Nǐ hǎo (Hello),
I have just returned from a little over 3 weeks of travel in China with Roger Jahnke and 37 others. Our trip began in Hangzhou (just south of Shanghai). We had 4 days to discover special morning practice places around the West Lake, enjoy a tour of a Buddhist College (including lunch with the monks), and visit a Chinese Medicine museum. Then we had a 5 hour journey on a Bullet Train (at over 300 k/h) and a 5 hour bus trip to the Wudang Mountains.
We enjoyed a week in the mountains and had the honor of learning and practicing with Master Joe. We were taught a Wudang version of the 8 Brocades and a small section of a Secret Wudang Mountain Tai Chi form. Practicing every morning… outside… surrounded by mountain peaks… one begins to feel the “Nature” that we are. During the week we also had a calligraphy lesson and had many opportunities to discover several other wonders of this area including the Purple Mountain Palace, climbing to the Golden Summit (including a cable car ride and many, many stairs), the cliff hanging dwelling of (真武) where he reached enlightenment. On the way to the temple I took a side path to Thunder cave and spent some interesting time with a monk, shared lunch and drank from a fresh spring in the mountain (the water has been reported to have healing qualities) my intuition guided me, and it was one of the most memorable moments from my trip. We also had the opportunity to meet a hermit (no one knows how old he is – you are never supposed to ask – but I’d guess well over 100). We were able to ask questions through an interpreter. I asked ” if there is unlimited love, does there have to be unlimited hate… his answer “yes”. This may take some time before I truly understand, I really don’t understand hate. He also talked about some of the keys to longevity; take care of mind, body, spirit… take a daily steam foot bath, avoid unpleasant news and conversations.
After Wudang another long ride traveling north to Hua Shan (Flower Mountain) and the Jade Spring Temple. We took a cable care up the North side, we hiked from 9:30 am until 5:30 pm to get around to all 5 peaks, then cabled back down exhausted just in time for dinner. This brings me to the food… interesting! (many times we had no idea what we were eating, vegetables of different consistency, meat of unknown origin, many bones and sometimes even chicken feet!)
We ended our trip with another bullet train ride and 2 full days in Bejing. The goal to begin our descent into City life. Day 1 was climbing the great wall, silk and jade factories, and a temple. Day 2 was on our own. Many took a tour of the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. I had seen these on a previous trip to China so I chose to take on trying to figure out the subway and find my way to the Summer Palace with 2 other brave souls. It was as beautiful as I remembered!
There were very few Westerners on the entire trip. We became the focus of many i-phone photos. I even noticed a few trying to take pictures of us over their shoulders; many were not so subtle and just came up to us with their cameras and children etc. Hoping the smiles we shared will add to the peace between our two counties.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these highlights. I’ll be sharing some of the forms I’ve learned in my classes. Hope to see you there.
Qi Love, Cynthia
