The haircut and the trip to the hospital

Last time I got myself a haircut had been back in the end of January 2008 where I cut my hair completely short (buzz cut). In late November it had thus been some 10 months since my last haircut and my hair had gotten quite long and it was time for a haircut. Thing is I have never before gotten a haircut in China and I have seen some horrible results when people have ventured out on such a quest, but sadly there was no alternative. Pablo had mentioned that there was an ok hairdresser down the street where we live that was supposed to be ok. Not wanting to browse around for alternatives Cobus and I went down there to check it out. We were greeted by their star hairdressers (they had a huge poster with their picture on in a Top-Gun like poster) and said that we wanted a haircut and also agreed to have our hair shampooed as well. So they started rubbing our heads and shampooing away while we talked about this and that and them poking fun at our Chinese when we didn’t understand them right away. After the shampooing they asked if we wanted a little shoulder, arm, head massage which we agreed to despite knowing that it was going to be half-arsed. While said massage was underway the hairdresser was cleaning away at the outside of my ear with a cotton bud and in one of those “Wait! I don’t want you to….” Moments the guy had stuffed the cotton bud into my ear and thus mashing all the earwax into the ear making me almost deaf on my right ear – wonderful! After that torturous experience it was time for the actual haircut; the guy asked me how I wanted my hair to which I replied that I just wanted it shortened a bit while Cobus opted for the buzz cut. After the guy had cut away for a while I looked with horror in the mirror – my grandmother had this haircut…. In the 80’s!!! Not wanting to exaggerate for the sake of effect I will say that it is one of the worst haircuts I’ve ever gotten (Camilla from my class back home at Uni once gave me one that is a close runner up) and I found myself looking like a Lesbian (someone from the L-word) or maybe the fifth beatle. Needless to say it took my quite some time to get use to the abomination that was my new hairdo, but it has grown out since so now it looks fine – and it was cheap too.

The before picture: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1626663&l=0bb54&id=576261688
The after picture: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1626664&l=b9c7c&id=576261688

There still was the problem with me being deaf though. Being a guy I naturally waited a week to see if it would go away by itself just avoiding going to the doctor, but alas it didn’t. In the end there was no other option than going to the hospital on campus – my streak of never having been to a hospital or a doctor in China was over. At the hospital I first paid at the front desk and got my very first medical history here in China. Then I was told to go to the otorhinolaryngologist (ear doctor for those of you minding me being pretentious) on the third floor and he took a quick look at my ear and said “Yup, it’s blocked” and then wrote a receipt and send me down again to pay for it (you got to have just a little bureaucracy) and then back up again to get it sorted. Then he started scraping away like a little gold digger and he was in no way gentle – so it actually hurt a little at times. In the end my ear was clear and I could hear fully again. The doctor was also so nice to show me how much he had dug out. Thus ended my first (and hopefully last) visit to the Chinese hospital and the “operation” only set me back 13 kuai.

Casper

Merry Christmas

Somehow Christmas managed to swing by, though I must honestly admit that apart from listening to Christmas music on December 1st (mostly out of tradition) I haven’t really been able to find the Christmas mood. Mostly because I’ve been keeping busy with studying (procrastinating), training gongfu and qigong and plinkering on the guitar. Christmas in China just isn’t the same as back home, which is also helped along by the fact that the December weather here has been very nice (for example we had a day in the start of December where the temperature hit 22 degrees celcius). In some restaurants the staff is wearing Christmas gear and they play (very cheesy) Christmas music. The shifus at the dorm also started decorating with lots of lights and a little Christmas tree – so despite all I appreciate their effort.

But it’s also to due to knowing that it isn’t going to be a traditional Christmas that I just can’t be bothered with getting all fussed up about it. My mother arrived in Shanghai Friday and is here in Hangzhou now to celebrate Christmas with me. My good friend Nina from university also came down from Shanghai to spend Christmas so tonight we’re going out to eat duck and then we’re hitting Shamrock later for some drinks etc. so its going to be a nice Christmas Eve albeit not a very traditional once – but you can’t have it all.

All in all I’d like to extend my warmest wishes here from China that you may all have a very nice and wonderful Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate.

Casper

My class and I – A case study on baijiu

I guess its time to tell you all about my class since that is something I’ve left rather untouched so far and we have had a lot of fun class gatherings this semester.

As I have mentioned earlier on the blog I am in class 5.2 with a lot of Koreans (including an 18 year old boy who we mostly call “Korean little brother / 韩国弟弟”, a couple of Japanese, 2 Canadians, a Russian, some Aussies and a girl from Kazakhstan who also live at the same dorm as me. It should also be noted that I finally have learned all the Chinese names of my class mates (only took me 3 months, but who’s counting?)

In class the language used is Chinese (except for the very rare occasion of having to explain a word that no one knows the Chinese word for) also when we talk amongst each other. Despite that class can some times be a bit of a drag they are usually made fun by my class mates – either due to someone cracking a joke or us having an interesting discussion about an interesting subject.

We first had a class outing in the beginning of the semester where most of us went out to eat and drink at a restaurant. Right from the start baijiu (Chinese distilled liquor) was brought into play along with the beers and we were all inviting people to toast with one another (because it would be considered rude to decline and invitation to drink) and trying to get the Asian people drunk to boot and had a lot of fun watching the Asian flush coming into effect. For those of you not familiar with the term “Asian flush” I can, without going into a more scientific explanation, say that it’s the phenomenon where Asian people’s faces turn very red when consuming alcohol. I was actually surprised by myself that I was able to drink the baijiu let alone tolerate it, as previously the liquor has been as bad tasting as “snaps”, but China seems to be getting to me – scary as that is.
After having eaten and drinking (and people getting either tipsy or drunk all depending on who you were) we went to a karaoke place nearby and sang with passion (and drunkenness but that is a given) some of my classmates could actually sing pretty damn well though.
After karaoke’ing we went home to the Zach the Canadian’s place close by. He lived in a damn nice apartment, which was quite the contrast to my own small dorm room. There we played some drinking games and continued a bit on the baijiu. All in all the night had proven to be great fun and I came home quite tipsy (=drunk)

Start November all of us foreign students went on an excursion to a Confucian temple and a man made grotto. Bad thing about the trip was that it was the day after our exam, which meant that we had all been out drinking the night before. Busses were leaving from campus at 6.50 so we got 2-3 hours of sleep and had to shower in cold water since the heater wasn’t on yet. In the bus our class were busy playing various fun games where the punishment was doling out slaps on the other people’s wrist. (Our main teacher later joined in and gave me a slapping – though I later got my revenge). The Confucian temple was quite boring and afterwards we went to a hotel, where we were stopping for lunch. While every other class were sitting politely chatting and eating in peace, my class had gotten hold on some more baijiu and were all inviting our teacher to drink with us (trying to get him drunk), but he could hold his baijiu very well. Then we were all inviting each other and ended up getting tipsy on Baijiu and the games on the bus became much more fun.

The last class gathering we had this semester (that I was able to participate in) was when our main teacher (Teacher Xu) invited us all to come home to his flat for dinner and drinking. His wife has cooked so much food that was incredibly tasty including the best fish I’ve ever had here in Hangzhou. Again this night beer flowed freely and this time we were also drinking 52% baijiu – and a lot of it that. Again everyone invited our teacher to drink and then amongst ourselves. Besides baijiu and beer we also started drinking Baileys and I had a glass of the most disgusting Chinese wine I’ve ever tasted – it was more vinegar than wine.
In the end though the baijiu caught up with me and while I was still able to be just somewhat clearheaded I remember thinking “Oh shi-“. After that I only remember getting into a taxi, arriving at the back gate of campus (our dorm is near the front gate) and waking up the next day feeling quite under the weather. Josh told me that when I came into the room the only think I said was something like “I am fucking drunk / I am fucked” and then I crashed on my bed and fell asleep. Later my classmates told me that I was having a discussion with my teacher on taijiquan, but I don’t remember this. Despite getting highschool drunk and probably having acted very embarrassingly I still had a lot of fun with my classmates and teacher.

The semester is sadly coming to an end and some people form my class have already left home. Also all depending on how we do at the exam we might not be in the same class in the new semester. This sadly also means that we will lose our main teacher, which is a damn shame since he is a great teacher and a cool guy.

Well enough about my class now, I’ll try to get the rest of all my experiences up on the blog soon including a very intense weekend in Beijing.

Casper

We come from the land of the ice and snow – from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow

The time has come to tell the tale of the time when the Viking Danes invaded Hangzhou wrecking havoc upon this Chinese city. In the end of October My friend Astrid (who also studies Chinese at Copenhagen University, though a year below me) came to Hangzhou to visit me for a few days. Astrid arrived on a Wednesday and I was a bit wrecked having been out drinking with my class the previous night (but that’s another story for another time), but I managed to drag my arse out of bed and go meet her at the front gate of the university. Astrid was a bit knackered and I had 6 hours of classes on Thursday, so Wednesday was spent recovering.

Thursday night we had been invited to Medusa because Boris the Cuban (who used to DJ there when Thursday night was still Latin night). So we went there and enjoyed free beer, a vodka shot (which was more of a glass than an actual shot). The party later turned into a Latin night with Yvonne (Boris’ wife) as our dance teacher. Astrid and I were having a great time watching this Chinese guy doing trying to do some Latin dances (which was a sight to be seen) while his (assumed) girlfriend were rubbing her body up against his trying to get him to dance, but alas he was more caught up in his Latin dancing than the poor girl. But it was great entertainment to me and Astrid at least. Then Astrid and I wrecked havoc at the foosball table showing my fellow dorm mates and others that the time spent at the foosball table at the department of Asian Studies in Copenhagen had not been in vain as the Viking duo pillaged and plundered.
Astrid and I also played the dice-game “Cheat” (Snyd) and Astrid gave me a horrible beating of the likes that I have rarely seen, it was brutal.
We all ended up a drunk and I was telling Laurinda how I was going up the next morning at 6am to go practice and she naturally didn’t believe me and told me very sarcastically how I should come to her room and wake her up when I did. So we went back to the dorm at 4am and I got some 2 hours of sleep before getting up, going first to the wrong room and waking up poor Tamar (Israeli girl) spending 10 seconds before realising that she wasn’t Laurinda and then going to Laurinda’s room and asked with a big grin if she wanted to join in on practicing, but sadly this wasn’t the case.

Friday night would prove to be yet another night of mayhem. We first went to a bar called the traveller with Cobus, Josh and Max where we had a few beers and played the drinking game “Buffalo”. After the travellers we went to check out a Chinese club called “Max club”. First we tried getting five people into a cab (they sometimes let you get away with that though four is considered the maximum number), but the despite putting on our best innocent faces, first trying to pretend nothing was wrong, the driver wouldn’t budge. Not even after I tried crying (imagine the hollow wail that a little kid lets out when he drops his ice cream and wants his parents to buy him a new one) would he let us go five. Astrid and I then decided to take a cab ourselves and we jumped in with excitement in I said to the cab driver in my best exciting Chinese: “Follow that cab!” But despite being a phrase that I’ve always wanted to say the cab driver was extremely mellow about it and just didn’t seem to be as into it as we were.
Max club turned out to be a huge let down. When we got there some sort of competition was going on and the place just seemed boring so Astrid and I decided that we were going to Medusa instead.
At Medusa we got a few beers and Astrid once again completely killed me in Cheat – though this time it was even more brutal than the night before as I was butchered completely (though I will add that I have never EVER experienced anyone being that lucky!)
The night progressed and Astrid and I got more and more affected by the alcohol and we were standing talking and watching Chinese people dancing crazy dances. At this point of the night Katrie was dancing with some strange German guy (I say dance but it was more a case of him trying to rip off the arms off poor Katrie). Then he came over to our table and was all “Heeey guys, whats going on?” (In a very drunken state) I said we were doing great and asked where he was from, but he refused to tell unless I said it first. Not being too fussed about him and his demands we just ignored him. At this point Astrid came back from the Ladies room to tell me that as she was entering the stall some one grabbed her arse, as she turns out to find out who the culprit was she is meet by the elevator look and a sleazy grin by a woman! Said lesbian (assumed) then proceeded to go out on the dance floor and dance with a huge black guy while still checking Astrid out. And this point I decided to be a bastard and steal Katrie (and of course also to save her arms, I am, after all, a gentleman) away from the German guy and dance with her. While we were dancing the German started putting her moves on Astrid being quite pleased with her Swedish heritage and he was even more pleased when she said that she was also Danish. Astrid then fled to the Dance floor and was followed by the German as I was dancing Katrie (and Astrid) away from him. He seemed frustrated by this (and the fact that Katrie wouldn’t give him her phone number) and he said in the thickest German accent: “Yes, because you’re with stooooopid guuuuuuuuy!” and when I told him “Hey, I’m right here, I can hear you!” he just responded: “Yes, that’s riiiight, I think you’re stooooopiiiiiid!” and then he left Medusa and was forever known as Stooooopid Guuuuy.
People started leaving Medusa, but Astrid suggested we’d have another beer, so we did. Then I suggested we had another beer, so we did. Then we played foosball with Zoli, the manager, and pool (where we cheated like hell) and then got offered a free Long Island Icetea and a shot of Jägermeister (which we at that point really did not need and it wasn’t made better by the fact that I had to help Zoli finish his!). Astrid and I were the last costumers at that point so the Viking expedition had been a success and we went home.

Come Saturday Astrid was completely and utterly destroyed (this due to the Jäger-shot mostly so she claimed) and the afternoon was spent mending hangovers. The destination of our next Viking expedition for the night was Shamrock: Astrid had heard my stories about Jutlandia and wanted in on the singing. Also the expat-rugby team here in Hangzhou (including a lot of Aussies from uni) were there drinking heavily. Thus when Astrid and I arrived they were heavily drunk and busy singing songs (and providing great entertainment for the sober versions of Astrid and I). It should also be noted that Astrid was so beaten up by the previous night that it took her over an hour to finish her beer. Later the singing game progressed into a session of singing national songs and when the turn came to Astrid and I, we gave the best damn performance of “Der er et yndigt land” anyone foreigner has ever seen. The owner even popped out and congratulated us. Later the party moved inside and Astrid and I screamed our lungs out to Jutlandia while a wife (also heavily drunk) of one of the rugby players watched us as were we aliens from another planet. “Oh… wow, that’s beautiful, don’t stop” I believe her words were. Rest of the night was spent singing along to songs on the jukebox (including “Blind date” by Drengen fra Angora med teksten “Hun har en piiik!” while being greatly entertained by the Aussies. To make a long story short we also closed down Shamrock being once again the sole survivors. The Danish Vikings had struck yet another victory.

Sunday was spent strolling around with Astrid buying a coffee mug at Starbucks. At around 5.30pm it was time for her to head to the train station to head back to Beijing. Her “Ungrejs” (sorry only Danes will get this) trip to Hangzhou was over and our Viking quest had com to an end, but I think it’s safe to say that Hangzhou will never be the same again. I am looking forward to Astrid’s return!

Casper

I want you to take me to funky town!

Time for another update and this time I’ll tell about some of the fun nights out we’ve had the past 2½ months since the party stories is what you people really want, isn’t it?

Karaoke:
Yes, Karaoke! When you’re in China this has to be done and for my part it has been done on all my other China-travels as well, so it was time to do it on this China-tour as well. Thus a lot of us from the dorm and my friend Katrie from Australia went to a place called Partyworld to engage in a night of singing and drinking. We each spent 100 kuai which including some 4 hours of singing and a buffet which was pretty crap. Along with that we had brought whiskey, sake and beer to help the singing along. So as the night, the songs (and certainly the alcohol) progressed we started singing louder and louder and with more and more passion. You might start of with a little insecurity, but in the end you feel like you’re the best singer in the whole world and just don’t give a damn. Also you end up ruining your voice by screaming your lungs out to Nirvana. In between all this your visits to the restroom renders meeting with Chinese who are drunk off their tits and might gift the floor with a little vomit – fantastic!
After the karaoke place kind of kicked us out we went to an Irish sportspub called Shamrock (original name, I know) where we continued the drinking. As we’re sitting there talking a tune pops up on their computer/jukebox, that made my ears rise to attention. I’m sitting there thinking “is this some kind of weird remix, I’ve heard this song before?” Then the reality of it hit me: I was in an Irish pub, in China and by God if they aren’t playing “Jutlandia” by Kim Larsen! Once the fact that they were playing the familiar song of my beloved country had hit my mind I went apeshit and starting singing along with passion and loud. All the others were looking at me like I’d lost my freaking mind and I was singing like it was the last Danish song I’d ever hear in my life (and Max later said he’d never seen anyone sing Danish songs with such passion, to which I replied he should come to Denmark). But to cut a long story short it turned out that the owner of the pub was a Danish Chinese – it is an incredibly small world!
The karaoke night was one of my best nights this time in China and in my drunken happy state I was thinking how very cool my fellow dormmates are and how great it is to be in China.

SOS:
We’ve grown a bit tired of Medusa, seeing the same people and listening to the same music can get trivial. Thus we decided to try out SOS – a hiphop joint where you pay 60 kuai and then the bar is free (note that the term “bar” is grossly exaggerated here as it consist of whiskey and coke, vodka and sprite or the most disgusting beer). First time we went there Josh, Max and I had bought sweat bands in colours white, blue and red to wear for the occasion. Night turned out fun as the whiskey/coke combo got downed fast in a drinking game. The toilet is almost a story worthy in itself: I went out to take a piss and got offered a cigar as I’m standing there with dick in hand relieving myself and then being complimented on my Chinese. As I’m washing my hands (yes, sometimes us guys actually do that) the guy starts massaging my back and after it was done he wanted 10 kuai for his services. I paid him and said that it was my strangest and weirdest piss I’d ever taken in my life. To top all that some guy asked me why the hell I was wearing a sweatband on my head and I bought him off with some story that I was playing basketball for the Swedish youth team.
Later Max and I decided that things were getting boring and we went to check out Medusa. After bullshitting with people in the elevator for a while whilst waiting for Josh (who never showed up) Max and I ended up selling our free-bar-stickers for 20 kuai each to some random pleb who had insulted our sweatbands (it went something along the lines of: “Hey nice headbands, douchebags! Oh hey can I buy your stickers?”). Then we went to Medusa and the place was absolutely deserted! So we spent our 20 kuai on a beer, played some foosball (bordfodbold) and then went back to SOS. In the taxi on our way back we were bullshitting with the cabdriver asking him about the meaning of various dirty words and convincing him that our friends had lot us believe that SOS was a tea-house and how shocked we were to find out that it was a club (Think you’d have had to be there and been as drunk as we were). The night ended with me dancing with a German girl (no comments from my fellow classmates at KU, please!) and ended up being cockblocked by said girl’s lady friend who wanted to dance with her alone and then I went home.

Halloween:
Despite that we in Denmark only celebrate Halloween out of sheer commercial reasons (trick or treating is not something that should catch on and what is wrong with just Fastelavn?!) we still decided to take up this excuse for a party. I didn’t get a costume in time so just ended up getting some weird shit put together and went with that. Josh, however, had put together a really cool costume as a fallen angel. The first destination of the night was Shamrock, but before we left Cobus had decided to down the better part of a bottle of whiskey on his own, so he was pretty hammered. Talk about getting a head start. Shamrock was packed and even had a live band that played good old rock songs. Later there was a competition for best costume and Josh entered of course. Great thing about the competition was that the winner was decided on whatever costume got the most cheering (so basically whoever has the loudest friends win) and we ended up winning a bottle of Jack Daniels (somehow winning free Jack Daniels never gets old!) So whiskey shots were being downed and we got more and more drunk. Later that party moved to Medusa and I tried convincing the cabdriver that I was born in Africa (South Africa to excuse the whiteness of my skin) and that I was adopted by a Chinese couple in Fujian. Sadly I don’t think he bought it. And the night ended with dancing and raising hell at Medusa.

Let’s play kings:
This was another night that we spent at Shamrock. We were Josh, Cobus, Madeleine (another American from the dorm), Ellen (Aussie) and me and we started playing a drinking cardgame called Kings where each card represents a certain consequence (3 you drink yourself, 8 you pick a friend to drink with etc.) before we started I’d drunk 2-3 beers and after the game ended the 5 of us had downed 10 pitchers of beer (with one pitcher containing more than a liter of beer), so needless to say that it had taken its toll on us. We moved the party inside and played karaoke with Shamrock’s computer/jukebox yet again (much to the dismay of the staff I’m sure, who just wanted us to leave so they could close down and go home). As we were playing cards Cobus and I went to take a piss in some nearby bushes were we discovered two 2-2½ meter long bamboo sticks. In our state taking home said sticks seemed like the best idea in the world (conversation went like: “Bamboo! Hell yes, we need that!… wait.. no! Don’t piss… Just don’t piss on them! No don’t piss on them!”) so as I went home a bit before the other’s I shared a cab home with Ellen telling the cabdriver that I needed the bamboo sticks for my gongfu practice. In hindsight he was really cool about it.
I returned to the dorm around 3.40am and I remember ringing the doorbell, being let in by our shifus, getting to my room, opening the door, taking off my clothes and going to bed, but the next morning Josh tells me that when they came back around 5am I was roaming the halls of the dorm with my Chinese course book in hand and Cobus told me that when Josh asked me: “Casper, what are you doing?!” I simply replied: “Fuck off, I’m going home!” and I can’t remember any of it! Drunk induced sleepwalking maybe?

Free beer:
One Friday night Maya bar were giving away free Qingdao draft beer from 6pm-9pm. This was an offer that we just couldn’t pass on and to top that Subway (sandwich chain) had a buy one – get one free offer which meant 20 kuai for a huge 12 inch sandwich packed with meat. We got there at 6 and started drinking and playing drinking games while the beer kept coming. We all played Kings again (with two decks) though people’s attention span wasn’t always good enough for the game to continue. Later, the night digressed to the point where Cobus and I were screaming “FREE BEER!” and toasting to each other more and more frequently, thus showing our deep appreciation for the fact that we were in a bar drinking beers without paying anything at all! And the next day when people from the dorm met me they shouted “Free beer!” with a huge grin on their face. Great night though I drank loads of beer and the only money I paid the entire evening was 20 kuai for a sandwich.

Guess that does it for my drunken tales from China for now as other tales will come in another blog post and since not all tales are suited for being told in public.

Casper

Beijing – the walking of the two paths

Ok, it has been quite some months since my last update, so now it’s time to get this show back on the road. I will try to see if I can fit in the last 2½ months as best as I can remember, so brace yourself for an extremely long blog-post, even for my standards, so get a cup of coffee or tea or cake (preferably all or two) and enjoy reading my ever growing wall of text and I’ll try and see if I can remember all the stuff I experienced. Regarding the lack of pictures on the blog the reason is that the upload on our connection isn’t that fast and sometimes it tages ages to upload images and since I already upload everything on Facebook I don’t really want to do double work, but I’ll see what I can do.

The first update will have to do with my trip to Beijing during the national holiday.

My train departed from Hangzhou 11pm and I found my seat in the train where I was going to spent the next 15 hours. The seats were 3 x 3seats opposite another three seats in one side and in the other side it was just 2 x 2 seats. I was glad I had a seat in the latter side because it meant I had access to a little table where I could slump over and get some sleep. I don’t know how but the night went by quite fast despite the horrible circumstances and shifting between sleeping on the table and sleeping sitting (with mouth wide open) the 15 hours went by. Riding hardseat for so long was an interesting experience, but not really something I’d opt for doing again. I bought some breakfast on the train consisting of rice, sauce and some meat, which I’m glad I didn’t know what was, but it took care of my hunger. I arrived in Beijing Monday afternoon and a nice feel of nostalgia rolled over me as the train entered the outskirts of the city and slowly rolled into the train station – I was home in the Jing again.

First change I encountered was in the subway. They now have a nice ticket-card system instead of the old paper tickets and now you also have to scan all your belongings before entering, which was a hassle with all my stuff. I took the subway to Wudaokou the student area of Beijing and went to Kate’s place (a girl on her 2’nd year of Chinese studies from back home in Denmark) where I’d be staying for a bit. We went to Beijing University where I encountered another change; you now have to show your student card to get inside campus. The level of security isn’t too strict when it comes to foreigners though so I get in by flashing my Zhejiang Uni card. On campus I went to buy my return ticket to Hangzhou as the queues at the railway station was too massive. It turned out that they only had tickets available the next Wednesday, which meant I got a few extra days in Beijing, but it turned out that I needed those extra days. On top of that I also got a softsleep ticket home.

For dinner we joined some other Danish students at a Yunnan restaurant, but only after a 45 minute cab ride with a driver who had very little idea of where he was going. After dinner we went out for drinks at a French/Spanish hangout called Salud and spent the night with a few beers and chatting.
The next day (Tuesday) we got up at 6am and went to the area where I used to live when I studied in Beijing in 2006. Reason for getting up this early was that each morning the old people in the area get up at that time and practice taijiquan and taijisword and other things to keep fit and I was going to meet my old Chinese “grandmother” that taught my a taiji sword form every morning at 6am for all of October. I hadn’t seen her for almost two years and we had a nice and long talk about everything and anything. She sarcastically commented on why on earth the Chinese government should give me a scholarship when Denmark is such a rich country. Being back in the cold autumn morning air, the old ladies there and the music playing was such a pleasant stroll down memory lane – a path of nostalgia. My half year stay in Beijing was truly one of the best and most joyful times of my life so far and being back brought back all those wonderful feelings and its one of the reasons Beijing is my second home.

After the visit we went back home again and had a nice long nap and afterwards I went out to meet a qigong and gongfu (kungfu) master, Adam Kryder, that I had talked emailed with regarding becoming his student and learning qigong from him. I offered him tea which he accepted and we then had a long talk about how to go about my training since I would only be in town for 8-9 days. Back in ancient times it was a custom to offer tea to the master and if he accepted your tear he accepted you as a student. It might sound odd to people unfamiliar with the whole martial world, but I took great honour in pride by the fact that I can now call him my shifu (master) and I thus took the first steps down the Shaolin path and the next day my training would begin. If you have no idea what qigong is about here’s a link:

http://www.shaolinbuffalo.com/qigong

The same night I went out to eat with the 2nd year Danish students at a Xinjiang restaurant that I’ve been to a lot of times. They usually have a show on stage with bellydancers, singing etc. And some of the guys were invited up to dance along with the bellydancer. After eating we went out to the area of Sanlitun to have drinks and had a fun night. I had to call it quits semi-early as I was starting my training at 8am next day at Shifu’s place.

So I got up the next morning and went to Shifu’s home where we first had tea and Shifu taught me a lot of martial etiquette in terms of being respectful to the master and how to pour tea correctly ect. We then started my training with the lesson for to day being learning how to relax my entire body completely and then enter a qigong state of mind.
At night we went to one of the biggest student hangouts in the area “Lush” to attend the pubquiz there which was a Wednesday tradition back in 2006, but alas we didn’t win.

My training continued over the next days and I was already beginning to see results and continued to be amazed by this wonderful ancient art and the stories Shifu would tell me as we were having tea before each session. On our last session before my return Shifu told me to practice qigong for at least a month, only after that could I begin my gongfu training.

On Friday I went to crash for a few days at my friend Sylvain’s place and later went out with a French friend of mine who were leaving China the next day – it was a fun crazy night and I ended up sleeping most of the next day though. Saturday I went training with Shifu again and later went out for a beer with Sylvain at Salud. Here we met a group of Italians who started talking to and went to another place. The thing I love about China is that it is so easy to meet new people when you go out.

The rest of my time in Beijing was spent further learning qigong with Shifu and learning new patterns so I could be ready to practice on my own once I would return to Hangzhou. Other than that I spent time meeting all the old friends I have in Beijing and eating all the food I can’t get it Hangzhou.
Tuesday I met up with the Danish students and had lunch at a nice Japanese restaurant with great sushi. We had beers and one of the girls suggested that the beer would really good so we should have some more. Thus we went to Pyro Pizza, drank more beer and ate some nice huge cookies with ice cream. We started around 2pm and I left around 5 to go have a last training session with Shifu and then a nice farewell dinner at an Indian restaurant where we talked about everything and anything. When I returned to the Danes around 8-9pm they were still there drinking so I joined in again. Later my friend Mike (who had just come back to Beijing from a visit to Denmark the same morning!), who I hadn’t seen since spring, dropped in to say hi and joined in on the drinking. Around midnight some of the other Danes were pretty beaten by a long day of drinking and had to call it a night (and not necessarily by choice, ahem) so the rest of us continued our journey into the night. To make a long story short(er) we visited a gay bar where a really flaming Chinese gave us free drinks and later went to a sports bar where Mike and I tried to convince said Chinese that we were an item. The night ended in Mike’s apartment with silly dancing and drinking and Kate and I returned home to her flat at 7.30am. It was a great way to say goodbye to Beijing.

I caught my train that same day at 7.26pm and spent the night in a nice soft-sleeper berth and went back to Hangzhou. On my way back I realised that one of the things I really like about China is the way Chinese love to talk to each other and call each other “big brother”, “little sister” etc. Coming from Denmark where it’s almost a right not wanting to be talked to, this is something different, but I kind of like it.

Casper