Archive for the ‘travels’ Category

I am typing this from Narita Airport in Japan while we wait for our connecting flight to L.A. via Honolulu.  Since our Beijing time has come to an end I wanted to post up some photos and experiences that we had here in Beijing during the last 10 days.  Got to see a bunch of people, although not as many as I thought I might.  But overall it was a positive experience and a good chance to get some things on track before heading off to the U.S.  So, here are some photo highlights for your enjoyment:

Wang Fu Jing’s Night Food Market (7/16)

 

Ruhi in Wang Fu Jing (7/16)

 

I’m excited to be in Beijing! Taken in Wang Fu Jing (7/16)

  

This is the mother of a friend who studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU or “Bei Wai”).  She was staying in the same apartment as us while she was there, but after a few days she had to return home to Malaysia. (7/19)

And this is her daughter, who’s name I can say but can not write for the life of me.  Something like “Nythiya”?  “Nydyia?”  Anyway, she is in a degree program at Bei Wai, so naturally her Chinese is pretty good. (7/19)

This is our friend Brian, who is a teacher at Bei Wai.  We were staying at his apartment during our time in the capital city.  Next to him is a student who came over to practice a speech she was giving at the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium a day or two later.

 

Of course, no trip to Beijing is complete without visiting with some wushu folks.  Here we are with Hao Zhi Hua at the Blue Frog restaurant in San Li Tun’s Village Mall.  Cary was there too, but I didn’t include his photo because I was afraid his hair would attack me.

All the Wushu West folks will recognize Sunny, our intrepid tailor and all-around fashion police.  James was there to put in a big order for his friend’s wedding and I was there to get a jacket and shirt made, along with some clothes for a few folks in the U.S.  Yay for Ya Xiu!

And then there is Wu Di.  We met up with him, Osric Chau (another alivenotdead artist who you might remember as the young Tibetan monk in the film “2012”) and Stephen for some sushi and fun.  Wu Di shared a script idea with us and we gave him our feedback.  Then he was nice enough to drive us back home.  I was hoping to see him again before I left, but my schedule was crazy and I wasn’t able to see him again.

Wu Di

 

Osric Chau

Stephen

The next are a set of photos from “Pure Lotus”, a Buddhist Vegetarian restaurant located in the Chaoyang area near San Li Tun.  Great food and a very unique environment made it a great eating experience.  I ended up going twice, both times treated by someone else!

Buddhist statue made from wood.

This is their menu!  It is about 3 feet long and weighs close to 20 pounds.

Main entrance area of the restaurant.

A cup of tea

Word of wisdom

Some vegetarian hand rolls.  Very delicious.

And finally, one of the things I was doing here in Beijing was some work for Khalil Fong and his fan club.  Some of it was administrative, some of it was fan interaction and logistics, and some of it was photographic.  I got to attend his concert here in Beijing which was quite spectacular.  Soul Boy has some skillz.  I was able to hang out in the dressing room beforehand and also get some pictures from backstage, so I wanted to share a few of the ones I like the most here:

 

Some autographed concert cards for fans

Backstage with some band members before the show

Jun Kung on guitar!  Ray on Base!

 

I like his energy in this shot

Left: Taken from back stage, Right: sipping some water between songs

 

I like the light in this one.  No photoshopping required!

View of the audience from the 1st row.

While at the concert I ran in to an old friend from back home.  Marla!

At the concert were Dayyan and his wife Bei Bi, along with another friend Saba, who was the DP on one of Ruhi’s film projects a few years back.  Saba joined in at lunch the next day since he and Khalil are old friends and I snapped a picture of them comparing cameras at the table. 

Yes … we at at “Pure Lotus”.

 

And that more or less wraps up the main highlights of the trip.  We got some good stuff done and I had a nice time but now it is time for us to head off for our month-long trip to the U.S.  Keep your eyes peeled here as I blog our travels around the western hemisphere!

One more bonus pic, taking a queue from Emilio.

This latest excursion to Hong Kong was originally supposed to be a quick 3 day business trip.  But due to circumstances it ended up lasting over a week and included a few interesting experiences.

This time around I opted for air travel, since I was a bit more pressed for time and train travel does take a bit of time.  Here are some photos of my early-morning flight from Xi’an to Guangzhou, as well as my bus trip to the Guangzhou East Train Station and the train trip from there to the Shenzhen border.  I actually took the train to Lo Wu, but since I was going to Jack’s it was much easier to take the Shenzhen subway to Lok Ma Chau (Futian) and cross there.  Then I could just catch a $10HKD bus straight to his front door.

Here are some pictures of that trip (By the way, all photos were taken courtesy of my new cell phone.  I didn’t bring any other camera with me to test if it was a good solution for trip blog photo taking – seems to have done the job decently … ):

I arrived the day before Jack was leaving for the U.S. to attend a friend’s wedding so we went out to grab a bite to eat at “China Land”, a restaurant close to his home.

But the fun was short-lived since I had a lot of work to do at the North Point office where I would be stationed for most of my occupational duties.  While working there I thought it would be a good chance to experiment on different ways to make the commute from Tin Shui Wai to North Point.  The fastest ended up being the 969 bus to Sheung Shui (although it goes all the way to Causeway Bay) and then the MTR to Quarry Bay station.  Less than 90 minutes (for around $28HKD).

But by far the most pleasant way was to take the 269 bus to Hung Hom ferry pier and take the ferry across from there to North Point and walk a few blocks to the office, however it took the longest at just around 2 hours (for $25HKD).  The 269 bus is nice too because it also goes through TST, which is pretty convenient.

I took pictures of my various travel methods which you can check out here:

A few highlights from my trip were checking out a showing of Kick Ass with Khalil, Davina and Yuklan, spending the night in an office in TST while setting up a computer network (which I ended up having to re-do a few days later – ugh!), Checking out a super late showing of Iron Man 2 in Mongkok on my last night in Hong Kong, catching coffee with Ryan at Starbucks, eating dinner at a really fancy restaurant located in a clothing store, going computer equipment shopping in Wan Chai, and getting some great expense tracking software for my HTC Touch Pro 2.

Here are a few highlight photos from the rest of my time in Hong Kong:

On my way back through Shenzhen I got my wallet picked from my pocket at the Futian Border crossing.  That would have sucked way worse if I actually had anything vital in there.  Just an ATM card for one of my Hong Kong banks and about $60HKD.  All of my vital stuff I keep in my travel belt wallet that goes securely under my shirt and pants waist.  So aside from some inconvenience it didn’t create any super horrible situations and I was able to make it to my subway / train / taxi / plane / bus back to Xi’an, where I arrived home, safe and sound, just an hour or two before Cindo de Mayo.

This will be my last trip to Hong Kong until at least sometime in June.  It will be nice to spend a bit longer at home, since I’m up to my neck in a backlog of work and tasks that need completing.

Some big news and information about my future plans on the horizon too, but it is still premature to talk about that, so for now you can just keep your eyes peeled for the post in the coming weeks.

Its been a while since I provided an update on my life in Xi’an.  There have been a whole lot of photos taken from the various activities that have happened since the beginning of the year.  As I recall the last time I blogged about the happenings in the Walled City was waaaay back around my birthday.  So here are some of the highlights since that time. (You can click on a thumbnail to view the full image).

January

January was a cold month.  I spent most of the time focusing on my wushu.  In fact, it would be one of the last time I really got a good amount of training in this year (so far!).  This was also the month Charisse was staying with us prior to our February trip to Hong Kong for the Family Reunion and Vision that Inspires Conference.  We had a visit from Mejdi and his son (he’s been in China for a loooong time), I got to visit the Sports University, get my health card and a bunch of other stuff.  We also went on a day-trip to YanLing to visit some Friends.  Here are some highlight photos for you to check out:

February

We were gone 3 out of the 4 weeks of this month.  Hong Kong was calling so we headed down.  I posted a ton of photos from this on my Facebook and Picasa albums, so you can check those out.  Click here for my favorites.

A few other highlights was getting to meet Kevin Spacey and having a waaaaay-in-the-distance-hard-to-see walk-on extra role in the film that Dayyan was making with Kevin and Daniel Wu (and Gong Beibi, of course).  Can’t wait to see if I’m actually visible or not.

February is also when Ayyam-i-ha, the annual Baha’i holiday, is held.  We had a nice little get together in our home to celebrate (nothing too big – just a few friends) which just happened to coincide with the Lantern Festival which brought a great fireworks display directly outside our window.

Also on the schedule was the celebratory dinner for the end of Carmel Consulting, the company that Ruhi was general manager of.  It only took half a year to close the company.  Welcome to China!

Some photos from February:

March

March was the Fast, which is the 19 day period from March 2 – 20 when Baha’i’s do not eat from sunrise to sunset.  Not too many photos from March due to my constant hunger (hahaha) but I did manage to get a few here and there.  I did take a quick 2 day trip to Hong Kong though around the 26th, but there isn’t too much to write about that.  Ruhi started school in March so she was pretty busy with her studies.

March in general was a low-media month for me and I didn’t really take that many photos. Actually a lot of my media was video, which is a pain to edit, so no pictures to share. Maybe next time.

April

Well, April is still going on, but it has already been pretty chock-full of stuff.  My friend Lisa paid a quick visit to Xi’an and I took her to my favorite noodle/dumpling place near our home.  I got to practice the arts with some calligraphy and sculpting, and I spent a week in Hong Kong (and am going for another trip on Monday!).  I didn’t make it to the Wushu competition in Hangzhou, but I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last one.  Since Xiao Yu qualified for the next round I have a feeling I’ll still be able to shout and scream for my friends and training mates in the coming months.

Here are some photos from this month so far:

I am currently sitting in my train just having passed through Zhengzhou station in Henan Province.  Come to think of it, this is the sixth time I’ve gone through this station in the past year.  I wonder if Liu Hai Bo is near here …

The shanty town I just passed reminds me of Haiti.  Although unlike Haiti there are high rise apartment buildings just beyond them. Lots of construction in Zhengzhou.  More than most cities I’ve visited in China.  I guess that Shaolin money is doing its job.

Anyway, after a week in Hong Kong filled with meetings, meetings, work and some stress, I’m finally on my way home.  And boy do I need a trip home.  I will have to soak it all up though because I’m coming back to Hong Kong on the 26th for 3 more days.  What happened to my wushu training?  I haven’t been to wushu in a month or so if seems.  “Out of shape” does not even begin to describe things.

Some highlights …

Where i bought my new cell phone: HTC Touch Pro 2

On the bus

 

MBDF

 

Hold on!

 

 

 

Jack

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All photos courtesy of my new cell phone!

So, if you couldn’t guess from my Twitter Feed or Facebook or wherever else I have an online presence, I was not able to make it to Hangzhou for the wushu competition. A little bummed about that, but not much that can be done about it.  Instead I’m heading back to Hong Kong for a business trip.  In fact, I am at the Xi’an train station as I write this.

I picked up a 3G USB Wireless Modem at the DianZiGuangChang in Xi’an and signed up for a trial package to see how it works.  The 3G stick includes a slot for my 8GB MicroSD card too, so it acts both as a modem and a memory stick (8GB MicroSD was 115 RMB or around $20 USD).  The USB modem was 320 RMB and I signed up for 3 months of the lowest nation-wide access rate plan, which includes 60 hours of online 3G access each month up to downloads to 15GB.  If this proves to be helpful there are plans that allow for unlimited use.  I think the best deal was unlimited nation-wide use for 2800 RMB / year.  That comes down to around 200-something RMB / month, which is only around 100 RMB more than I’m paying for this plan.

Anyway, the plan is 100 RMB / month but you have to get a 3 month block.  So I paid 300 RMB for that.  Around 735 RMB all together.  Not too bad.  I have 3 months of 3G wireless access for a little more than $100 USD.

The other reason I got this was because next month (assuming this works well) I’m planning on attending the Duilian competition being held in Tianjin.  Yeah, it isn’t your normal wushu competition, but I feel bad about not attending this one so at least I can provide some interesting duilian footage from Tianjin.  I hope to Tweet from the competition too and if that works well, then you can be sure that, come Nationals in the fall, I will be there with my laptop giving you the up-to-the-minute play-by-play.  Will even try to post some pictures from the event too, if possible.  And even video, you ask?  Well, who knows?  That is entirely possible.

I’ll keep this short.  I have more stuff to blog that I’m a little behind on, but I’ll save that for when I am able to plug in my computer.

BTW, I’m putting together an FAQ here on wushuzilla so that all of the (constantly repeating) questions I get will be searchable through the website.  You can ask a question here if you want it included:

Today I made my way to the Sports Center to borrow a few silks from Xiao Yu (just helping some friends out with something).  I had to get there before they left for the train station since today was the day they were going to catch the train to Hangzhou for the competition which starts on Monday.

I made my way to her dorm room and hung out with her and Zhang Yang as they finished up their packing.  She was nice enough to give me a copy of the schedule for the competition events so I thought I would share it here with all of you.  One interesting thing is that they moved Changquan to the 3rd day.  Usually they have it on the morning of the first.  Anyway, here it is:

DATE	TIME	CARPET 1	CARPET 2
April 5 (Monday)	08:00	Women’s Daoshu (38) Women’s Qiangshu (34)	Men’s Daoshu (69)
	14:00	Men’s TaijiJian (43)
	19:30	Women’s Nanquan (30) Men’s Nanquan (41)	Men’s Jianshu (43)
April 6 (Tuesday)	08:00	Women’s Jianshu (35) Women’s Gunshu (38)	Men’s Gunshu (66)
	14:00	Women’s Taijiquan (42)
	19:30	Women’s Nandao (26) Men’s Nangun (37)	Men’s Qiangshu (43)
April 7 (Wednesday)	08:00	Women’s CQ (48) Men’s CQ (58)
	19:30	Women’s Taijijian (43)
April 8 (Thursday)	08:00	Men’s Taijiquan (43)
	14:00	Women’s Duilian (15) Men’s Duilian (16)

I’ve highlighted the events I definitely want to attend with red.  The ones in blue are ones that I would like to see, but may not get much footage of, either because they are concurrent with a preferred event on another carpet, or because I might not be there.  (Those 8 AM sessions are brutal).

Also, there is a slight chance that I might not get there until Monday afternoon, in which case I would be missing the Monday morning events.  I’ll have a better idea once the weekend is here what my status will be.

Anyway, I hung out with Xiao Yu and Zhang Yang for a bit.  Pretty soon Xiao Yu’s best friend (who’s name I forget) come in the room to help them bring their luggage downstairs.  She’s super nice and also from Shandong, Dong Ming.  A Sanda athlete who is apparently pretty good because she has her picture up as one of the athletes who were “celebrated” upon her return from the All China Games.  Don’t know if she medaled, but she probably got at least top 8 in her division.

She mentioned that she has a Sanda competition coming up in Anhui on April 8, so she will be preparing for that.  If any of you are in Anhui you can be sure to check it out. (She also mentioned that I’ve lost weight, so what she says MAY be subject to interpretation.   )

Wu Ya Nan met us at the bottom of the stairs and then we walked over to the bus.  As we were walking he said “I haven’t seen you in training much lately” and I mentioned that I had been in Hong Kong for a week for work.  But he’s right and I’ve been reflecting lately about my lack of attendance in the wushu guan.  Once I get back from the competition (hopefully rared up and motivated from watching lots of good wushu) I really want to revamp my commitment to my training.  I need to get in the gym more.

After a while the rest of the taolu athletes came and loaded themselves on the bus.  I took video of the whole thing so you don’t need too many details from me here.  Sufficeth to say it was neat to see them get the send-off for competition.  Now I kind of wish I had been able to go with them on the train, but it is good that I have a few days in Xi’an still since I have a lot to do.

Here is the video for you to enjoy!

 

One good thing about today was that I went running in the morning.  I was meeting James and Adam at their place so I decided to make it a run and hoofed it over.  Here is the map and distance:

So, not a super long distance, just 2.1 km.  But it felt good to get out on the road again.  I walked back as well, so I guess that is another 2.1 km of walking I can add to that.  I’m going to really try to do more running during this week away in Hangzhou / Shanghai.  Actually, I have a commitment with James and Adam that we each will go running every day for 2 weeks, so that is extra motivation for me to do it as well. 

Thats all for today.  There is some wushu classes at the Sports Center, but mainly just a few straggling kids.  I think I would rather focus on getting some of my projects finished so that when I come back to wushu after the competition I can really go at it full steam ahead.  Until then … lots of running!!

As I mentioned before, I have a trip to Hong Kong planned for this week.  Actually, I’m sitting at the World Famous “Flying Pan” restaurant in mid-levels as I write this.  But first let me start at the beginning …

Leaving Xi’an

Inspired by my last trip to Hong Kong where I did a poor job of packing, I made sure that this time around I was the epitome of efficiency.  Everything I needed for a 6 day train trip to the South of China was in one small bag strapped across my back.  More on that later, but first a little bit about the trip from Xi’an.

I had booked a train ticket (soft sleeper upper bunk) leaving Monday, March 22 at 17:06 from Xi’an train station.  Normally I would have caught a bus from home to there (1 RMB on the #14 or #40 bus) but I was running a little late so I opted for the taxi (23 RMB).  I made it to the train on time and settled in to a nice bunk along with my 3 other cabin-mates.  During the whole trip I took video footage from various locations so instead of giving you the play-by-play, but unfortunately the video from Xi’an to Hunan didn’t turn out okay.  But I was able to get some video of a good chunk of my trip, so here is the video for you to enjoy:

As you can see, I finally made it to Hong Kong and as I mentioned before I am sitting at the “Flying Pan”, I had a sandwich and I’m doing a bit of work while waiting for Pat to come home. 

Packing Light

But before I sign off I just had to show you my packing video.  This shows what I packed on this trip and how I keep my travel quick and light. 

To be honest, I think I could have packed even less (I don’t really need the book, since I have the audio book too, but I did end up looking at it a lot) and I really should have brought a different pair of shoes (can’t beat my waterproof merrill’s) but packing is a constantly evolving art and each time I learn something new.  Hopefully you find this interesting:

I pack differently for different types of trips.  This summer when I go back to the U.S. for 2 months I will most likely pack a bit differently.  And naturally at that time I’ll be sure to share all the details with anyone who is curious (i.e. you?).

Tomorrow I have meetings all day and I have some on Thursday too.  Thursday night I might cross to Shenzhen and stay there overnight so that I am not rushing too much to catch my train in GZ by 11:00 a.m.  But we’ll see how things progress and I’ll keep you all in the loop.

- Mark
Hong Kong, 1:47 AM

Last night Ruhi and I had a wonderful dinner with Khalil and his mom at their home.  While there he showed me these videos he made that were quite funny and I thought you guys would appreciate the martial arts humor.  There are three of my favorites.  Enjoy!

I am still in Hong Kong and will return to Xi’an on the 24th.  I will blog and provide photos and what not from my trip once I have had a few days to reacclimate to home.

Just a quick update to let you all know where I am and what I’m up to.

After a busy week Ruhi and I flew down to Guangzhou on Sunday afternoon/evening. We’ve been running around a lot and I’m going to write another more detailed blog later on when I have time, but here are a few highlights from the past 3 days:

• I met Kevin Spacey on Monday afternoon.  I almost didn’t wash my hand again.
• I did some background acting/extra work behind Daniel Wu and Kevin Spacey on Tuesday evening.  I hope I don’t end up on the cutting room floor.
• I’m going to be attending a conference in the New Territories for the next 2 weeks.  Tonight was the orientation and tomorrow the sessions begin.

So, I might not be online too much, depending on our schedule.  And anytime I am online I might have to be working and can’t really blog too much.

But I’ve been taking some videos and pictures so you can look forward to things later on in the future.  Until then … bye!

Today’s practice was brought to you by the number 3. As in the third section of my nanqan form, which is what I was spending most of my time working on today.

The first part of class started off like most others. Warm ups (led by Yuan Ming), stretching and basics. Then it was time for sections. I started with my 4th section and went through it 4 times (I guess today is also brought to you by the number 4) but when it was time for me to start on the 3rd section I realized I didn’t really have it fully figured out yet.

Some of the athletes, like Xiao Yu, were on the other carpet working through their stuff, so I joined them and spent most of the class trying to fix the things that didn’t feel right with my 3rd section. Part of what I was working on was utilizing some of the suggestions that Gao Song had made regarding my movements in Hong Kong. But utilizing that feedback requires me to really retool some of my form.

Actually, most of my form.  He sort of shifted my paradigm a bit so I need to go through each movement and re-evaluate how I do it and whether or not it fits in with my personal style of wushu and nanquan.  A daunting task to be sure.

Anyway, after class I needed to pick up a memory stick that Xiao Yu had borrowed, but since she had left it in her dorm room she said I could go with her to check out what the living conditions are like for the athletes.

Actually, I had a few surprises.  Which I suppose I shouldn’t have had since I’ve seen the dorms before, albeit a different building.  Back in 2008 during the China Nationals in Xi’an, Wu Di and Zhao Qing Jian were living on the same campus while training with the China National Team for a demo in Taiwan.  I got to visit their room then.  In fact, here is a picture from that:

Anyway, the dorms are pretty much as I expected them to be.  Think post-industrial concrete meets pre-modern industrial.  A little utilitarian, but still quite livable.  The one thing that I was really impressed with was that each room only housed two athletes (unlike the 6 person rooms back in Beijing or the 4 person rooms in Shanghai) and each room had its own bathroom.  Thats right!  No communal toilets.  Rather nice.

Yue Xiao Yu’s roommate was Zhang Yang, who you might remember from this blog entry.  Xiao Yu is also quite the entrepreneur.  I remember when she came to my house a few weeks back, she mentioned that she would take the bus (1 RMB each way) to the train station to buy candies and various 点心 and then bring them back and sell them in her room.

The store at the school sold them for a little more than she did, so the students would prefer to buy them from her since it was cheaper and she was closer than the store located in the next building over.  She made a small amount of money because her costs were lower than she sold them for.  Not a ton of money (we’re talking a few mao per sale) but it was still pretty industrious of her.

Fast forward to today and I got to see the operation in action.  Actually she stopped doing it, but she still has some stock left over from her last trip to the Train Station so until she sells out she can keep selling them.

One of the little kids (from this blog entry) came in while I was there, clenching a 20RMB note in her hand ready to buy some candies.  It was pretty cute.  One of the Taiji athletes came in as well and bought something to eat.  It was mostly candies, crackers, chips .. that sort of thing.

While we were there I tried to show her my alive.tom.com blog (since it is the only place my photos are viewable in China) but her connection was super slow so it didn’t load up.  In the meantime she showed me her QQ page and the little girl also used her computer to check something.  I got some pictures of them here:

One of the things we talked about was a few questions I had related to having foreigners come and train with the Shaanxi Team. I’ve had one or two requests for specific information related to training here (mainly for people wanting to come during the summer) so I was doing some investigating.

I have to say that, while I enjoy having a professional wushu team all to my self, I realize that this is a pretty nice situation and a decent facility and that some other folks out there might be interested in knowing more about what it would take to come train here too. Especially since planning for your summer China training trips are probably in the works.

The other nice thing about this location is that it is probably the only city in China that has a richer history than Beijing (or at least pretty darn close), and some of the greatest tourist sites in the country. Add that to the fact that it is sooo much cheaper than training at Shi Cha Hai (but also keeping in mind that it isn’t a fancy 5 star hotel either — in case that sort of thing is important to you), and I personally think that it is a nice option for those who might be interested.

In any case, I’m not a travel agent, but if you want some information feel free to contact me through my website’s contact form and I will keep you in the loop with whatever I find out regarding training options in Xi’an.

Next practice … Wednesday morning!