A weekend of intensity

It is time to tell the tale of my second visit to Beijing.

As I’ve told before when I came back from my latest visit my Sifu (going to use the Cantonese title from now on as that is what we use within our gongfu-school) had told me that I should practice Qigong for at least a month before I would be ready to begin my gongfu training. Back here in Hangzhou I was thus training Qigong mainly two times a day (one session lasting between 15-25 minutes) and just one session a day if time wasn’t on my side. My training progressed well and I was getting good results feeling absolutely fantastic. Usually I’d get up at 6am and go to a nice quiet spot on campus where I could practice in peace and quiet with birds chirping around me and squirrels running about with all the old Chinese people doing their morning exercises next to the Mao statue.
At the same time I was till training taijiquan with my other shifu, but the more we talked and discussed training methods I discovered that we shared very different views (not saying mine were right and his were wrong or vice versa – just different and people who know me will know how picky I am about my taijiquan) on taijiquan and I didn’t feel like I could obtain the goals I wanted with my taijiquan from his teachings. I thus no longer felt like I wanted to learn from him and having to tell him that was something that seemed as hard as breaking up with a girlfriend. In the end I told him how I felt about our views on taijiquan and that I respectfully no longer wished to be his student, but instead focus on my training in the Shaolin arts and thanked him sincerely for everything he had taught me. Thankfully there were no bad feelings and no burned bridges and he also offered me to give him a call should I want to pickup my training again – so it all worked out well.
My qigong training went on for a month before Sifu gave me his blessings to return to Beijing and begin my training in Shaolin gongfu. I was naturally very excited and started preparing my trip right away.
After having gotten my ticket I headed for Beijing on a hardsleeper ticket on the evening of 20th of November. I spent the night in a berth with lots of Chinese who were bombarding me with questions about anything and everything and another friendly Chinese guy who wanted to practice his English with me – all part of travelling in China. The train rolled into Beijing (accompanied by the tunes of Beijing Huangying ni) in the afternoon on Friday the 21st and I headed to the apartment of two of the Danish student from 2nd year Chinese studies.
After settling in I gave Sifu a call and we arranged our first training session the same night. And thus the first training session was the same day from 6pm to 9pm. The first lessons for the weekend were stance training, which is to develop internal force needed for the gongfu and develop a solid foundation. After training I invited Sifu (in the martial world this is a way to show gratitude to your sifu for training you) out for dinner at a local Japanese restaurant with some excellent sushi. After eating I met some of the Danish student in Beijing for a beer and some fun, but headed home somewhat early since I had practice again at 8am the following morning.
Saturday the 22nd I got up at 7am and then made my way to the bus stop to meet with Sifu and then we went to the campus of Beijing University where our first session of the day would take place. This lesson we worked on footwork and moving around in stances, which is essential in our type of gongfu (though many martial arts today disregard fighting in stances). The first session lasted from around 9am to 12 and then I headed out to lunch with some of the other Danes and did some homework at a café before heading back to Sifu to continue the second session for the day which was from 6pm to 9pm. In the last session we went over the stances again and some new stuff was introduced. After our session I once again invited Sifu out to eat and we went to a nice Vietnamese restaurant close by. Afterwards I was completely and utterly knackered and even though the other Danes had invited me to a social gather at one of their flats I went home and fell asleep at 9.30 – it had been a hard day’s night.
Sunday morning I got up at 7am again and went to Sifu for my training session from 8 till 11, where we again went over the stances and then I learned my first gongfu set called “Lohan Asks Way”. After training Sifu invited me out for brunch since he was pleased that I had done well (I was beaming with pride like a 5 year old at that time). As we walked to the café to eat Sifu and I were talking about what a crazy weekend it had been – around 12 hours of training within less than 48 hours and covering the same stuff that some people spend months learning. Sifu laughed heartily when I remarked: “It’s been one hell of a weekend”. Our brunch was spent talking about the stuff I had covered and my writing down notes to prepare myself for practicing on my own back in Hangzhou.
After eating I joined the Danish students at a local café, where I got some homework done before hopping on a train back to Hangzhou around 7pm. A little over 48 hours had gone by since my arrival and a lot of gongfu training had been covered in what seemed a very compact space of time – it was an intense weekend alright!
So since my return I have been training gongfu now, also doing my two sessions of qigong, for 2 hours each day outside (at times with several layers of clothes) and though it is hard work I am seriously enjoying it and am looking forward to returning to Beijing again to continue my training.
For a quick overview of the type of gongfu I am currently training I have provided a link for those interested:

http://www.shaolin-wahnam.org/kungfu.html

Casper