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China Trip 2004 Travelogue |
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Written by Administrator
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Wednesday, 20 August 2008 15:14 |
This trip was originally planned as a small group of Master Chen Zhonghua's disciples accompanying him to China for two reasons. The first was his formal acceptance of an award from the Hong family. Master Chen had been awarded the status of International Standard Bearer by Grandmaster Hongs family and disciples and wanted several of his own disciples to attend the award ceremony. A great honor for those involved.
The second reason was to film a documentary on the life of Grandmaster Hong through remembrances of his family and disciples. Grandmaster Hong died in 1996 and many of his disciples are now (2004) in their seventies and eighties. It seemed that if this information was not captured soon the opportunity may be lost forever. Again for those involved a very exciting opportunity to meet and talk with some of the best martial artists of our century and to sit at the lap of 'The Masters' and hear stories of a time and place we can only imagine.
Grandmaster Hong Junsheng
For me the trip started in Victoria with a very short (10 min.) jaunt from Victoria, over the Georgia Strait to Vancouver airport. Most of the Canadians were taking the same Air China flight and we all met in the Vancouver airport over the course of a few hours of impatient waiting. |  |  | | | | Jesse, Kee and Jerry confer | Jim, Scott and Jesse
Jim and Scott are students of Ronnie Yee | | | Finally in the air and on our way. The trip from Vancouver to Beijing takes between 10 and 12 hours, an awful long time to sit. On the way there our airplane was a bit small and the seating was pretty cramped. Roy Dawson and I spent quite a bit of time blocking the bathrooms (unintentionally) just so we could stand and chat. At one time we had quite a crowd as other passengers got the same idea and joined us.
When we landed at Beijing it was early morning (our time) but early afternoon Beijing time. It was hot and humid. The temperature hovered somewhere in the high 30s C or in the high 80s F.
As there was both an American and Canadian contingent the first thing to do was to get us all together and meet up with the Chinese guide that was supposed to meet us to take us on the next portion of the trip, an overnight train ride to Jinan. In the photo you can see us all milling about, jet lagged and trying to get our bearings. When we finally connected our guide had a small bus waiting to transport us and our luggage to the Beijing train station. |  |  |  | | Aboard the airline
watching Vanilla Sky | Meeting in Beijing airport | | |  | | | | The bus is small
and we are large, a tight fit. | | | | The bus tour through Beijing was incredible. Stop lights, Stop signs, the very lines on the road are taken only as suggestions. Some people drive with their hood ornaments lined up with the lane lines. Pedestrians and motorists play a game wherein if the pedestrian shows that he sees the motorist he's considered fair game. If he pretends ignorance of their presence the motorist will move or stop, just enough to avoid collision.
Bicycles are still very popular and its not uncommon to see a bicycle or motorcyle with 2 or 3 people on it wobbling through a busy intersection. Several times we saw what appeared to be whole families on one small motorcycle.
Our tour guide first took us to pick up Yaaron Seidman who had arrived early and was staying in a very nice hotel. Yaaron speaks Chinese like a native, he also speaks Hebrew, German and English and is quite proficient at Chen style taiji. After picking up Yaaron and his fiance Taly we headed off to a restaurant for some lunch (breakfast?).
I guess we were pretty lucky because most of the time in China we avoided the types of bathrooms I had been warned against. This was our first encounter with one that announces its presence well before you can see it. But the food was good and the host was gracious and in all it was a good meal. One of the dishes served was fish that looked as though it had been bronzed. Odd until you ate it, then it was just delicious.
|  |  |  | | Beijing train station
at night | a kiosk in the station
| Same shot with a flash
| |  | | | | Ronnie Yee, Roy Dawson and the author
in our costly but comfortable berth. | | | | Beijing train station does not allow parking with a half mile of it so the bus dropped us off on a busy street in a small parking lot with all our luggage to tote by hand. We joined a stream of other travellers heading in the same direction and made off, in the street, up and down the curb, dragging and carrying our luggage.
The train station was like any other large train station I've been in except for everything being in Chinese. I was thankful many times that we had several interpreters in the group. We found a comfortable waiting area and settled in to stretch, snooze and wait a couple of hours for our train. The temperature was still up in the high 30s so we all were buying cold tea, water and juice and visiting the bathroom. In case you've never seen a 'traditional' Chinese toilet I should mention that there is no porcelain involved, but there is a lot of squatting in the venture. If you are extremely lucky there may be a few sheets of tissue somewhere in the vicinity but if you haven't brought your own (tissue), most likely you are SOL, literally. Oh yeah and don't forget that you can't brush with or drink the tap water. Use bottled, always.
We finally did catch the train and all of us had very nice soft bunks.. that is, 4 beds in your quarters instead of 6. The beds were nice and firm and we could finally lie down. What a relief! Keep in mind not to wear socks to the bathroom in the middle of the night as one of our party did. Shoes are required.
Recollections of the night trip. Lights at every town we stopped at. A radio on in our quarters squawking what sounded like Communist party music. We had to call the conductor to find out how to turn it off. Normal click clack of train travel plus other fellow adventurers in the corridor. Finally blessed jet lag reducing sleep. On to Jinan!
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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.
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| {mospagebreak title=China Trip 3} |
After our stop at the fountain in Jinans city center we drove out of the city to a graveyard where Grandmaster Hong is buried.
It seemed to be a long complicated route down back alleys and backroads. We drove past very old brick structures that looked like old aquaducts and the ancient remains of buildings. Before reaching the graveyard we were in suburbs and then countryside. |  |  | | | Approaching the graveyard
where Grandmaster Hong is buried | Looking back
at the city | | | You can see in the first photo above how the graveyard is structured because of its location. Being on a rocky hill most of the rows are tiered and carved directly out of the hillside.
On arriving we walked up a steep path amongst thousands of other tombstones and carvings down a broad path to Grandmaster Hongs grave.
|  |  |  | | Looking up at the
tiered graves | Master Chen Zhonghua
pays homage to Grandmaster Hong |
| |  |  | | | Master Chen Zhonghua
and Grandmaster Hongs grandson. | The tombstone of
Grandmaster Hong Junsheng | | | The main reason for making the trip was the award ceremony for Master Chen. It took place over two days with the first day being taken up by students and disciples giving speeches and generally talking about Taiji and Grandmaster Hong; and by many demonstrations, also by students and disciples.
{mospagebreak title=China Trip 4} |
The ceremony went over 2 days with the first day being taken up by speeches, stories and demonstrations. The second day was the more formal ceremony where the Hong family and their head disciples gave Master Chen Zhonghua the status of International Standard Bearer.
While waiting for the ceremony many old friends, students and disciples came to visit. In the photo below Master Chen visits with Master Meng who was Grandmaster Hongs teaching assistant for many years and Master Chow, a disciple of Grandmaster Hong.
|  |  |  | | Visiting with
old friends | Lots of stories
to tell | | |  | | | | While waiting Ronnie Yee
entertains with magic tricks | | | | During the first days activities we met many of Grandmaster Hongs disciples that we had only previously heard of. They and their students spoke about Chen style taiji and Grandmaster Hongs teaching in particular. A few of the masters got up to demonstrate the points they were making and at one point a large area in the room was cleared so that demonstrations could proceed. It was really great to see all our taiji brothers performing their sets and to realize that we all belonged to the same taiji family. The performances of Yi Lu, Ar Lu, sword, broadsword and applications were wonderful if only to confirm that what we in the West were doing was the same as our Chinese brothers.
The performances of course were also very well done.
Several of the people in our group were asked to push with some of Li Enjiu's students. We didn't know if this was to be competitive or a demonstration but soon found out when we ended up on our butts. These gentlemen train very hard at competitive push hands and are very smooth in their delivery. Maybe we'll have better luck next time.
The first day of the award ceremony ended shortly after and we went back to our hotel to train, eat and rest. Tomorrow would be the day that Master Chen Zhonghua would receive his formal award. |  |  |  | | Head table
| Master Chen Zhonghua
and Master Lee An Jou | Grandmaster Hongs
sons | |  | | | | The Hong family
presents Master Chen his award | | | | This part of the ceremony took place in a different building on another hot, sunny and humid day. At the head table were Grandmaster Hongs sons, some of the higher placed disciples and Li Enjiu and Chen Zhonghua. A Master Chow, from Heze city, was there and you can see the typical relaxed style of the Chinese in that he has his granddaughter sitting with him.
Speeches were made honoring Grandmaster Hong, his teaching, his disciples and Master Chen Zhonghua. Most of this was in Chinese and although we had interpreters in the group at lot of it was lost on us unfortunately. Then came the moment we had been waiting when both of Grandmaster Hongs sons presented Master Chen Zhonghua with the award giving him the status of International Standard Bearer.
It was very thrilling to be present at such a prestigious gathering and to see your own teacher given such a high honor.
A slight shadow was to be cast on the events shortly however. Or so I thought at the time. The final outcome was not what I expected at all.
Two men came in to issue a challenge to the Hong family. This was a serious challenge and was treated as such. An agreement was made with the two men that they would be satisfied but they would have to adhere to national push hands rules, that they would respect one takedown as a win and that when it was over they would shake hands and remain friends no matter what the outcome.
Once again the center of the room was cleared and the fight began. The first person to fight from Hongs side was a student of Li Enjiu's and I believe one of the national push hands champions. While he and the first challenger were fighting the challenger had his shoe blown apart as a result of a foot sweep. Li Enjiu's man was substituted out and a younger, less experienced fighter was put in his place. This was Han Yue, who travelled with us for a lot of our trip. A real gentleman and a fierce competitor.
He took the first challenger down after some pretty intense fighting. The challengers friend then got up and said that he had to avenge his friends loss. Han Yue took him on also and also defeated him. Fast and furious and a good look at how the Chinese system works. Challenges are apparently quite common.
I managed to find only one photograph of this so far. I still hope to find a few better ones.
If you enlarge this photo you can see Han Yue standing over one of the defeated challengers.
The final outcome of all this was that the two challengers attended the banquet that night with us and the men they fought. They all had their pictures taken together and seemed to have a very nice friendly time with each other. I liked that.
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Last Updated on Friday, 20 March 2009 12:09 |
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Items of interest
Chen Zhonghua
Chen Zhonghua! International Standard Bearer, Chen Style Practical Method
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