To China And Back

A painted rafter in White Cloud Daoist Temple (and look! She's riding a tiger!). I loved it here.

So, I am back from China...

Right. This means I'd have to have gone there first. When I mentioned earlier in this little post here that I would be Broadening My Horizon, that's what I meant.

And do not get me wrong. It was not a vacation. At all.

First and foremost, I went to China (and when I say China I mean Beijing, China) to improve my gongfu. That sound familiar? Yeah, that's where the word kung fu comes from. However, it really means one's degree of skill in some field of expertise. That does not necessarily have to be a martial art.

In my case however, it was. I was eating bitter as the Chinese say to improve my Taiji skills. (Eating bitter means that the training was real hard. My feet are still sore...)

Of course when one goes to China, one has to experience the culture and the people, go look at the sights. Between that and about seven hours of training a day, there was hardly time for such mundane things as sleep, let alone writing. Much catching up to do there.

One amazing thing I realized when I got there was that I kinda missed Twitter and Facebook. Before the trip, I would have sworn that to be impossible but there you go. I actually missed Facebook. I'm feeling quite ashamed.

The Great Wall, shrouded in mist. Gee, what a climb that was!

I also found myself getting rather attached to smog. You see, Beijing is constantly covered in smog or, for those of a more romantic disposition, dew-soft mist. You cannot see blue sky. The sun is always just a big roundish smudge and looks just gorgeous when it sets as a burning red ball. It was so weird but I also loved it.

This is one of these sunsets, but my camera did a poor job of capturing it.

Come to think about it, I loved the entire Chinese Experience. I loved the people and hated that I couldn't really talk with them because I speak only very little Chinese. I loved the food. I loved the grayish dreamy look the city has and how it always seems to be buzzing with life. I guess I'll be posting more about everything here, but not now. I remember haggling for some calligraphies and I think I'd like to look at them now to think back to the noise and the smell and the heat...I already miss Beijing.

Did you really think there was no night life in China? At night, Beijing is almost more alive than during the day.