Another early start and we boarding what is apparently the best train in China in order to leave Beijing and head to Zheng Zhou which is on route to Shaolin for some kung fu action!
We arrived in Zhen Zhou and on first impression it did not seem to be any less populated than Bejing. We finally found a bus that would take us to Dong Feng and we were on our way. Both the rough guide and the lonely planet describe Deng Feng as a small town consisting of one street, and containing little more than kung fu accessory shops. So imagine our surprise when we arrived in a bustling town with a population of 640,000!!! What the????
Finding a hotel was interesting... despite the fact the town is at the base of the Song Shan mountain (where the Shaolin temple is) there seems to be no other wetserners in the entire town and therefore very few hotels. We met a friendly conceirge from the one hotel (out of our price range) and he sorted us out with a cheaper room. In fact he has not really left our side since we arrived... he keeps turing up at our hotel door and asking if we need anything which is slightly annoying, but on the plus side he did help us to organise tickets to an amazing show - I think it was called the zen music and light show, which was set at the base of a mountain. It was truly amazing and included kung fu, dance, music and singing.
The next day was headed to the Shaolin temple in the pouring rain. It was a shame that the weather was so shite because although we were on the top of the mountain we could barely see each other let alone anything that resembled a view. The temple is really touristy and very new - most of it was only built under 10 years ago but it was still pretty cool to be there. There was a Shaolin ku fu show and we saw boys aged about 3 years old doing the most amazing things with looks of such concertration on their little faces. I am sure they would be horrified that instead of finding them scary, I thought they were the cutest thing I've ever seen and just wanted to take one home！！！
I managed to organise a day at a wu su school for today and got up at 6.30 in order to get to the school at 8am to start class. I arrived dressed in my sheffield wednesday football shirt and some yoga trousers (with my new friend the conceierge) to meet my instructor. He spoke barely a word of English so the conceirge translated and it was pretty obvious that he wasn't sure I was going to be able to make the grade! He told me that kung fu is really hard work and I might not be able to accept this. I tried my best to assure him I was well hard and a day of kung fu was no worries and eventually he agreed to take me and the conceirge left. So there I was in a training room with my coach, on my own trying to work out what the hell I was doing.
Firstkly he made me run about a million laps of the training room and then it was time for some stretches. He seemed impressed with my stretching ability, so I thought that was a good sign. Anyone that knows me will also know that the fact that this man thought I was not going to be able to cope with a day of training made me determined to prove that I was no softy and I punched, kicked and stretched like never before to prove to him I could be the next kung fu master. As a result, by the time the other students arrived at 9am I was absolutely knackered and thought fuck.... I can't do this till 5pm!!!!
I was in a training room with the other international students and we were split up into groups of between 3 and about 8, each with our own instructor. In my group there was a frech Canadian guy and a guy from Mongolia. All up there was about 35 students and only 3 of us were girls.
I can without hesitation say that day has been the hardest day of physical activity that I have ever endured!!! Every part of my body currently hurts and I suspect just getting out of bed tomorrow will nearly kill me but it was a brilliant day and I am so glad I did it!!!!
Throughout the day I learnt a sequence of punches, kicks, odd standing on one leg like a bird type positions and contourting my body into the most unatural shapes imaginable! I was very pleased when the instructor told me I train kung fu good and most people take 3 days to learn what I did in 1 day!!! That showed him!!!! Now I'm going to try and hobble back to my hotel - god knows how I will manage to climb the stairs, and crawl into bed where I plan to lie as still as possible for the next 8 hours. Another 5 am start tomorrow as we head to Xi'an...... I feel like I might die......
