Home 
News Latest China 2004 Travelogue
News Latest China 2004 Travelogue | China 2004 Travelogue |
|
|
|
Page 2 of 4 | ||||||
We arrived in Jinan the next morning at, of course, the Jinan train station. Even at that early hour (6:30AM) the city was very alive. It seems we in the West have more privileges than we think. Many people in China work 12 or 13 hour days, 7 days a week. Our tour guide had a bus waiting for us a short jaunt away. We drove through Jinan to the Shungeng Hillside Hotel, a 4 star hotel, that turned out to be our home for the next several days.
| |||
 |  | ||
| Jinan is a small modern city of about 6 million | Grounds of the Shungeng Hillside Hotel | ||
| One of the first things we did in Jinan was visit Grandmaster Hongs family. In Jinan there is a lot of new construction and a lot of the old buildings are hidden behind walls. The old style housing is very poor and small. To get to Grandmaster Hongs family residence we left a main street (very modern) and started to walk down a side street. Off that street you could see the old style housing and how small and poor it was. Master Chen commented that Grandmaster Hong lived for a long time in a room so small that they ate, read and slept on the same surface. A tall westerner such as myself would have difficulty standing erect in one of these buildings. | |||
 |  |  | |
| A side street on the way to Grandmaster Hongs family | The entrance to the Hong family apartment | ||
 |  | ||
| Master Chen Zhonghua with Grandmaster Hongs #1 son | Hong grandson demonstrates circles. | ||
| Grandmaster Hongs family was very welcoming and we had a great time with them. We had a lengthy question and answer period punctuated by some demonstrations. The grandson first got up to show us how they did circles. When he finished number 6 son, who is in his seventies, got up and demonstrated some finer points. A rubbing of a carved stone detailing the Hong family history was brought out. They also brought out Master Chens award making him the International Standard Bearer representing Grandmaster Hongs family, disciples and taiji method. | |||
 |  |  | |
| Grandmaster Hongs number 6 son | Stone rubbing | Detail of the Hong family history | |
 |  |  | |
 | |||
| Master Chens award | |||
| Both sons were getting on in years. But both had a great twinkle in their eyes. From the Hongs residence we travelled through Jinan a bit just to see the sights. We stopped at a riverside park that had a modern restaurant and a fountain that people seemed to really enjoy playing in. The temperatures were still in the high 80s so the proximity of water, the breeze and a little bit of pond wading made it an enjoyable break. | |||
 |  |  | |
 |  | ||
| In the last shot above you can see that Grandmaster Hongs grandson was travelling with us. He was taking us to see the tomb of Hong Junsheng. | |||
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|