wall (so what if it cannot be seen from space?), Tiananmen Square decorated for China’s National Day (or Guoqing) and the experiences of the Beijing subway. There is so much more to see in Beijing than in Shanghai – sorry Stacey (our Shanghai guide). Beijing is balancing the old and new. Shanghai seems to be becoming like something out of the “Jetsons” despite having a unique history that unfortunately just got replaced by a subway. And everywhere we went we had our due and proper dose of culture shock as well. However, the concept of having every waking minute completely organised and planned, re-organised and re-planned and disorganised and unplanned all at the same time was still only partly accepted by us westerners when we sadly said “bye bye” to China. We had wonderful guides – both national and local. The jokes they told are even now still a bit of a mystery but punch lines that were unconsciously missed in translation were mostly compensated by those inadvertently added in translation. So it all balanced, as it should in China. Our main guide, Vincent Wu, really was one of the guys as well as Mr Fixit and became a good friend as well. We may even meet him again when he does a “dry run” for his planned tours through the Australian outback. Maybe he will need local guides? That could be an interesting opportunity to repay many debts. The experiences, once the memory train starts, come out like an unravelling thread. Better to tie them off at some stage and leave the pattern on the jumper intact. But they are also quite different for each person who went. It is therefore better to tie them off and keep it all general as well. So finally, what kinds of things were learned for our Tai Chi journey? Maybe from Wudang I learned you should never ask a Taoist kungfu master his age, and from Grandmaster Feng that on the outside the main thing to avoid is the wind and on the inside the main thing to avoid is anger. From our friends in the Temple of Heaven Park came the insight that the Hun Yuan opening is "pung lu ji an" (ward off, roll back, press, push) in disguise. And overall? As usual for China – a one-liner will do. “What is an archer without a target?” – David
I
thoroughly enjoyed my trip to China and it is difficult to single out a
highlight. The whole experience was enlightening.
Mount Wudang The day we walked up
This was my third trip
to China,
the others being in 1994 and 1995. Many of the sights we visited were
familiar to me so I was able to take time to soak up the atmosphere and
observe change.
Shanghai Museum My first big surprise was
It was here that we were fortunate enough to meet Grandmaster Feng and
his daughter, Miss Feng. I will never forget the experience of meeting
and working with Grandmaster Feng and his daughter. His calm, gentle,
spiritual nature shone through as he led us through Qigong and talked to
us about our training. He also showed us a massage technique. When he
applied it to my back, I felt all the tension, heaviness and worries
rush down and drain out through my feet. It left me feeling very light
and carefree. We were very privileged to experience the wisdom
of Grandmaster Feng's words, his thorough commitment and complete
dedication. The atmosphere at the Beijing residence of His Holiness the
Dalai Lama where we met Grandmaster Feng was most conducive to
practising Tai Chi. I felt a great sense of warmth and energy flowing
through my body which stayed throughout the entire visit, even out in
the rain! As well as visiting many other tourist spots such as Tiananmen Square, the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven, we also shopped!!! Shopping in China is such fun - from the enormous department store (next to our hotel) to the roadside tourist stalls. Finding a bargain takes on a whole new meaning in China, when the final price at a souvenir stall can be one third of the asking price. Bargaining was fun and very much expected!! An enormous thankyou to Fontane and Brett for making this trip possible – I know there was a great deal of time and energy put into organising it for us. I have so many wonderful memories. There are things I didn't do and didn't see this trip so I'm saving for the next one!! – Joy
We went on the trip primarily to see and do Tai Chi where it was developed and where it is still an important aspect of lots of people’s lives. We hadn’t previously thought about doing such a trip, but when the opportunity came up to undertake the experience with like-minded people we thought it would be a great way to travel.
Everything about the trip exceeded our expectations. The Tai Chi experience was fantastic, the grandeur and spectacular scenery around Mount Wudang was stunning, we loved the food, particularly once we started getting more local dishes (bony freshwater fish with tomato sauce was the exception), Chinese people were friendly and very interested in us all, traffic was unbelievable in both the level of congestion and absolute disregard to any semblance of road rules. Minibus drivers on Mount Wudang are obviously all frustrated rally drivers and must have a bet on who gets there first on every trip.The highlight for me was the trek to the Golden Hall on top of the highest of the 72 peaks of Mount Wudang. The trip was originally to have been by cable car but that was not working. Our national tour guide predicted about a 3 hour walk which would have had us back at the hotel around 1:30pm for lunch. It was very steep and extremely hard going in places and it took twice as long as predicted with us eventually arriving back at 5:20pm. Fortunately, we came across a little village near the peak and had a great lunch there with a bottle of local Fire Water which I’m sure helped us to make it the last kilometre or so to the summit. Once on top, the views were spectacular and the feeling on antiquity and serenity that surrounded the Golden Hall was incredible. The Taoists were undertaking renovations and improvements to the area around the hall, carrying and carving stone in the same painstaking and labour intensive way that I imagine was used when it was originally built hundreds of years ago. Heather particularly enjoyed the Tai Chi practice sessions in the Temple of Heaven Park and His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s residence in Beijing. Here we were fortunate enough to go through the Fa Soong Gong and Silk Reeling exercises and then the Hun Yuan Tai Chi form with Grandmaster Feng and his daughter and other locals. The feeling of qi flowing seemed to be really intensified by doing the practice with a group of such experienced people and in such a special place. We both also really enjoyed the Great Wall. Even though we had read about it and seen pictures, we just hadn’t appreciated the ruggedness of the land it is built on and the immensity of the job of building it until we got to see it close up and walk on it. – Wayne and Heather
Shanghai
Shanghai I
Wuhan was a great taste for communist China and it was unbelievable to be looking out the hotel window to the Yangtze River. The city was less flashy and there was more of the military feeling in the buildings and streets that I had expected to see in China. The people were probably the most friendly of any place we went, the waitresses were chatty and food was spicy and really tasty. It was our first taste of the great sweet and sour fish that seemed to appear in every meal in the country areas from then on. Lis and I even managed to compete with the locals with our impressive display of washing hanging from every available nook in our room! It was great to see Mao’s villa, in its 1960s style. I still can’t get my head around how we westerners were trudging through his house after so many decades when our leaders didn’t have contact and everything was secret. The villa was not foreboding at all but very peaceful and quiet.
Mount Wudang
Mount Wudang The epic walk to the top after our 5am train arrival was the most
memorable. There were views across the misty peaks and the forest was
humid initially but after a few hours the air was crisp and views more
enclosed by trees. I was surprised by the number of people living and
working along the track. The grunting men carrying slabs of water,
people on bamboo chairs (or even a television!) would run past
regularly. The steep stairs were broken by open areas with small
houses, people cooking, drying onions, cutting chilies and selling
water, souvenirs, a few nuts or mountain mushrooms. There were areas
where filtered light streamed through the canopy and there were small
shrines cut into the rock or priests at temples waiting to tell your
fortune …very mystical. We managed to meet for lunch (what turned out
to be a feast that barely fitted on the table) and Fire Water at the
largest village near the top, perched on plastic chairs taking up the
entire shop.
Some final memories of Wudang After the exhausting and inspiring time climbing the mountain, it was nice to discover that there were other places equally as special in Wudang. One of the most enjoyable was the Purple Cloud Palace, about 15 minutes down the mountain from our hotel. The Taoist temple was staggered up the hill side with a steep central staircase. The buildings to the side were like enclosing wings that felt protective and welcomed you to walk further in and up to the main hall. The buildings colours were beautiful dark blues, turquoise and reds that had a great faded and dusty look. The style and colours on the buildings really reminded me of images of Tibetan Buddhist buildings. After climbing the stairs we could hear chanting coming from the main temple. Inside, the elderly Taoist group we had shared a train waiting room with in Wuhan were kneeled down facing the altar. Women in bright yellow ceremonial gowns chanted and gave readings in front of the colourful and offering-filled altar. The dark and dusty corners and edges of the hall were silent and the smell of incense combined with the dry air of the old building. Many of us stood inside the doorway for some time, feeling part of the powerful sounds, smell and spirit of the place. It was sad to leave Mount Wudang. In such a short time there were so many varying experiences and sights. It has certainly sparked a curiosity to return with more knowledge and language under my belt in order to explore the region and culture more thoroughly. Leaving Wudang
We woke up early on the train from Wudang to Wuhan. Looking out the
window in the early morning light, there were glimpses of the flat
Chinese countryside. There were endless paddy and vegetable fields with
occasional, lone brick or concrete houses left standing in the middle.
People were already out in the fields picking crops in the hazy grey
light. Beijing After the dramatic construction-fuelled modernisation of Shanghai, a week in Beijing felt much more settling. The foreign influence was still strong in Beijing but seemed more subtly engrained (as though it had already gone through most of its westernisation). In general, there were more English signs, and the sellers in shops and on the street seemed more tourist savvy. It certainly felt as if the city was preparing to open itself to the world for the 2008 Olympics. The shopping mall our hotel was in was an eye-opener to a world of capitalism and consumerism I had expected to see more of in Japan. The fashions and variety of international food and wine were a world away from the shops we passed in Wuhan. The new China I guess! We saw so many amazing sites in Beijing, but of all the places we stayed, I found it hardest to absorb a feeling for the culture of Beijing. Perhaps it was the volume of people at each site and the way in which our tour whizzed to and around them. I think I just found it impossible to comprehend the historical significance of the city, especially when many of the sites were already so famous in my mind. Tiananmen Square Tiananmen Square was such a grand and monumental space that I felt like an ant running around on a table. No matter which side or higher “lookout” spot I thought I’d found, I could never really see from one end to the other and grasp how big it really was. Most of us had mixed feelings about the Square, given the events of 1989, but it was such a busy and social space filled with young families and kites that it was hard not to enjoy the lively energy. Imperial Palace
The Imperial Palace exceeded my expectations as a window into the history of the Chinese dynasties. I had never expected the Forbidden City to contain so many buildings and to cover so much of the inner city. It took us the entire afternoon to generally walk in straight line through the centre of the complex. The ceremonial axis through the palace was very powerful. The red gateway entry from Tiananmen Square (under the site of Mao’s People’s Republic Declaration) was the first of numerous gateways that led progressively further into inner compounds and eventually out into palace gardens.The cost and labour that went into building and maintaining the buildings must have been immense. There were so many buildings, each designated for a single particular purpose such as weddings, meetings, etc. It is hard to know whether it would have felt like a prison to the concubines and servants living there or whether it was a pleasant life, safe behind the walls from the rest of the city. It was interesting to learn that the everyday people living in the Hu Tong alleys had to have grey houses in order for the yellow/gold roofs of the palace to gleam over them. Life in the palace would have been a world away from life outside.
Temple of Heaven The Temple of Heaven was probably my favourite site in Beijing. The circular and symmetrical layout was much more subtle and at a more human scale than most of the “grander” sites we visited. The feng shui, astrological and lunar principles it combined gave it a special connection with its site and an important link with nature. Despite the grandness of the Chinese Empire, it was fascinating to appreciate their reliance on the seasons and harvest. The circular altar was a powerful place to stand and it was easy to imagine the Emperor performing his agricultural prayers. From the altar we could see back across to the park with its dark conifers and grass. In the foreground there were people kicking hackie sacks and playing badminton and in the distance was the area where we practised Tai Chi in the shade with the Hun Yuan group.
The grand finale to the trip was probably the Great Wall. After all the things we had seen, I hadn’t really thought much about how I would feel about seeing the Great Wall of China. The first glimpses of the Mutianyu section we visited were from the cable car and I was surprised that they really did get my heart thumping.The sharp ranges of hills and mountains we could see from the summit were almost as spectacular as the wall itself. It was amazing to look closely at the white stones and the style of the wall and to appreciate the epic proportions by which it was built. I hadn’t realised there would also be so many guard and sentry towers along the wall, each with special windows and fireplaces. It certainly must have been desperate times for a wall of that magnitude to even be attempted. We wandered back down from the cable car to the bus and got our most ferocious experience of street vendors … Endless stalls of women screaming “Lady, lady, I remember you!”, “Remember me?”, “You need a t-shirt!”. At one point, I had a woman holding both my wrists and another blocking my path as I tried to leave without a purchase. It was a relief to reach the bus for our monumental six hour journey home via the Ming Tombs.
Some Quiet Reflections
Seriously though, it
was great to discover how positive, generous and friendly the Tai Chi
community generally is – and not just the people that we met in China
but especially the people on our trip – I missed them all heaps during
the following week when I travelled to Japan on my own.
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