Blogs from Qufu, China, Asia
January 12th 2012
Bye bye Peking! Kummisetäni Make kertoi kakskytä vuotta sitten Pekingin olleen ekologisesti ajateltuna ihannekaupunki leveine pyöräkaistoineen. Pyöräkaistat on kaventunu puolentoista metrin levyisiksi ja kaikilla pyöräilijöillä tuntuu satulan alla olevan akku eli ne on sähköpyöriä, jotka jotenkin etäisesti ovat tuttuja. Nää hiljaiset kiiturit ovat vaarallisia kävelijän kannalta, koska niitä pyörii jalkakäytävilläkin. Hiljaisuus tosin loppuu järjettömään torven käytön määrään. Autoja Pekingissä tuntuu riittävän. Volkkareiden ja chevrolettien lisäksi suosittuja on aasialaisten omat kopiot muiden automalleista. Merkit ei siis herätä mitään mielikuvia, että niihin olisi aikaisemmin törmännyt. Ne on varmaan pari vuotta myöhemmin tulleita huyndaita ja kiaoja. Liikenteessä mennäään ihan rohkeimman ehdoilla, vaikka liikennevalot yrittää ... read more
August 13th 2011
So after a terrible nights sleep on the train we eventually arrived at Taishan, a smaller city around 7 hours from Beijing. We were all pretty tired, some of us having slept worse than others due to an awful snoring man in a bunk opposite, and we were all looking forward to getting off of the train and freshened up, me especially as I had not slept much at all, I was on the top bunk and felt very claustrophobic and every time the train jolted I thought we were having a train crash which kept me up and scared all night! We were taken straight to breakfast from the station by a lovely little guide called Selly who was a sweet and kind Chinese lady who was really good to us the whole day. After ... read more
June 16th 2011
To achieve perfection, one has to be one with mind and body. There has to be a perfect balance between what is natural, and what appears to be supranatural...a whole level beyond super-natural. ...that, or a good start toward that would be to take a trip to China and start learning Kung Fu from a group of 34th Generation Shaolin Monks in Qufu! In the morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, you'll welcome the sunrise with some Tai Chi, aimed to increase and maintain flexibilty, bring balance, and generaly is a good way to wake those muscles up from a hard nights sleeping. And i mean hard. Those beds are something else. After an hour of that, you'd have some healthy breakfast and off to clean the rooms for inspection (twice a week). Then the students will line ... read more
April 30th 2011
So! Training has kicked in in truth! Mornings start at 6 with a little run around our lake, some stretching and then off to Tai Ji. I know about just over a third of the simplest form. At 7 it's breakfast and yeh, it's better than expected, it's oats and honey (which i bought myself), sweet cakes, sweet bread and hard boiled eggs. Tricky things those eggs...as there's no fridge here, any leftovers get reboiled and served the next day...so everry breakfast is preceeded by prayers to the egg god/dragon/buddha that we get good eggs! Ha! Doesn't always work... Anyway... At 8 there's room inspections. Not sure what's the point of those...as we live on the ground floor, which means we share our rooms with a few multilegged creatures and a healthy dose of dust! (anybody? ... read more
January 12th 2009
Hong Kong to Shanghai: Sunday 11th January 2009. CS: Our day in Hong Kong was a delight. We travelled on the pilot boat to Central at about 8.30am and waited awhile to get immigration clearance. Daniel and Maria accepted our advice that a trip to the Peak would appeal to them, so we walked to the terminus and left them there. I had found a reference to our Tea House on the map so we proceeded to Flagstaff Gardens to confirm it is indeed the same little spot we enjoyed so much on our last visit 4 years earlier. Booked for 6 o’clock tea then proceeded to Kowloon. Had a very pleasant lunch at Pokka café and free internet access. We left Craig at Fortress on a quest for a BeBook and walked Nathan Road to ... read more
September 25th 2007
Stimmt schon irgentwie. Klein, zierlich gebaut, schwarze, glatte Haare, kleine dunkelbraune Augen. Drum schau ich gleich 2 x hin. Und tatsächlich hab ich auch mal einen attraktiven, jungen Chinesen entdeckt. Dann macht der Schelm, das was hier so viele machen. Grüße Andrea... read more
