Shaolin Kungfu, Anyone?

All the exchange students at Peking University are allowed to take "cultural immersion" classes: calligraphy, Chinese painting, Chinese seal-making, or my pick--martial arts. Unfortunately, we didn't get to learn Shaolin Kungfu (though that would have been really cool), we did learn one entire set of taichi.

Every day at 5pm, I would join my friends in a small park on campus to learn taichi. We had two teachers, both of whom did taichi very differently. We learned a couple steps every day and reviewed them with the Chinese method of teaching: constant repetition.

We were terrible.

At the beginning of every class, our teachers were appalled at how much we had forgotten. One of them was so concerned he hurriedly ran us through reviews until the other teacher stopped him and told him we had to move on (we still didn't know it). Of course, there were the few exceptional students who caught on quickly and were able to remember. The rest of us, however, definitely were doing our own improvisations until we remembered.

Towards the end of the session, one teacher tried to show us how taichi applied in terms of self-defense. Our teachers "fought" to show us which of the moves we learned could be used in what context. Having always thought of taichi as a peaceful morning exercise in the park, I had a lot of fun watching our teachers in action.

It was this "taichi experience" that made my trip to Henan this past weekend even more interesting. CIEE took us on a weekend trip, complete with stays at a 4-star hotel (of course, this was all in the program fee). Our trip included the famous kungfu shrine, Shaolin Temple, and the Longman Grottoes.

At Shaolin Temple, we couldn't go into the mountains, but we did see the temple and watch a show. To get into the show, we had to shove our way into the small auditorium and watch from wherever we got stuck (anyone who's been to China before knows that to get anywhere, you have to push and shove). It was worth it. We watched Chinese teenage boys perform their various kungfu tricks. They had grown up in kungfu schools around the shrine and were impeccable in their performance. There was even a child who could not have been over ten years old! He did a trick called the "monkey" and was the crowd favorite.

This is where we fell in love with mango ice cream!

After the show, we saw some of the performers sitting around outside the auditorium. The oldest boy was sitting, with the others crowded around him. The youngest one crawled into the oldest boy's lap, smiling. It was such a wonderful sight: to them, they were family.

Later, at the Longmen Grottoes, we were able to see the Yellow River. The view was beautiful (I had learned a while ago that looking into the water in Chinese scenery was not a good idea). The Grottoes are a massive set of Buddha statues set in limestone caves. They were all made at different periods of time--some dated all the way back to the Wei period, 500AD! It was amazing. What made it bittersweet, however, was that most of the buddhas were missing their heads. There were some caves with hundreds of tiny Buddhas carved into the walls, but each one of their heads had been meticulously carved out during the Cultural Revolution.

We had a great time in Henan, finishing it off with an amazing meal at a hundred-year-old restaurant. CIEE planned it really well. Now that I know taichi, maybe I can try Shaolin Kungfu?