Beijing - Day 2 (12/1): People, Duck and Dragons

Can you believe it’s December already? Where does the time go?

Well, I managed to get up yesterday and did all that work on my blog, photos and videos before heading out to meet up with Wang Wei and Jennifer at Ya Xiu Market in San Li Tua’r. We ended up doing a decent amount of shopping and I bought two pairs of “Adidas” shoes along with a couple t-shirts and a sweater vest. While I was at Ya Xiu I called up Li Yan and spoke to him about the training at his university. We agreed that I would meet him at his school around 3:30 for the 4:00 class.

Jennifer outside Yaxiu

Wang Wei taking a cigarette break

After doing some shopping, we headed up to the 5th floor’s food court and got some lunch and then to the 4th floor to look at watches. But by then it was time for me to head over to the school. I said farewell to Jennifer and Wang Wei and caught a cab to ZhongGuo RenMin DaXue — The Chinese People’s University.

When I got there I asked someone for directions to the Tiyu Guan (”exercise hall”) but they ended up pointing me to the wrong building. Li Yan came and got me and took me to the new, super modern facility and we met up with a guy from Brazil named (if memory serves me) Ricardo or … shoot. I can’t remember. But it sounds similar. (He said he used to train with Paula A. down there for a couple years before coming to Beijing in August for a language course.)

Zhong Guo Ren Min Da Xue

The class was in a small dance room, but they had two carpets rolled up on one side. Actually, it reminded me a LOT of Wushu West and their carpets. The nice thing about the room was that it had all the dance bar things along all the sides so lots of good stretching places. Plus one whole wall was all mirrored up.The class itself was actually somewhat relaxed. The three of us were the only ones there for about 20 minutes while we stretched and slowly warmed up (and rolled out one carpet). After a while some girls showed up (Li Yan said the class is mostly girls (about 3 guys, 7 girls) and a few of them are more taiji people or beginners) as well as the coach, Meng Laoshi.

After being introduced I looked hard at him for a while. He looked really really familiar. But after a few minutes I finally remembered.
In July of 2005 I went to dinner with Wu Di, Zhang Zi Dong, Shan Ming, Xu Ding Yuan, Zhao Qing Jian, Liu Yang, Shao Chang Jun (and his girlfriend), and this guy was also there. I looked back through my photos and you can sort of see him in this picture here. Funny how things come full circle sometimes.

The format reminded me of a more relaxed version of the workout I saw at the University of Washington with Drake this past April. The athletes sort of go through basics and get ready on their own, work through their combos and whatever jumping they want to go through. Then we did sections (8 total, 2 of each section — but only had time to get through the 5th rotation) and the class was then finished. It went from 4:00 - 6:00, so starting 30 minutes late and being relaxed, we only had about 40 minutes to do forms. It was still good though, and since I hadn’t practiced in a week it was just at about the pace I needed.

As for the skill level, it was all over the place. Li Yan and this other former B-Team guy (who’s name escapes me) are both the best people in the class. There is one girl who is quite strong too (and, if I may say, quite cute ….). There was a taiji girl who looked to be about high intermediate level and another girl who was a beginner just learning the intro to the children’s changquan compulsory form. It really did remind me a lot of college clubs back home, except with a couple of semi-pro level athletes thrown into the mix.

For myself, the practice was just right. I could have done with more sections though and was sort of disappointed that we didn’t get to do the full 8. But what I noticed was that, as far as my endurance goes, it suffered a little bit from my week off of wushu, but my physical condition as a whole was much stronger than when I was in Jinan. The week off did it’s trick and my body rebuilt itself a bit stronger than it was before. I felt quicker … stances were easier … power came out stronger … and while I’m hardly at my peak level it is nice to see improvement in my body’s abilities (albeit, miniscule and probably unnoticeable to anyone besides myself).

There is one move in my third section where I do a bit of a hop up thingee. It’s hard to explain, but I use the move as sort of a measure on my physical condition. When I first started wushu up again in October, it was a very hard move and it felt like I was trying to dead lift a tractor and float through the air with it. Then in November, the move became easier and more “floaty”. Yesterday in class when I did it I felt MUCH better — like I was almost doing it the way it should be done. Each time after I come back from a small self-imposed break in my training that move’s level increases and I know that I’m slowly getting stronger and stronger. It’s a neat feeling.

The best part of class though was that the coach said “bu cuo”, which is the Chinese coach equivalent of “awesome” (Since they never say anything close to “awesome” or “great” otherwise). Li Yan told me that his coach almost never says something like that to athletes, foreigners or not. So it was nice to hear. The coach told me later that he liked my nanquan and asked how long I had been training. To be honest, I’m almost embarassed when I say “just about 12 years” because I feel the need to qualify it with “but I recently took1 year off so I’m just starting up again”.

After class I went back to my hotel, took a shower, changed and then went off to meet up with Jennifer, Wang Wei, Wu Di, his friend, Li Yan and Li Yan’s girlfriend at the Home-ly Roast Duck Restaurant. Qing Li of Cal Wushu/Google fame was supposed to meet up with us too, but there was some miscommunication so he didn’t make an appearance. It was still pretty fun though.

Li Yan and his girlfriend

Wu Di and his friend

Having eaten duck over the past month and a half in Shanghai, Jinan, Dong Ming and now Beijing, I have to say that the Duck at Home-ly is by far the best duck of the lot. It’s like eating sushi in the U.S. all your life and then going to a sea-side fishing town in Japan and eating it there. There’s nothing like it.

The other thing I noticed is that, while they are still very much the same as before, I am actually noticing that Wu Di and Li Yan are starting to mature a bit as they get older.  It’s not like they’re full-grown adults yet, but it’s still a marked improvement over the days when they were like this and this.

After duck all the local folks took off for their respective homes and Jennifer, Wang Wei and I walked around the corner to the Dragon Foot Club. We got the good old 90/90 special and I ended up with Wang Jie, who I had met this past summer when I came here with Cal folks. The massage itself was awesome. To be honest, I still think this is the best foot massage place I’ve ever been to in China, Fujian places included. I just really like the way they give foot massages. After Jennifer and Wang Wei leave for the U.S. on Sunday I think I might just spend a few hours there and get the works.

We ended up liking it so much we all fell asleep at the end and didn’t wake up until around 1:30. Then we stumbled out to the main street and I caught a cab back to my hotel.

I didn’t take all that many pictures and the reason is that my small Canon Digital Elph’s display screen isn’t working so I haven’t been able to take any pictures with it. The only cameras I have then are my Palm Treo 650’s camera (not very good quality) and the camera on my video camera (only 1 megapixel). I don’t like pulling out the video camera too much because it’s a bit … big. I’m going to have to get another handheld digicam at some point. Perhaps during my trip to Hong Kong in 2 weeks.

You can view my Beijing Gallery Here