wushuzilla

Archive for the ‘travels’ Category

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:

Zhao Qing Jian and Wu Di in Xi'an, 2008

Ma Ling Juan playing cards, Xi'an 2008

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:

Yue Xiao Yu looking studious

Xiao Yu using her laptop

Little Girl using Xiao Yu's computer

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!

When last I blogged I had gone to Monday’s wushu training with the Hong Kong wushu team and then went to dinner with Gao Song his wife and a good friend. In the evening I grabbed the MTR back to Tin Shui Wai and headed to bed.

Tuesday I had a lunch meeting with a client in TST. We went to an Indian Restaurant called “Gaylord”, that had a very nice buffet. Got some good work done at the meeting and are on track with two projects. After the lunch meeting I headed to Hong Kong Island and had some pages added to my passport at the U.S. Embassy. It wasn’t just because I was running out of pages, but I plan on getting a student visa put in there before my next trip to Hong Kong so I needed space for that.

Gaylord Restaurant - TST

I did a little putting around the IFC, looking through book stores and what not, and almost went to see Sherlock Holmes but decided against it.  In the evening I headed back to TST and met up with Jack, Joanne and Boon for some evening Hot Pot.  While I was waiting for them I saw a place called “Chococat Cafe”.  I had some time to kill so thought I would go and get something to drink.

Choco Cat Cafe up in the distance

A view of TST

A bustling street in TST

It turned out that this was a pretty unique place.  When I sat down I was given a menu.  There wasn’t a huge selection, but I asked for a drink.  Then she said “Okay … lets go make it”.

Say what?  It turned out that at the Chococat Cafe you pick things from the menu and they they show you how to make it!  They have some pasta, chicken wings, salads and a few various drinks.  I got a pineapple, orange drink and so she took me behind the counter and showed me hot to make it.  I could add as much or as little of each ingredient as I wanted.  A pretty nice concept.

A view of the Choco Cat Cafe

A look at the menu

A look at my creation!

Be warned though.  If you have allergies to cats, don’t go there.  They have a few (super friendly and relaxed) cats who hang out there as well.  Not sure about the health code violations of having pets in a restaurant, but none of the customers or people working there seemed to have any issues with it.  I suppose if you have a cat in your home, then having a cat in a restaurant isn’t necessarily a huge leap forward.

Scratching Chairs Encouraged

There is one in Causeway Bay too.

Hot Pot was pretty good.  I haven’t had hot pot in a while but it was quite tasty.  And it was nice to hang out with Boon again, since I haven’t seen him in a while.

Jack and Boon at Hot Pot

J-Bird Contemplates the Menu

Wednesday it was time to head to Guangzhou.  Around 11:30 I left Tin Shui Wai, grabbed some flash cards at the stationary store, and grabbed the 276 bus to Sheung Shui and then the MTR to Lo Wu.  After a quick border cross I made my way to the Shenzhen Train Station and grabbed an express train to Guangzhou East.  I had made a reservation at a reasonably priced hotel on Long Kou Xi Lu (龙口西路) named 龙口明珠大酒店.  It was okay, but the head in the rooms was terrible and it was rather cold.

I spent the afternoon preparing for my meeting with Dayyan Eng (伍仕贤 ).  I’m helping him with a facelist to his production studio website, colordance.com, as well as his wife’s professional site, gongbeibi.com.  He was in Guangzhou directing his newest feature film, ‘Inseperable’, which stars Daniel Wu (吴彦祖), Gong Beibi (龚蓓苾) and Kevin Spacey.   You can read an article here.

Kevin Spacey

It is great to have various friend involved in such a nice project.  It is a great get for Dayyan because he is directing one of the biggest stars in Asia and it is the first time a two-time Oscar winner is involved in a Chinese production.  It is great for Dan because he will be getting some major U.S. exposure, acting across from Mr. Kevin Spacey himself, and it is great for Kevin Spacey because he gets to hang out with cool peoples in China.

The next day, before heading to the airport and catching my flight back to Xi’an, I dropped by the set to check things out.  I haven’t been on a film set in a few years — not since one of Jet’s U.S. films, come to think of it — so it was neat to be in that environment again.  I had an hour to watch Daniel’s scene.  I won’t get in to specifics, but he was in a car.  I think the most interesting part was the local Chinese Look-E-Loos who act way different than the ones in the U.S. (naturally).  Much more gawking and walking back and forth over and over again.  After I saw the same group of people walking down the sidewalk for the 10th time I was thinking “Okay — you aren’t fooling anyone.  Why are you even pretending to be busy?  You obviously have nothing else to do today …”

I got to say Hi to Dan as well, which was nice.  I’ve never actually seen him acting before so that was a change of pace.  I got to see Dayyan doing his thing too, which was also kind of neat.  It is one thing hanging out with someone socially, but when you see them in their professional environment you see a different side to their personality.

After an hour of that I caught a cab to the airport, flew to Xi’an, took the bus to Gao Xin and another bus home.  Charisse, Ruhi and I grabbed lunch at Bacchus Restaurant and then I got to bed at a reasonable pre-midnight hour.  Its nice to be home!

Back Home in Xi'an!

As you may have read on my facebook feed or my previous blogs, I’m in Hong Kong for a few days to renew my visa and meet with a few clients.  But while I was here I thought I would check out the Hong Kong Wushu Team’s training.  Gao Song, one of the HK team coaches, originally from the Liaoning Wushu Team, was kind enough to let me work out with them too.

If you have been in the “loop” you have probably seen the Hong Kong team’s training facility on various videos.  It is located in the Sports Complex out in Ma On Shan in the New Territories.  The practice was at 3pm so I headed out from Tin Shui Wai around 2pm via bus to Sheung Shui, Train to University Station and Taxi to Ma On Shan.  I made it just a few minutes after 3. Here is a map of the route:

View Hong Kong Wushu (1/11) in a larger map

Red Line = Bus from Tin Shui Wai to Sheung Shui
Blue Line = MTR from Sheung Shui to University Station
Green Line = Taxi from University Station to Ma On Shan

Gao Song was also nice enough to hook me up with a pair of shoes to train with.  A little tight to start with, but they stretched out quite nicely during class and now they are very comfortable.  Great slapping sound too.  I think these are the default shoes the HK team trains with.

The class was pretty good.  It started off with the team members playing soccer on one carpet and I did some jogging and my own warming up on another.  The head coach was there, along with Gao Song and another coach, as well as Hei Zhi Hong, formerly on the Beijing Team, but a coach/athlete with Hong Kong too.  No Colin, I’m afraid and He Jing De was back in the U.S., but I was able to see his wife, Ya Qing (Christine) after class, as she coaches the younger kids at 5:00.  Nice to see her again as it had been a year or two since we last met up.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself a bit.  Back to the class…

My Hong Kong Wushu Shoes

After warm ups and stretching it was time for basics.  Of the 9 or 10 athletes training, 2 of them were nanquan people.  I would follow along with whatever nanquan basics they did in the line.  After basics the rest of the class was all small combinations from forms, which turned out to be perfect.

The one thing I have to say about the class is that Gao Song, who was the main coach for the practice, is a really, really good coach.  He is able to provide some really great feedback that gets to the heart of one’s wushu deficiencies.  The corrections he gave me were spot on and its going to give me things to work on for at least the next several weeks.  There are only a few coaches (I can count how many on one hand) that provide that level of helpful instruction, so if you ever get the chance to train with Gao Song, I totally recommend taking advantage of the opportunity.

I wish he lived in Shaanxi.  Because even though the coaches and athletes in Xi’an are wonderful and very helpful, it isn’t quite the same level and I feel like I would really improve very quickly if I had more opportunities to train with him.

Unfortunately while I’m in Hong Kong for 2 weeks next month he will be up in Liaoning visiting family for New Years.  Which is sort of a bummer, but can’t be helped.  It almost makes me want to head to Liaoning.  But … I’ve been to Liaoning in the winter and it ain’t for the faint of heart.

Since it was my first time training there and I didn’t want to make a bad impression I didn’t do any pictures or recording of the practice.  However, I was able to take a little video of Gao Song and his wife at dinner that you can see here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RsgmFWUtRA

I hope that I have the opportunity to come down and train with them again in the future.  It was very educational and quite beneficial, both in terms of wushu, and also because I got to hang out with some good friends.

After a very quick trip (around 48 hours) to the south of China I am back in Xi’an. Nothing major to post up, but just wanted to let everyone know that I am back and should be blogging regularly again soon.

I went down south to renew my visa. I flew down on Thursday afternoon to Guangzhou, took a bus to the Futian border crossing in Shenzhen, and then took another bus from Lok Ma Chau to Tin Shui Wai in Hong Kong where I stayed with Jack, actually not sleeping at all the whole night.

I left off at 9:30 AM and took a bus to Sheng Shui, the MTR train to Lo Wu (Luo Hu) and then the express train up to Guangzhou where I met up with Ruhi and caught an overnight train to Xi’an. I slept a solid 12 – 14 hours during the trip and we just arrived this afternoon.

Since spouting out names of locations don’t mean much if you aren’t familiar with them, I made a few maps to demonstrate the route …

From Home to the Airport in Xi'an

Flying from Xian to Guangzhou (about 2 - 3 hours)

Bus from Guangzhou to Shenzhen

Cross the border at Futian/Lok Ma Chau and then a bus to Tin Shui Wai

Bus from Tin Shui Wai to Sheng Shui and then the MTR to Luo Hu

Train ride from Guangzhou to Xi'an via Wuhan and Zhengzhou

All in all it was a pretty good trip.  Mainly because I didn’t get any illnesses or get snowed in anywhere.  But also because it all went according to plan.  Yay for plans! (Mark likes plans)

Tomorrow morning Ruhi and I are meeting Yue Xiao Yu to go shopping for a bicycle.  I am going to see about doing some video-ing of our excursion too so you can enjoy that. After that I am meeting my tutor, Ada, for an hour of Chinese learnin’ and then I believe Ruhi and I are meeting some new friends in the evening.  A jam-packed day to be sure.  Yay for Sundays!  (Mark likes Sundays)

Just to keep you all in the loop with my bloging habits, I have set up the following schedule for the topics of my blogs (at least for the time being). On Monday – Friday I will blog about wushu, specifically about the training I have on each day, posting up any photos or videos that I might take. On Saturday I will blog a week-in-review of my non-wushu related activities (i.e. the other 22 hours of my day), and then on Sunday I will post up another chapter of my ongoing Wushu Retrospective.

On any days that I don’t have wushu, like this past Thursday, I will either blog something random and interesting, or I will take a day off from the blogosphere and perhaps focus on less important things — like earning a living.

So, in keeping with this brand new tradition, I will bring you up to date with the last week of my non-wushu life here in China.

I actually blogged a bit about this on Tuesday so there isn’t really too much to talk about. But here are the updates:

Travel Plans

Ruhi suggested looking in to getting a plane ticket down to Guangzhou instead of taking the train and, after looking at the ticket prices, I realized that it would only be another 50 RMB to take a plane instead of the train. On Friday I called up CTrip and booked a ticket leaving next Thursday afternoon.

Unfortunately Ruhi had to go to Beijing first, so I bid her farewell after we grabbed something to eat at Subway Sandwiches on Ke Ji Lu. Here are a few pictures I took of her before saying goodbye.

I just spoke with her a few minutes ago and she is safe and sound in Beijing as of Saturday evening.  She will be train-ing down to Guangzhou on Sunday/Monday and then take a quick trip to Zhuhai and Macau.

Meanwhile, I will spend the week working and wushu-ing until Thursday afternoon when I will fly to Guangzhou and spend the night in Hong Kong with Jack.  Then right back to Guangzhou the next morning to catch the train to Xi’an with Ruhi.  Probably the quickest trip to Hong Kong I’ve ever taken.  I will be in Southern China a total of 20 hours before heading back, and in Hong Kong for only 10 or so.

I feel like such a globetrotter!

Chinese Studies

I wanted to write a little bit about my Chinese studies too, since that is one of the things besides work and wushu that I have been focusing on these days.

I have both of my Tutors (Grace and Ada) on a rotating 2-week schedule.  So I meet with each one on alternating Saturdays.  Unfortunately due to a miscommication I wasn’t able to meet with Grace today so this is my first week off of Chinese tutoring since starting.

With my tutors I generally focus on three things:

First, we go over a specific topic that I want to learn vocabulary for.

For example, last time I met with Ada I asked her to teach me vocabulary related to learning Chinese.  Words such as “noun” (名词), “verb” (动词) and the like, as well as a couple phrases related to learning language like 废寝忘食 (Lit. “Less Sleep, Forget Eat” meaning you are so busy studying you don’t have time to sleep or eat) and 临急抱佛脚 (Lit. “Grabbing Buddha’s Feet” meaning a last ditch effort to ask for divine assistance with a test).

Last time I met with Grace I asked her to teach me words related to religion and philosophy such as 精神 (Spirit), 灵魂 (Soul) and 人类 (humanity).  Also how to express some of my own thoughts in to Chinese such as 我觉得所有的宗教同宗同源一位神. (“I think that the purpose of religion is to unify people”).

Second, we review my study of flash cards and I have them test me on how well I’ve learned them.

And Third, I ask them to recite a page from a book or some passage for me so that I can listen and practice speaking in the right way.  Basically providing me with a pronounciation guide.

On thing I’ve learned is that I have to limit the amount of time we talk about new vocabulary.  With Grace we ended up doing a whole hour on new vocabulary, but since I listen to the lessons after we meet during the week (while walking, working, etc.) an hour of new words is a bit too much to absorb.  20 – 30 minutes is just about perfect so I will try to limit the time spent on that area in the future. Also, I need to ask them for more examples of useage so that I get a better idea of how to use the new words.

Besides meeting with Tutors I also am working on learning all the radicals (all 214 of them) through my flash-card study.  This week I am going to start incorporating some actual characters/words in to my flash card study too, since learning radicals doesn’t actually help improve my useable vocabulary very much and I really need to start learning words.

I found a list of the Chinese words based on frequency of use, so I’m going to use that as my base for learning.  I just have to learn 1,000 to have an 89% comprehension of most written texts. Thats not too bad and I think that is certainly do-able over the next year.  So far since starting this just under 2 months ago, I’ve memorized arond 70 radicals.  Based on that rate I should have them all memorized by the time Spring Festival rolls around.  And by the end of 2010 I hope to have all 1,000 of the most frequent characters memorized (fortunately I already know at least 100 or 200 of them so that gives me a head-start).

A few other things I do when learning Chinese (or am going to start doing shortly) are …

1. Learn Chinese Songs: There are several sites that list out the characters, pinyin and translation for popular, folk and patriotic Chinese songs.  I’m going to try to pick up a few so that I can sing along at KTV or just belt out the Chinese National Anthem while walking through U.S. Customs and Immigration.

2. Watch Chinese TV shows: I got Doreamon, one of my all-time favorite Japanese animation shows, on DVD.  They speak Chinese which is going to be helpful with my listening practice.  I don’t have to memorize all the words, but I want to get used to listening to simple (i.e. animation-style) Chinese expressions and vocabulary on a regular basis.  I just wish that the subtitles weren’t in traditional characters …

3. Read Chinese Children’s Books: I’ve picked up a couple simple texts to practice reading and understanding.  The best books have just Chinese with supporting pinyin and no English so that I have to figure out the meaning of what I’m reading.  Just like a Chinese kid would have to do when they were learning to read for themselves.  I figure the best way to learn a language is organically, just like a child does.  So thats what I’m trying to do.

4. Writing a Chinese Journal: I won’t be starting this one until I’ve learned more characters, but I plan (probably around Spring Festival or maybe a bit earlier) to write a small journal in Chinese and have my tutors read it over and correct my grammar and word-useage.  I think that besides reading Chinese, writing Chinese is probably one of the best ways to get a grasp of the written language.  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll even start blogging in only Chinese next year.  Anything is possible!

In case you haven’t seen it, here are a couple pictures of me with Grace, one of my tutors.  Just to prove that I’m actually making an attempt to learn some Chinese while living in China.

Besides Work, Wushu, Chinese and upcoming Travel there isn’t a ton of other things to blog about.  I have started up on my novel again.  I got really far behind in November with my illness and Anhui adventures so I decided to do my nanowrimo in December instead.  I finished another chapter earlier today and hope to get more out the door in the near future.

Its also been nice slowly getting to meet Ruhi’s Friends, and even making a few of my own through Wushu or learning Chinese.  I hope to get that English class with the wushu athletes going soon so that I can get some wushu socializing on the calendar.

By the way, after blogging about the smoggy weather, EVERY day since then has been sunny, warm and pleasant.  Its hard to believe it is December in China, but go figure.  Maybe I need to complain about the weather more often in my blog.

Until next time ….

Before I blog, I wanted to share something that I saw today.  You may recall that I mentioned that the winter smog from the coal burning and polution gets pretty bad here in Xi’an.  But we also get a bit of fog from time to time.  And when you combine the two things together, like we had today, it turns in to a pea soup the likes of which I never saw in my 14 years in the Bay Area.

Here are a few comparative shots from the morning and the afternoon so that you can get an idea of what it looked like from our living room window:

And just so you don’t think it looks like this all the time, here is a picture from just a month or so ago:

See?  Blue skies!

Anyway, back to the blog …

Three main things happened today in the World of Mark.  Well, okay … more than three things.  But three things that I’m going to blog about.

First, was figuring out what to do about our visa renewal.

We spent most of the early hours of the day (i.e. before lunch) going to the visa office and trying to get an extension on our tourist visas.  As we are in the process of closing down Ruhi’s company (after which we will probably start up a new one in 2010) we are technically in China as tourists.  As a result, I either have to leave the country every 30 days (60 for Ruhi) or get an extension.

As you will recall, last month I left the country and went to Hong Kong, only to end up spending a week in Anhui with the flu.  This time we decided to get a 30 day extension instead.

That is, until we found out that the cost of a 30 day extension for U.S. Citizens is 940 RMB ($140 USD), which is also the price of a full one-year multiple entry visa.  But only for 30 days!  Well, for less than 940 RMB we can just take the train down to Guangdong and hop across the border, so why spend all that extra money?

So, on Friday Ruhi will be traveling to Beijing for some meetings.  To save some money I will be going directly to Guangdong from Xi’an.  Sorry to Wu Di, Jenn, Chris, et al. for not being able to make it over to the capital this time around.  But Ruhi will be there in my stead for 2 days.

On Wednesday I’m going to catch a train down to Guangzhou and then hop across the border.  Ruhi will have already been staying in Guangzhou for a couple days and on Friday afternoon we will catch a train back up and get home on Saturday morning.  This time around I opted for the faster train, as the slower one is obviously not an option.  Who wants to go all the way to Anhui anyway?

Here is a map of Ruhi’s journey.  As I said, my route is just a straight back and forth from Xi’an to Guangzhou.

The second thing that happened today was a revamping of our home.

Yue A-yi was here to clean today so we took the opportunity to swap our bedroom and the second room around.  After several hours we have set up the place so that we’re both working in our “spare” room with all the natural light, and our sleeping room is the darker, more comfortable one that gets much warmer.  Plus we moved some furniture around in the main room.  I love optomizing my living space.  According to Ruhi I get a twinkle in my eye when I am in that mode.

And the third thing is (hopefully) a change to my training routine.

I called Yuan Ming earlier in the day and asked him for Coach Zhang’s phone number.  He didn’t have it, so I had to relay the message through him.  I told him that (1) I would not be able to make it today and that (2) I wanted to switch my workouts from the afternoon at 3:00 to the morning at 9:00.  He said he would talk to Coach Zhang for me.

In the evening I gave him a call but it turned out that Coach Zhang wasn’t there today.  Tomorrow morning they also don’t have training because there is a meeting, so I will just go in the afternoon as usual.  Then, assuming Coach Zhang is there, I can ask him about switching to the morning session.

Why switch to mornings?  Well, for one, it will make me more productive with my work.  I will have a bigger chunk of time to get things done during the afternoon and evening.  Also, I think it is better, physically, to exercise during the earlier hours of the day as it sets up your body’s metabolism and function better for the rest of your waking hours.

Plus, I just feel better when I train in the morning vs. the afternoon.

So, that is what happened today.  Tomorrow it is back to the wushu grind stone.  Today they had strength training, so tomorrow, I”m not really sure what is happening.  I’m hoping it is wushu, but it might be running too.  I’ll just play it by ear and make sure I am prepared for any contingency.

Until tomorrow …. here is a bonus picture that I swiped from Wu Di’s camera in Binzhou.  Enjoy!

NOTE: I got a few photos off my film camera so I’m posting them up with this entry, even though they are from the entire 10 day trip.

I had jokingly said to Ruhi that with my luck I would probably get to Hefei (合肥) just to find myself delayed overnight by the weather again.  Ironically it almost came true.

Workers at a Xi'an Airport cafe waiting for customers

My plan was to take a morning train from Fuyang to Hefei (3 hours), get my plane ticket at the e-Long office, and then catch my 5:20 flight at the airport, arriving in Xi’an around 7:00, and hopefully home in time to get some dinner and enjoy a bit of rest at home.

And it started out okay too.  I woke up around 7:00, cleaned up, packed my things (yay for being a light packer!), and then got a quick bite at the hotel’s free breakfast buffet (nothing to write home about) before checking out and catching a cab to the train station.

It looked like there had been a fresh coat of snow on the ground from the night before.  But the snow wasn’t falling very heavy, even though it was overcast.  And the snow was pretty minimal so I didn’t think too much of it.

At the train station I waited a few minutes before they let us on.  (I don’t really understand the huge rushing of people to get on the train, considering that all the seats are pre-assigned.  It isn’t like someone will swipe your seat, right?  Maybe it is for the overhead packing space …)

I know why they call them hard seats (硬座) now.  They are no gift to the lower back, that is for sure.  I spent a fair amount of time playing my Nintendo DS and thanked my lucky stars that I brought it along with me for some entertainment.  Thank you Mario Brothers!

Sidewalk eating in Shenzhen

I noticed as we were traveling that the snow level outside was getting  a bit deeper.  ”How come the farther south we travel, the thicker the snow?” I asked Ruhi rhetorically through SMS.  By the time we arrived in Hefei around 1:00 PM it was snowing pretty steadily.

I grabbed a taxi and gave them the address (intersection) of the ticket office where e-Long has their pick-ups.  It actually took me a lot of walking around to find the place.  If you didn’t know where it was, you wouldn’t know where it was.  And that was the case for me.  It was purely by accident when I got there and they handed me my ticket.  I had actually asked the person at the counter what their address was (bad labeling on the buildings) and the lady next to her handed me my ticket.

Getting a taxi from there to the airport took another 30 minutes, but I still managed to arrived about an hour before the scheduled check-in time for my flight.  The guy told me to come back at 3:50.  So I had a sandwich and drink at the airport restaurant.

3:50 rolls around and the ticket counter has plenty of customers but nothing is happening.  4:00 .. 4:20 … By 4:30 we’ve been told that the flight hasn’t left the city of origin on its way to Hefei due to weather conditions.  Once they know if there is going to be a plane or not, we will know if we are flying out or not.

I got on the phone and ASKED Ruhi to  help me book a hotel in Hefei for the night. Just in case.

Bill sticks his tongue out at the horrible tang su li ji

But as soon as I hung up the phone with her there was a flurry of activity and it turned out the plane was cleared to come to Hefei.  I stood in line and got my boarding pass.  Seat 20A on Tianjin Airlines.  My first time to fly with them.

Now, getting your boarding pass just means you have a seat assignment.  But until the plane actually shows up, who knows if you will actually get to where you are going.  We sat in the gate area for a long time waiting.

5:30 … 6:00 … 7:00 … 8:00 … 9:00 … And the same announcement over the intercom.  ”Your flight has been delayed due to weather conditions.  Thank you for your patience”.

And all the while other flights were dropping like flies.  ”Flight MU3948 to Beijing has been cancelled .. Flight CZ2349 to Tianjin has been cancelled … ” It was like waiting for the worst lottery ever …

At 9:45 we were suddenly told that we could board the plane.  We could board?  I didn’t even know it had arrived!

We scrambled to the bus which took us out to the tarmac and on to the plane.  It turned out there were only about 30 passengers on the flight, which means everyone had some nice room to relax.  I spent the time studying my Chinese flash cards and playing my Nintendo DS.  Oh .. and a bit of sudoku during take-off and landing …

My hotel room in Fuyang, Anhui

Now, this whole time I hadn’t told Ruhi that I had gotten on the plane.  Part of me, I admit, was scared that as soon as I said “I”m coming!” they would announce that the plane had a case of the measels, or it had colided with Santa Claus, or that gnomes had hijacked the airport and we were all going to be auctioned off as slaves in an underworld blackmarket operation.

The other part of me wanted to surprise her.  She was expecting me to possibly not be showing up at all that night. Especially considering how late it was.  Before we got on the plane I said that I was turning my phone off to conserve battery and that I would call her back when I got more information.

Then, after we landed in Xi’an, I called her again and told her that the airline was going to put us up in a hotel for the night and asked her to cancel the other reservation she had made for me.  (That could have been a signal right there, since airlines in China don’t really do that unless you are flying international and missing a conneciton, especially not Tianjin Airline on a 2 hour domestic route.)

I walked pretty much straight from the airplane, through the airport, and in to a taxi which drove me the 150 RMB (about $22) trip home (!!!!).  That might be cheap in the U.S. for 45 minutes in a cab, but here it feels pretty pricey.  As I was entering our building and going up the elevator I tried to call her but didn’t get through.  But she called me back and as I got off the elevator I said “Oh, hold on … I need to use the restroom.  I’ll call you back.”

Then I came in the front door and said “Excuse me.  I’m looking for a restroom?”

She was pretty surprised. ;-P

Train-side snow on the way from Fuyang to Hefei

And I was pretty tired.  Still a tickle in my throat, but for the most part none too worse for wear.  What was originally supposed to be a 2 day trip to Hong Kong ended up including a week in Anhui, a brush with the swine flu and the storm of the century.

The best part of the trip was that I pack well so I was prepared for what happened.  I had warm enough clothes, I had the ability to get food and lodging, and I even had flu medicine in my emergency travel kit (never leave home without it!).

Of course, the worst part of the trip was missing a week of wushu, being stuck in the middle of no-where (no offense Fuyang fans), and being the sickest I’ve been in a few years.  But these things happen and it isn’t anything that you can control.  Sometimes you just have to take things as they come and make the best of the situation.

Especially living in China.  Where you never know what is going to happen.